School of
Health
and
Related
Research
Don Bradman: sporting genius and statistical
outlier?
Professor Stephen. J. Walters
E-mail: [email protected]
Design,
Trials &
Statistics
Introduction
Objectives
The test career batting average of,
Australian Test cricketer, Sir Donald
Bradman of 99.94 runs per innings is
one of the most famous and iconic
sporting
performance
statistics.
Bradman only played 52 test matches,
with 80 innings, over a 20 year career,
from 1928 to 1948.
But just how good was Bradman’s
sporting performance?
How does his performance compare
to his peers of other test cricket
batsmen and other legendary figures
in other sports?
Although many more test matches are
now played Bradman’s performance
still stands out.
In the 137 years of test cricket no one
has a batting average remotely close
to Bradman’s. His career batting
average is almost 39 runs higher than
the next batsman (who have batted
more than 20 times); and Bradman
scored a century every 2.75 innings.
Statistical methods
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Bradman
_australian_cricket_player_pic.jpg
This image is of Australian origin and is now in the public domain because its term of
copyright has expired. According to the Australian Copyright Council (ACC)
Bradman runs per innings and
batting average
Dot plot of batting average for
scorers of 2000 or more test runs
This poster will investigate Bradman’s
performance and compare and
contrast it with other cricketers and
other sports using a variety of
summary statistics including the
number of standard deviations that
they stand above the mean for their
sport (the Z score statistic).
Box and whisker plot of Z-scores
for seven sports
Table: Statistics for several prominent sportspeople by comparing the number of standard deviations that
they stand above the mean for their sport
Name
D -G Bradman (Aus)
J Nicklaus (USA)
Just Fontaine (Fran)
R Federer (Swiss)
M Court
J-M Fangio (Arg)
D-W Carter (NZ)
Sport
Test Cricket
Golf
Association Football
Tennis
Tennis (Womens)
Formula 1 Motor Racing
Rugby Union
Statistic
Batting average
Major Wins
Goals per game
Grand Slam wins
Grand Slam wins
Races per win
Points per game
Qualification
Batsmen with 2000 or more runs
Players with 2 or more Major wins
Scorers of 30 or more international goals
Players with 2 or more Grand Slam wins
Players with 2 or more Grand Slam wins
Drivers with two or more Grand Prix wins
Players with 200 or more points
Z-score
6.48
5.02
4.32
3.92
3.77
3.81
2.11
Data source
http://www.espncricinfo.com/
http://www.espn.co.uk/golf/sport/site/4.html
http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/century.html#goals
http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/site/5.html
http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/site/5.html
http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/site/index.html
http://www.espn.co.uk/scrum/rugby/site/index.html
Other statistics
Conclusions
Bradman was out for 0 in his last (80th) innings. If he has
scored 4 more runs in this innings he would have finished
his career with a batting average of 100.
Bradman’s Z-score is superior to several other prominent
sportspeople.
No other player who has played more than 20 Test match
innings has finished with a batting average of more than 61.
Bradman's total of 12 Test double hundreds is the most
achieved by any batsman.
No other athlete dominates an international sport to the
extent that Bradman does test cricket.