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Is 50 the new 40?
By Will 2 months ago, 7 Comments »
I don’t listen to TMS nearly as much as I used to, as we’re usually plugged into Sky (for obvious reasons), so it’s been like welcoming back an old friend this Test, flicking it on for the first session. One statistically-minded listened just wrote into Aggers and co wondering why they (and the media in general) gripe and moan about our batsmen when each of them averages 40 - the benchmark of a fine player. Or is it?
My colleague and I have debated this for some time, and agree that 50 is now the new 40. Flatter, covered pitches; big, powerful bats and, most importantly of all, the standard of bowling nowadays is not what it once was. Vic Marks made a good point, that averages can’t be compared cross-generation…and I agree, to an extent. But look at someone like Mike Atherton who averaged 37.69. Had he made his debut ten years later, would he have averaged under 40? Unlikely.
But the most intriguing angle of all this is to wonder how the likes of Ian Bell (averaging 43.15) would have coped a decade or 20 years ago…
7 Comments »Is 50 the new 40?
By Will last year, at the end of July, 18 Comments »
My colleague and I were watching Kevin Pietersen crash his way to yet another hundred today when a thought popped into my head. Is the new benchmark for batsman to average 50, rather than 40 as it was a decade ago? He disagreed so we settled on the conclusion that, to be considered a “pretty damn good” batsman you’ll be averaging 45 as a minimum.
And it got us thinking back to the dark old days in the 1990s when none (Alec Stewart apart, briefly, I think) of England’s top-order averaged 40, while some lurked in the dismal gloom of the low-thirties. But these days, they’re all over 40 and two - Matt Prior and Kevin Pietersen - are averaging over 50.
On a similar line, if batsmen’s averages are increasing - and I have no evidence with which to support this claim as I’m rambling like a loon - are bowlers’ also inflating? A decade ago, a really decent bowler was said to be averaging under 25. But with batsmen enjoying such shorter boundaries, and the game’s frenetic pace spiralling upwards with each year, is 30 the new 25?
Thoughts welcome.
18 Comments »