I’m not a huge follower of sports, but cricket is a sport that’s FULL of science, so I’ll come and play…
The best batsmen can predict the sort of ball a bowler’s going to deliver before it even leaves his hands. study shows that a top batsman can predict how a ball will swing and where it will bounce well before it’s airborne. Experienced players can pick up on cues that the intermediate and novice players don’t or aren’t sensitive to. movement-related cue-reading is subconscious, because even the batsmen who were best at anticipating the bowler’s intention couldn’t specify why. A less skilled batsman can only make these judgements once the ball is in flight, giving him less time to get in the right position. The scientist who did this research says that while some people may be naturally more attuned to picking up visual cues, it’s likely this can be taught and learned.
If you define “favourite” as best, then I understand that Sir Don Bradman is considered the greatest batsmen of all time as he averaged approximately 100 in test cricket. None of the modern batsmen come close. But if you mean favourite as in the one I like best “just cos” (no science involved) then I’d have to say I’m looking forward to seeing more of the new kid on the block, Ashton Agar (because every biologist loves agar! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar)
I used to love watching Adam Gilchrist bat. Wasn’t too bad behind the stumps either!
But if I have to pick from the current list, then as much as people dont like him, Clarke is a super batsman and Siddle as the fast bowler. If we had a few more of those guys it wouldn’t be so embarrassing to watch.
I’m not a huge follower of sports, but cricket is a sport that’s FULL of science, so I’ll come and play…
The best batsmen can predict the sort of ball a bowler’s going to deliver before it even leaves his hands. study shows that a top batsman can predict how a ball will swing and where it will bounce well before it’s airborne. Experienced players can pick up on cues that the intermediate and novice players don’t or aren’t sensitive to. movement-related cue-reading is subconscious, because even the batsmen who were best at anticipating the bowler’s intention couldn’t specify why. A less skilled batsman can only make these judgements once the ball is in flight, giving him less time to get in the right position. The scientist who did this research says that while some people may be naturally more attuned to picking up visual cues, it’s likely this can be taught and learned.
If you define “favourite” as best, then I understand that Sir Don Bradman is considered the greatest batsmen of all time as he averaged approximately 100 in test cricket. None of the modern batsmen come close. But if you mean favourite as in the one I like best “just cos” (no science involved) then I’d have to say I’m looking forward to seeing more of the new kid on the block, Ashton Agar (because every biologist loves agar! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar)
The University of Sydney have a summary of all teh physics involved in cricket: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/cricket.html
You can see a proper scientific paper (how scientists share their findings with other scientists) about cricket here: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20000112958_2000155072.pdf
ABC article about the best cricketers predicting:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/11/15/1788116.htm
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Does he have to be current?
I used to love watching Adam Gilchrist bat. Wasn’t too bad behind the stumps either!
But if I have to pick from the current list, then as much as people dont like him, Clarke is a super batsman and Siddle as the fast bowler. If we had a few more of those guys it wouldn’t be so embarrassing to watch.
🙂
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