Thursday, May 22, 2008

Statistically Speaking....

Well, to begin with This is my 2nd which i am writing from the same desk at 12.40PM
with the text editor which i used earlier twice and with typing speed of 40 sitting on the same chair...........

shoo!!!!...i can go on bombard you guys with n number of such statistics ...but then what...
is of any use....at least not to 99.99% (u got me :-) ) of you guys.

Giving this kind of non-useful (at least for me) seems to be the 'In Thing' in cricket.
In the latest cricket T20 match that i saw there was a stat for free hit,
it gave number of 1's 2's 4's etc scored on free hit. My question stands what will i do with it??!!.

In cricket i agree that there are some statistics which we do want to know and which can be used like centuries scored , strike rate , wickets taken etc.We are even happy to see those.
But then comes a display showing some totally useless stuff.
One of the display showing the points at which the ball hit the ground when bowler bowled. Tell me one thing with this display can any one tell me if on the next ball the batsman would get out. No you cant. Then why have it!! This is just one of those displays...

In few days you will have so much data that channels wont hesitate showing you something like
number of times the player ate at home (basically maa ke haath ka khana) and scored sixes or say player got out at 25 deg C temprature.
(if these start coming happens then i am quitting)

To whatever extent i have watched other sports this game takes the cup for showing huge and quite useless data.
I can go on different non-useful displays but then why not you give it a try. Next time you watch a match you keep a look out for them and then you would realize!!.

Working for a company whose sheer existence lies on word called Statistics i do understand the importance of correct statistics and its use. But then even stats have to deliver they need to give output which can even be a smile when some one tells that you scored 98 marks which are best in like last 5 yrs.Everything has to have a purpose. There one excellent story in Marathi written Va.Pu.Kale called 'Statistics Marathe'. Its a amazing story where a man speaks nothing but numbers. Listen to it some time u will enjoy.

Nonetheless lets hope we would be fired with less useless data and so that we at least make the best of the useful one...

So until we meet again when i would write by 3rd Blog sitting on same chair using the.....(here we go again..i need a break :P )

2 comments:

vivek said...

Hehehe True, many of the stats i believe are there for advertisers to advertize. Suzuki fours etc etc.
A more worse phenomenon is the commentators for IPL are now being by the advertizers. So everytime you see a six, its not a plain simple six, its a DLF IPL six and a candidate for DLF max six awards. Or if a moment is not any crucial moment, but a citibank successful moment. Kahipan ......

Niranjan said...

avra,,, i never knew that u blog! he he..i liked the tone with which u wrote this..the tone is hard to find when u r around:). btw..cricket!! good topic t write..everyone is entitled to opinions:)..good choice! just dat u cud have provided wid ful-use-less stats like..how many times u breathed while writing..blah blah..he he :-p..keep writing bro..