17 August 2007

A possible explanation for some wrong decisions?

Although largely ignored by the English media, there was a thought amongst Indian cricket supporters that the wrong decisions in the recent Test series were racially motivated. I don't subscribe to that theory, but that has been put forward by many Indian's as a reason for the 10:4 ratio of wrong decisions favouring England (which incidentally makes some of the comments on Sky commentary and TMS radio commentary about England being unlucky seem strange).

So it was with interest that I read this article on baseball umpiring titled "Major League Umpires Call More Strikes for Pitchers of Same Race" that an Indian Cricket Burble reader passed on to me. Have a read - having read Freakonomics I feel I have a little insight into how pre-conceptions that we're not even aware of could change the way we behave, so I don't find it entirely surprising.

How long before someone does a similar study in cricket?

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