The invention of Twenty20 cricket has brought fielding some much needed focus. For too long has fielding been the forgotten brother to batting and bowling. Neglecting this third skill has lead to good fielders being viewed as freaks and bad fielding being excused because a player can make up for any errors through their contribution with bat or ball.

At present, cricket statistics only record fielding dismissals, taken or missed. This leaves much of fielding assessments being made through subjective analysis by coaches, captains and pundits.

Baseball had a similar problem until Bill James came along and attempted to find a method of assessing a players total fielding performance objectively with his range factor equation, which started a rush of defensive statistics to be created to solve the problem of assessing a fielder.

Below are just some of the statistics used by us to measure the impact of fielding:

Recorded Opportunities / Number of Touches

What is it? – This is a measure of the number of times a fielder is seen to have touched the ball.

Why is it useful? – This can be used to determine which players touch the ball the most and assess whether a player is fielding in a key area.

Every time a fielder touches the ball should be noted and recorded. Unless there is someone paying close attention and eye-balling every single player on the field, it can be very difficult to track which players fielded which deliveries by viewing television coverage or even watching live at the ground.

That is why, at least for now, this statistic remains known as “recorded” opportunities. However, a feature of cricket.com.au’s Live Commentary app is that their ball-by-ball data now records which fielders made what play. This information is vital in recording the number of times any given fielder touches the ball.

Total Number of Chances

What is it? – The number of dismissals a fielder completes including catches, run outs, assisted run outs, and stumpings, plus the number of ‘Grade 1′ errors (see Fielding Average below) they make.

Why is it useful? – This tells us the total number of chances or opportunities a fielder has had to make a dismissal and take a wicket.

Recording the number of dismissals a fielder completes and combining it with the number of misses they make, such as dropped catches, gives us the total number of chances a fielder has had to complete a dismissal.

Percentage of Opportunities Converted

With the number of successful chances being recorded, it is now possible to determine the percentage of opportunities a fielder converted into dismissals.

Fielding Strike Rate

Batting and bowling strikes rates have been measured for decades, but now fielding strike rates can be measured too. The fielding strike rate mirrors the bowling strike rate and measures the number of dismissals a player makes per game on average.

Fielding Average, or Percentage

The National Fielding Group within Cricket Australia’s Team Performance department has developed a new statistical way of measuring a player’s fielding ability that takes account of catches, run outs and run out assists—plus stumpings for wicketkeepers—as well as any ‘Grade 1′ errors of dropped catches or missed run outs. The total of a player’s completed catches, run outs, run out assists and stumpings are divided by the total chances for a player (completed dismissals and errors). Therefore, a perfect rating is 1.00, with an average of 0.95 or above considered elite.

Cricket Australia’s ‘Fair Play’ data analysis system categorises fielding efforts into three grades, depending on the difficulty involved. The most straightforward of chances are classified as ‘Grade 1’ and count against a player in their fielding average calculation. At the elite level, a player is expected to complete these chances 100 per cent of the time. Grade 2 and Grade 3 missed chances are not included in the fielding average as these misses are considered above ‘normal’ expectation.

Impact Rating (IR)

Cricket Australia’s National Fielding Group has further refined another fielding metric known as ‘Impact Rating’. The IR takes into account both the players’ fielding average (dismissals made divided by the total of opportunities) and their strike rate (dismissals per innings). Therefore, the IR gives a readout to demonstrate not just how efficient a fielder is, but how often they are involved in the game, and provides a more accurate and complete picture of a player’s fielding prowess.

Runs Saved, Runs Cost and +/-

The current thinking amongst cricket boffins is that the number of runs a fielder saves or gives away is too difficult to quantify with any consistency. The Australian men’s and women’s national teams instead have a much more complex ‘Field Impact Weighting’ system used for internal measurement.

During Channel Ten’s coverage of the 2017-18 Big Bash League, former Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds was seen developing a plus/minus system while in the commentary box which he used to determine the number of runs saved and number of runs lost by each team in the field. While the system hasn’t quite taken off yet, we fully believe that Symonds was onto something by measuring this. Players should be rewarded for making excellent diving saves, taking great catches and saving boundaries, but that they should also be penalised for mis-fields and overthrows.

Range Factor (RF)

Bill James’ early aim for his Baseball Abstracts publications and the sabermetrics movement was to find a method for objectively evaluating a player’s fielding ability. James’ work and Baseball as a whole have left cricket trailing behind in this sense. However, knowing the number of runs saved by a fielder’s actions can then be used to manipulate baseball’s range factor to make it more relevant to cricket. Our Range Factor takes into account the number of runs saved by a fielder plus the number of wicket-taking chances they create.

Success Rate

The combination of two or more related statistics can provide more information on a players ability or performance. Fielding success rate is another example of this method. Success rate is a combination of an altered range factor and the runs saved statistics. The alteration to the range factor changes the statistic from contributions in dismissals per game to the percentage of successful dismissals for which a fielder contributes to. This gives us a number up to 100 which tells us how successful a fielder is at making their chances count.

Zone Rating (ZR)

In 1989, STATS, Inc., developed the ‘Zone Rating’ for baseball. ZR is calculated by dividing the field into zones. Each fielder is responsible for one or more of them. Some zones, representing “gaps,” are not assigned to any defensive position. STATS “reporters” sit in the press box and, “eyeballing” the course of batted balls, record which zone every ball put into play falls into. If it falls into a zone for which the shortstop, for example, is responsible, he’s credited with an opportunity. If he makes a play on the ball, he’s credited with the opportunity plus the play.

This approach allows the statisticians to calculate what is the average outcomes in the competition, or the world, for a ball hit into the zone which then allows the statistician to compare the average outcome to the specific one which has just occurred in the game, thus objectively able to state the fielder’s ability to prevent runs being scored.

Defensive Misplays and Good Fielding Plays

The category Defensive Misplays was introduced in John Dewan’s The Fielding Bible, Volume II. The official scorer’s decision to charge a fielder with an error is broadly based on his judgment that the play could have been made with ordinary effort. In short, a Defensive Misplay is any play that the fielder messes up. More specifically, a misplay is recorded when a fielder does something identifiably wrong AND an opposing batsman is able to score an extra run, boundary or survive a wicket-taking chance. The decision to charge a fielder with a Defensive Misplay is based on an ever-growing list of criteria that are spelled out with some specificity. Here are some examples:

• Infielder makes a poor throw
• Players attempt to catch a high ball and it drops between them
• Fielder (and/or wicket-keeper/bowler) mis-handles throw at stumps which prevents run out
• Infielder misses run out chance with three stumps to aim at and thrown from within 10m.
• Fielder drops straightforward catch (Grade 1)
• Fielder costs team overthrows

A Good Fielding Play is recorded when a fielder does something to prevent run-scoring or record a wicket that we wouldn’t typically expect from a fielder at the position. It is a play that is made when, had the play not been made, no one would have faulted the fielder for not making it. A player cannot be rewarded with a Good Fielding Play unless there’s a positive consequence – an unexpected wicket or batsmen are prevented from scoring. Here are some examples:

• Boundary fielder steals a six from a batsman (either by denying the boundary or by making a catch)
• Boundary fielder completes direct hit run out
• Fielder completes difficult one-handed diving catch (Grade 3)
• Fielder completes boundary-saving dive* (as defined by a dive which, had the ball not been stopped, would have carried on to the boundary)

Fielding to right versus left (COMING SOON)

Right-hand/left-hand batting combinations are often used by teams to ensure bowlers have to keep changing their lines and lengths. Having a combination of right-handed and left-handed bowlers is also handy for the bowling side. Is this also an underlying factor affecting fielding? Do they move quicker to their right or to their left? Could a player’s ability to field balls to their right or left prove the difference in a tight run-out scenario?

Audacity Factor, or Fielder Reputation (COMING SOON)

Can the reputation of different outfielders affect the audacity of the batsmen running between the wickets? Are batsmen less inclined to take on fielders such as Glenn Maxwell purely based on a pre-conceived idea that he will create a run out chance?

Fielder Speeds (COMING SOON)

In November 2017, Gatorade partnered with Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt to launch a new measurement which records the players’ run speed between wickets. Dubbed the ‘Bolt Rate’, this integrated campaign by Eleven and TBWA was used to measure player speeds with Catapult GPS tracking technology, the official technology used by Cricket Australia. This sponsor-driven, gimmicky statistic named Aaron Finch as the fastest man between the wickets with a speed of 30.15 km/h (8.37 m/s) between the wickets followed by Cameron Bancroft at 26.62 km/h (7.39 m/s). The details surrounding the actual speed tests are scarce, but it is assumed that the players were wearing pads and other equipment at the time.

Sprint speeds should be measured and applied to fielders in order to gain a better understanding of who the fastest players in the field are. In a sprint to the boundary during the 2013-14 Boxing Day Test, Channel Nine cricket high performance analyst Jock Campbell clocked fast bowler Mitchell Johnson at 33.1 km/h and yet, he was still slower than one of the fastest men in baseball Byron Buxton. Measuring fielder sprint speeds places more emphasis on moving quickly to the ball in order to catch a tough chance or complete a tight run-out opportunity.

Throw Speed and Accuracy (COMING SOON)

In baseball, arm strength is defined as “the maximum velocity of any throw made by a fielder”. Due to physics, the max velocity is always at the release point. Measuring throw speeds can be used to evaluate fielders on attempted run-outs. Fielders often get a running start before throwing. This has resulted in the velocity of throws from baseball outfielders exceeding that of pitchers.

Putting a quantifiable number on the strength of a fielder’s arm helps to evaluate the effectiveness of that arm. However, that is not the only component of a good throw. The accuracy and trajectory of a throw is very important. A throw from the outfield that bounces three times will inevitably lose speed each time it hits the ground costing precious time and preventing a run out from occuring.

Pick Up and Throw Time (PUAT Time) (COMING SOON)

The time taken for a fielder to pick up the ball and release it again is very important and can have a significant impact during tight run-out chances. Are some fieldsmen quicker than others when it comes to picking up the ball, steadying and throwing the ball?

Distance Covered (COMING SOON)

An increasingly visible statistic in soccer is distance covered. This is a particularly useful measure for midfielders whose contributions can’t be measured by goals and assists alone. It’s also useful for assessing a player’s hustle in winning back balls in defence, as well as in kickstarting attacks and providing service to strikers.

Measuring the total distance cricket fielders cover on “competitive” plays would add tremendous value in ODIs and T20s, where batsmen steal singles and twos and where fielders are moved to key catching and run-saving areas at various stages. In some T20s, where more than half the side doesn’t bat, this statistic can quantify the value of every player on the field and tell us key information about which fielders are putting in more effort and which fielders the captain relies upon in key catching areas and on the boundary saving runs.