Technology has always been a vital part of cricket, and stressing on the same, Rahul Dravid feels the use of data should not be merely restricted to helping in strategy and player selection but instead can also be used for providing a platform that can produce a good contest.
Dravid, who was part of a panel, also including former South Africa batsman Gary Kirsten and England woman cricketer Isa Guha, said it is time data analysis should be assigned a much larger role.
"Data should drive a good contest between bat and ball in cricket, not just for hitting fours and sixes," said the former India captain. "Cricket has always been statistically-driven like baseball, but over the past 15 years we have moved beyond comparing averages and now use data to help in strategy and player selection."
There is already plenty of debate on how cricket has become a more batsman friendly game, especially in ODIs, where the new Powerplay rules and the use of two new balls from both ends have titled the format more in the batsmen's favour. On top of it, the advent of T20 cricket has made data more beneficial towards helping batsmen hit more fours and sixes.
"The days are not far off when people are going to turn down a single because the matchup suites them to be able to hit a six in the two or three balls," said Dravid. "Data should drive a good contest between bat and ball in cricket, not just for hitting fours and sixes."
{{/usCountry}}"The days are not far off when people are going to turn down a single because the matchup suites them to be able to hit a six in the two or three balls," said Dravid. "Data should drive a good contest between bat and ball in cricket, not just for hitting fours and sixes."
{{/usCountry}}