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Article by Martin Jones -
To take a tour of the world?s First Class competitions, you will probably require some kind of maths qualification. Why? To understand the points systems.
For my first exhibit, Sri Lanka?s?<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/premier-league-tournament-2013/engine/series/590748.html?view=pointstable" target="_blank">Premier<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/premier-league-tournament-2013/engine/series/590748.html?view=pointstable" target="_blank">?Championship. As you can see, Sinhalese Sports Club topped Group B with 144.635 points. How, I wonder, does one obtain a thousandth of a point? Cricinfo provides little in the way of clues, but Cricket Archive tells me that you earn 0.1 of a point for a wicket and 0.005 of a point for a run. There are also eight different permutations of results that each earn different amounts of points. The?<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/sunfoil-series-2012/engine/series/575086.html?view=pointstable" target="_blank">Sunfoil Series?in South Africa is similarly complex, with Cape Cobras earning an exotic 131.86 points to top the table. Cricinfo tells me that??1 point [shall be] awarded on attaining 150 runs, and 0.02 of a point for each run scored thereafter.?
It isn?t just top level competitions that try to one-up each other with more devious and labyrinthine points systems. Every club competition I?ve ever played in awards points differently, but my ?favourite? has to be the one I that am currently playing in, which I shall not name because it could be any one of many leagues.
Firstly, different amounts of points are awarded for winning depending on whether you bat first or second. You can also earn bonus points for batting and bowling, play for a winning or losing draw, and a raft of other creative results for cricket matches. This means that a good haul of points for a season is somewhere around 300, and can result in dull, tedious cricket as one team bats out for a draw and a couple of batting points rather than going for the win.
Even some of the simpler points systems have aspects that are hopelessly moronic. The?<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-intercontinental-cup-2011-13/engine/current/series/504772.html?view=pointstable" target="_blank">Intercontinental Cup?is quite simple to follow, but there is one small aspect that defies all logic: ?6 points for a lead on the first innings (retained irrespective of the outright result)?.?What sort of message does that send to teams like Namibia, who?<atitle="" href="http://poppingcrease.weebly.com/1/post/2013/04/practice-makes-perfect.html" target="_blank">fought back to beat the Netherlands?after trailing in the first innings? It isn?t just ?as if? a fighting win is worth less, it?actually is?worth less than Namibia?s victory over?<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-intercontinental-cup-2011-13/engine/match/516852.html" target="_blank">local rivals Kenya. In my eyes, this is completely wrong.
If I was to design the points system for a First Class competition, I would keep it incredibly simple. A?win?would be worth?three points; a?tie?would be worth?two points; a?draw?would be worth?one point, and a?loss?would be worth?no points. As a tie-breaker when points, and the number of wins, are equal, I would point to the quotient, which is the team?s batting average divided by its bowling average. This is a pretty radical rethink compared to 0.005 points per run, etc., but would it have an equally radical effect on the results created?
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To take a tour of the world?s First Class competitions, you will probably require some kind of maths qualification. Why? To understand the points systems.
For my first exhibit, Sri Lanka?s?<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/premier-league-tournament-2013/engine/series/590748.html?view=pointstable" target="_blank">Premier<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/premier-league-tournament-2013/engine/series/590748.html?view=pointstable" target="_blank">?Championship. As you can see, Sinhalese Sports Club topped Group B with 144.635 points. How, I wonder, does one obtain a thousandth of a point? Cricinfo provides little in the way of clues, but Cricket Archive tells me that you earn 0.1 of a point for a wicket and 0.005 of a point for a run. There are also eight different permutations of results that each earn different amounts of points. The?<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/sunfoil-series-2012/engine/series/575086.html?view=pointstable" target="_blank">Sunfoil Series?in South Africa is similarly complex, with Cape Cobras earning an exotic 131.86 points to top the table. Cricinfo tells me that??1 point [shall be] awarded on attaining 150 runs, and 0.02 of a point for each run scored thereafter.?
It isn?t just top level competitions that try to one-up each other with more devious and labyrinthine points systems. Every club competition I?ve ever played in awards points differently, but my ?favourite? has to be the one I that am currently playing in, which I shall not name because it could be any one of many leagues.
Firstly, different amounts of points are awarded for winning depending on whether you bat first or second. You can also earn bonus points for batting and bowling, play for a winning or losing draw, and a raft of other creative results for cricket matches. This means that a good haul of points for a season is somewhere around 300, and can result in dull, tedious cricket as one team bats out for a draw and a couple of batting points rather than going for the win.
Even some of the simpler points systems have aspects that are hopelessly moronic. The?<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-intercontinental-cup-2011-13/engine/current/series/504772.html?view=pointstable" target="_blank">Intercontinental Cup?is quite simple to follow, but there is one small aspect that defies all logic: ?6 points for a lead on the first innings (retained irrespective of the outright result)?.?What sort of message does that send to teams like Namibia, who?<atitle="" href="http://poppingcrease.weebly.com/1/post/2013/04/practice-makes-perfect.html" target="_blank">fought back to beat the Netherlands?after trailing in the first innings? It isn?t just ?as if? a fighting win is worth less, it?actually is?worth less than Namibia?s victory over?<atitle="" href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-intercontinental-cup-2011-13/engine/match/516852.html" target="_blank">local rivals Kenya. In my eyes, this is completely wrong.
If I was to design the points system for a First Class competition, I would keep it incredibly simple. A?win?would be worth?three points; a?tie?would be worth?two points; a?draw?would be worth?one point, and a?loss?would be worth?no points. As a tie-breaker when points, and the number of wins, are equal, I would point to the quotient, which is the team?s batting average divided by its bowling average. This is a pretty radical rethink compared to 0.005 points per run, etc., but would it have an equally radical effect on the results created?
- The Sheffield Shield had what must surely be its closest season ever this year. Only four points separated all six teams already. Using my system, the final would have been New South Wales vs Tasmania, with Queensland third.
- The NCL has one of the more sensible and simple points systems going around, and not just because their table would exactly match mine ?with Khulna Division sitting pretty.
- In the top division of the 2012 County Championship, the only change would be a mid-table shuffle to put Notts above Sussex. In Division Two, Leicestershire and Gloucestershire would each move up a place.
- The sprawling Ranji Trophy would see seven changes, one of those because of Railways? quotient, that reflect the generally negative style of cricket in the competition. Tell Goa that eight draws out of eight will win you no titles.
- The Plunket Shield would also have seen no change to the positions of any of the teams, unless the quotients of Wellington and Canterbury (fourth and fifth) said otherwise.
- The PCB isn?t normally the home of common sense, but their Quaid-e-Azam points system bears a distinct similarity to mine. Positions would remain pretty unaffected by my supremely simple system.
- For all their formulae, CSA?s Sunfoil Series bosses would have achieved an identical result with my system. Cape Cobras would have won with 20 points as opposed to 131.86, and Nashua Titans last with 2 points rather than 49.68.
- In Sri Lanka, there would be little change to anything, except that Colts would jump a place to 4th in Group B, and Chilaw Marians would stagger from sixth to last by virtue of no wins and just four points in total, also in Group B.
- There would be no change in the pecking order either in the Caribbean. The WICB also have a fairly logical system, although I was left scratching my head at the wording of the permutations of points for draws.
- The Logan Cup is yet another competition that sees no change to its pecking order, unfortunately for Mashonaland Eagles, who barely scrape anything at all in last place.
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