IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v54y2003i8d10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601527.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dynamic programming in cricket: choosing a night watchman

Author

Listed:
  • S R Clarke

    (Swinburne University of Technology)

  • J M Norman

    (University of Sheffield)

Abstract

In cricket, when a batsman is dismissed towards the end of a day's play, he is often replaced by a lower-order batsman (a ‘night watchman’), in the hope that the remaining recognised batsmen can start their innings on the following day. A dynamic programming analysis suggests that the common practice of using a lower-order batsman is often sub-optimal. Towards the end of a day's play, when the conventional wisdom seems to be to use a night watchman, it may be best to send in the next recognised batsman in the batting order. Sending in a night watchman may be good judgement when there are several recognised batsman and several lower order batsmen still to play (say four of each). However, with smaller numbers (two of each, for example), then, with very few overs left to play, it may be better to send in a recognised batsman.

Suggested Citation

  • S R Clarke & J M Norman, 2003. "Dynamic programming in cricket: choosing a night watchman," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(8), pages 838-845, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:54:y:2003:i:8:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601527
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601527
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601527
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601527?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. S R Clarke & J M Norman, 1999. "To run or not?: Some dynamic programming models in cricket," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 50(5), pages 536-545, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Johnston, Iain G., 2022. "Optimal strategies in the fighting fantasy gaming system: Influencing stochastic dynamics by gambling with limited resource," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(3), pages 1272-1281.
    2. Oliver G. Stevenson & Brendon J. Brewer, 2021. "Finding your feet: A Gaussian process model for estimating the abilities of batsmen in test cricket," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 70(2), pages 481-506, March.
    3. P Scarf & S Akhtar, 2011. "An analysis of strategy in the first three innings in test cricket: declaration and the follow-on," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(11), pages 1931-1940, November.
    4. M B Wright, 2009. "50 years of OR in sport," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(1), pages 161-168, May.
    5. Perea, Federico & Puerto, Justo, 2007. "Dynamic programming analysis of the TV game "Who wants to be a millionaire?"," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 183(2), pages 805-811, December.
    6. J M Norman & S R Clarke, 2007. "Dynamic programming in cricket: optimizing batting order for a sticky wicket," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(12), pages 1678-1682, December.
    7. Wei Yin & Zhixiao Ye & Wasi Ul Hassan Shah, 2023. "Indices Development for Player’s Performance Evaluation through the Super-SBM Approach in Each Department for All Three Formats of Cricket," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-20, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. M Wright & N Hirotsu, 2003. "The professional foul in football: Tactics and deterrents," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(3), pages 213-221, March.
    2. M B Wright, 2009. "50 years of OR in sport," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(1), pages 161-168, May.
    3. Kostuk, Kent J. & Willoughby, Keith A. & Saedt, Anton P. H., 2001. "Modelling curling as a Markov process," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(3), pages 557-565, September.
    4. Chitresh Kumar & Girish Balasubramanian, 2023. "Comparative Analysis of Pitch Ratings in All Formats of Cricket," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 48(3), pages 307-324, August.
    5. Romain Gauriot & Lionel Page, 2015. "I Take Care of My Own: A Field Study on How Leadership Handles Conflict between Individual and Collective Incentives," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 414-419, May.
    6. N Hirotsu & M Wright, 2003. "Determining the best strategy for changing the configuration of a football team," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(8), pages 878-887, August.
    7. Oliver G. Stevenson & Brendon J. Brewer, 2021. "Finding your feet: A Gaussian process model for estimating the abilities of batsmen in test cricket," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 70(2), pages 481-506, March.
    8. Stevenson Oliver George & Brewer Brendon J., 2017. "Bayesian survival analysis of batsmen in Test cricket," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 25-36, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:54:y:2003:i:8:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601527. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.