Does age affect batting averages?

[Baigel]

For my Maths class we were required to do an investigation. Being the avid cricket fan I am, I chose to do the 'co-relation between average and age in cricket'. It was quite a fun and interesting paper to complete. Below are my findings and processes.

Firstly, I chose 7 random batsmen and recorded their ODI averages from the ages of 22-34. The batsmen that I selected were;
•Sachin Tendulkar
•Jacques Kallis
•Virender Sehwag
•Sanath Jayasuriya
•Mahela Jayawerdene
•Kumar Sangakkara

Results​

*Line Graph : Through the Line Graph, It is evident that at the earlier ages, a batsman's average is incredibly volatile. But as they reach the age of 34, Their average is around 40. This is the case for all, except the trio of Ponting, Jayasuriya and Sehwag. A weak trend that arises is that batsmen average more as they age, however they start off volatile

*Trend Line : The trend line shows an interesting statistic. All batsman except for Tendulkar and Ponting have a positive correlation. A positive correlation in this case means that averages increase with age. However, Ponting and Tendulkar's trendlines suggest that their average drops with their age, a negative correlation. What's interesting to note is that although Ponting and Tendulkar have negtive correlations, Kallis has a weak positive correlation whereas the others all have strong positive correlations. This fact plays a very vital role in the next part of this investigation. I then moved onto my second claim

Second Claim​

The second claim in my investigation was that as a cricketers rate of scoring increased, so did their averages and vice versa.

Results #2​

The results from the second part of my investigation were quite interesting. Here are the specifics of the findings;

•Tendulkar - As Sachin Tendulkar aged, his average dropped. But what was also interesting was that his strike rate also dropped as he aged. This supported my second claim
•Kallis - As Jacques aged, his average increased slightly. His strike rate also increased as he aged.
•Ponting - As Ponting aged, his average declined. But, contradictory to my second hypothesis, his strike rate increased. This is a rare case of a cricketer whose strike rate increased as his average decreased, atleast in this study
•Sehwag - As Sehwag aged, his average increased. Unsurprisingly, his strike rate also increased
•Jayasuriya - As Jayasuriya aged, his avergae increased and so did his strike rate
•Jayawerdene - As Jayawerdene aged, his average increased and so did his strike rate
•Sangakkara - As you can guess, as he aged his average increased and so did his strike rate

Conclusion​

So to conclude, the findings from my investigation show that as a cricketer ages and his average increases so does his strike rate, or vice versa, unless you are Ricky Ponting. This was quite a fun investigation to do as it really shows the effect both variables have on each other.


Please feel free to ask any questions below
Also below I have attached the actual investigation with the Graphs

 

[MenInG]

Wow , lot of research here and well done for this.

 

[jeetu]

Very impressive work. It is believed that technical players tend to perform better after certain age than players who had exceptional reflexes. This kind of study should give a cleared picture.

 

[Robert]

POTW material!

Pointing us an outlier because he carried on for a couple of years after his eyes went. Most top batters quit when they are still at the top of their game.

 

[Muhammad Saad]

It's understandable for Sachin because his real age is much more than that

 

[Saj]

Good analysis.

With age comes a loss of power, eyesight deteriorates and hand/eye co-ordination drops, despite players being more experienced.