How Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan got Germany into cricket

Just one of the fascinating snippets from a book that will bowl you over

Crickonomics

Stefan Szymanski

and Tim Wigmore

Bloomsbury Sport £18.99

★★★★★

In his autobiography, the interwar cricketer Fred Root assured his readers that ‘there are no tedious statistics here, for averages are an abomination to real cricket’. A dangerous comment to quote verbatim in a book about cricketing number-crunching. Yet it speaks volumes about the confidence the authors have in their brief that they happily include Root’s pronouncement in their narrative.

The summer game has always had an ambivalent relationship to facts and figures, with devotees poring endlessly over runs, wickets and averages, while simultaneously stressing the game’s unquantifiable beauty and grace. Crickonomics attempts to marry the two by using data to unlock the hard facts behind the sport in the 21st Century.

The authors analyse some unexamined (and occasionally unasked-for) conundrums of the modern game.

Why do batters get paid more than bowlers, why has the women’s game been a catalyst for innovation, and does the weather – or even the presence of the (in)famous Barmy Army – really affect who wins?

The answer to this last question reveals the harsh realities of sporting economics. England overseas tours nowadays generate huge crowds of travelling English fans, resulting in cash-strapped host nations such as the West Indies and South Africa consulting the once renegade

‘Barmies’ on both preferred dates and venues before cementing itineraries in order to maximise tourist revenue. But by far the most important change, the authors agree, is the rise of Indian franchise cricket. The Indian Premier League model, in which specially created ‘city’ teams compete against each other, has unlocked vast new revenue streams via advertising and TV rights. No wonder the centre of power has lurched from Lord’s to Dubai and New Delhi.

Szymanski and Wigmore also chronicle how the Russian invasion of Afghanistan resulted in countries such as Germany, which took in a quarter of a million Afghan refugees, becoming burgeoning cricketing nations in a way unimaginable even 30 years ago.

For anyone fascinated by the intricacies of the Duckworth-Lewis method, Crickonomics is packed with sufficient statistical analysis to have the most ardent cricket geek purring with pleasure.