Analysts: Cricket’s invisible energy
In modern-day cricket, while players are battling it out on the field, it has become a common sight to see someone -- not necessarily a cricketer -- in the dressing room hunched over a laptop analysing all the technical aspects and providing probable solutions, which helps the coach to make a quick decision.
Video analysts or performance analysts are now an integral part of any international cricket team. Things were different in the very early days for Bangladesh -- the inclusion of a professional video analyst took place in 2003, three years after the country had already gotten Tests status, when Nasir Ahmed Nasu became the first to work as a regular analyst for the national team.
"I was the first ever video analyst of the Bangladesh national team back in 2000 but it was not regular back then. I just went to a cricket match for coding, which is like scoring with video and recording. It became regular from 2003, when we started to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents and the different deliveries of opposition bowlers," Nasu told The Daily Star.
Many say that an analyst is the best friend of a player, someone who helps them realise their mistakes in the field or even relive their best performances by watching videos to feel uplifted during difficult times.
"Recently Shakib [Al Hasan] called me from the United States and asked for all his milestone videos such as his hundreds, five-wicket hauls, 50th wicket and others since his international debut, perhaps to cherish his memories," he added.
The Tigers' current performance analyst Shrinivas Chandrasekaran has been a vital cog in Bangladesh's performances in the last couple of years. He was also part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad team that won the Indian Premier League in 2016 and has been with the side for the past three seasons.
According to the 29-year-old, who is an electronic and communications engineer, nowadays an analyst plays a big part in the game both technically and tactically.
"Gone are those days when a video analyst was just sitting to record a game. Today we [video analysts] play a huge part in helping with selection, the playing eleven, scouting players, game plans for opposition bowlers and batsmen, and also helping our players to counter the opposition technically and tactically," said Shrinivas.
Analysts now no longer just give players and coaches feedback after the game but also offers real-time analysis and solutions while the game is going on.
However, according to Shrinivas, natural instinct plays a big role in making decisions and not just a set of mathematical theories.
"I feel it is still not used that much since the game of cricket has a lot of variables, so the outcome of it [analysis] is not fool-proof and also, I personally feel captains should be allowed to go by instinct as well and not just by a set theory," he added.
Shrinivas, who is currently in Chennai during the lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic, is in constant touch with a majority of cricketers in the national team and providing all support to work on their game.
"I have been in constant touch with most of them and we have been going through footage of times when they have been successful and times when they have not, and chalking out the reasons for both," said Shrinivas.
The huge improvement in technology in the modern era has also made life easy for cricketers, coaches and even the analysts. The Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB's) server now has the back-end service by which they receive all videos of any televised cricket match worldwide, so that players can watch and analyse their opponents easily.
Although other big cricketing nations have analysts even in domestic cricket, Bangladesh is yet to follow suit. BCB have analysts for the national men's and women's teams, as well as the age-level and high-performance sides, but the value of an analyst is still an unknown for the budding club or first-class cricketer.
It has now become obvious that an analyst is an essential tool for a cricketer, and just like batting, bowling and fielding, exposure and utilisation of this resource should now become essential at all levels of the game.
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