A Comparison of Risk Taking by Twenty20 World Cup Batsmen Between Succesful and Unsuccessful Teams

Abstract

The 2007 Twenty20 cricket world cup sparked a huge increase in the popularity of cricket, with the highest paid players earning up to $100,000 per game. A limited amount of previous literature has touched upon batting tactics and strategies within one day and Twenty20 matches. However, to date, there does not appear to have been a study on the affect of risk taking by batsmen, and how it influences a team’s success. The current study investigated whether there was a difference in the proportion and success of risk shots played between winning and losing teams at the 2009 Twenty20 world cup. Nine matches were recorded from Sky Sports’ televised coverage of the tournament, and a hand notation system was piloted and developed to collect risk shot data. Independent-samples t-tests were used to test the data for any significant differences. It was found that significant differences existed in 'risk shot' taking between successful and unsuccessful teams. Successful teams played a significantly greater (P < 0.05) percentage of risk shots than unsuccessful teams, especially in the first 10 overs of an innings. However, successful teams lost a significantly greater (P < 0.01) proportion of wickets from playing risk shots, yet despite this, they still experienced success. Furthermore, successful teams maintained a greater mean 'risk shot success rate' percentage than unsuccessful teams throughout all of the results. Risk shots were clearly identified to have a direct relationship with success, therefore it was concluded that for teams to experience success, coaches should select individuals who are most capable of playing a high proportion of risk shots, and who can also uphold a high risk shot success rate.