I've always been interested in data and statistics, as many cricket fans are. In a sport so fascinated and preoccupied with stats, I guess it only makes sense. I also really love Australian Geography, and of course the Victorian cricket team. I wanted to combine my loves of Cricket and Stats, and have tried to discover some trends and correlations between Australian Test players and their place of birth.
As a preface, I'd like to point out that I have used the 111 players to have debuted for Australia in Test Cricket since 1990 in this analysis. This is because many players pre-1990 (more specifically pre-war.) have statistics that don't translate to the modern game that we play today. Jack Blackham's 16 with the bat as a keeper wouldn't get him in the Hall of Fame were he to play today. Stats about cricket mean fundamentally different things to what they once did. I also wanted to get this out before the Ashes series, because then I'd have to edit my stats on the go. Finally, some subjectivity has been taken in regards to categorising 'Rural' 'Urban' and 'Semi-Urban' as stats go.
Btw if any Territorians get triggered by my catch-all use of the term 'State' then I apologise.
GENERAL
Percentage of Cricketers born in each state
This is a fairly even representation of the Australian Population, with exception to Queensland, and Tasmania, With the former producing far too few cricketers for their population, whilst the latter thoroughly exceeds expectations. This is possibly due to more Tasmanians per capita getting a chance at Shield Level. This can also be seen with the below graph
Test cricketers per 100000 population
Whilst this graph was mostly made out of interest, it suggests that foreign-born cricketers have been far more prevalent in Australian test squads in recent times, whereas, for some reason, Queensland has had a decline in production.
Matches played per state and Matches played by Geographic classification
#NSWBias, nuff said. /s
Average career Length per state
The NT comes out on top here only by virtue of a very limited Sample size. Only one Northern Territorian, Damien Martyn, has debuted for Australia since 1990. Anyone with a good enough memory will know that he was a bloody good player. This Graph also indicated that NSW players are given the most chances by selectors, or that they are the best producers, probably a bit of both. It's not hard to see why South Australia are at the bottom of the list, as they haven't produced a continually selected player for a long time., and those that have been picked have often been dumped without being given a proper chance (see Callum Ferguson or Chadd Sayers).
Average career length by Geographic classification
This graph is significantly swayed by the effect that Glenn McGrath has on the 'Semi-Urban' numbers. It is hard to assertain any significant findings from this Graph.
BATTING
Nobody who's watched the dominance of Smith, Warner, Clarke and Mark Waugh will be surprised by the top place. Western Australia has chipped in with a few big names, and Punter basically does everything for Tasmania.
Northern Territory is first placed due to only having Damien Martyn represent them. Tasmania comes in second due to Ricky Ponting. Victoria comes in last because, quite frankly, My state hasn't produced a champion batsman since, well, Dean Jones probably.
Batting Average by geographic classification
All there is to say here is that only Michael Slater was born in a Semi-Urban city, and has gone on to forge a good career as a batsman. Whereas many other batsman have come from either Urban or Rural cities.
Fifties Per State and Hundreds Per State
Waugh, Smith, Warner, Clarke, Gilchrist, Slater. That's basically all you need to know to explain these two graphs.
Basically, states that produce good batsman, produce batsman that can convert. Poor old Michael Bevan never made a Test ton, and very few Victorian batsman have forged long careers.
Bowling
NSW have produced quite a few stellar pacemen over the years, Notably McGrath, Gillespie, Lee, Hazlewood and Starc. As well as the GOAT. Victoria are heavily carried by Warne, with Siddle and Reiffel chipping in, and hopefully James Pattinson will make his way up the list in the near future. Likewise, Queensland are carried by Johnson, who is assisted by Kasprowicz. SA continue to be useless, and should secede.
Five-Wicket-hauls per state and Ten-Wicket-Hauls per state
Warne and McGrath basically. Interestingly enough, the third most 5fors goes to Nathan Lyon. Michael Bevan is an absolute king with his 10-for against the West Indies.
Once again, Bevan comes in clutch for ACT. Other than that, no surprises.
Bowling Economy by State and Bowling Strike Rate by State
Ignore the typo in the title of the first graph. Bevan's low average and High economy culminate in a really good S/R. No real surprises otherwise, with SA just continuing to be useless.
If you have any questions about the data, or would like any more explanation as to why the data is as it is, do ask.
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