Strategy in Cricket

Found a very interesting article on the use of strategy in cricket at www.mycricketgame.com. Posting it here...

Cricket Strategy and Tactics are the key to success on the cricket field: when two teams with equal skill and fitness levels engage, it is the side with superior cricket strategy who will more often than not prevail.

Winning Cricket begins off the field. It is too late when you are in the middle of a game, particularly one day and 20 20 cricket, to be able to catch up when the opposition have taken the initiative and are running away with the match.

In building a strategy to maximise the opportunity for victory on the cricket field, you are going to make primary assessments of your opponents.

Good Captains, Coaches and Players do this: they do their homework on whom they are playing and where the match is taking place. They do assessments of their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses and go about decoding their opponents' game, choking their strengths and attacking their weaknesses.

Strategy in its application in cricket is the overarching plan to bring victory.

There are Three Key Areas to Cricket Strategy, there is Individual 'Player Strategy', then there is the strategy for a 'Sub Team', for example the bowling or batting unit within the team, then there is the overall 'Team Strategy'.
Tactics are the use of different 'weapons' or units within the team and we can see they operate on different levels, the 'Players strategy' fits into the 'Sub Team strategy' and the 'Sub Team Strategy' fits into the 'Team Strategy'.
The players’ tactic may be to use a 'weapon' they have in their armory. The weapon is typically a strength they have, it may be a bouncer, a sweep shot, a googly, a lofted drive, these are used as tactics to execute their own game plan and disrupt their opponents. The batsman may choose specific tactics as part of their overall batting strategy; the great Australian batsman Matthew Hayden would bat out of his crease on an off stump guard to take the bowlers line and length away. The primary objective of the tactic is to control where the bowler bowled, thus opening up his own scoring options.
The bowling units' tactics maybe to use the short ball against a key batter who they know likes to play front foot strokes. This will force him to play strokes in the weaker parts of his or her game, off the back foot.
Another example, the Captain may ask his fast bowlers to bowl a full attacking line and length outside off stump, this tactic is so that he can set a field with the goal to get the batsman caught behind.
Strategic Cricket means playing Smart Cricket, we will compare Smart Cricket with Mindless Cricket. You can ask yourself where you are with your game and see if there is scope for you to play better, smarter, winning cricket. Smart cricketers understand that the game of cricket strategy begins off the field. They understand that what they do off the field is a reflection of what they want to make happen on the field. Smart Cricketers begin by asking the right questions, they ask what do I need to do in my 'Pre-Match Preparation' to give myself the best chance of success during the game. They look at their Mental Game, cricket strategy and tactics are key parts of the mental game, so what do they need to do to maximize the opportunity for success on the field.
Sachin Tendulkar is a Smart Cricketer, he prepares in training to roll out a specific batting plan based on what he knows about the wicket, the ground and his opponents, and he even factors in the weather.
Smart Cricketers....
1. Know what they want to make happen during the game.
2. Know their opponent, assess their opponents’ game, what are their strengths and weaknesses and how can they use this knowledge back against their opponent.
3. Construct their Game Plan so that they are maximizing their strengths and focusing them on their opponents’ weaknesses.
4. Plan their training to make sure they work through their game plan for match day.


Physical Fitness: They do their homework on what type of strength and conditioning work they will need to do to be fully prepared for competition. Most of this work is done during the off season, but there are opportunities during the season to top up on training and peak for big games.

Technical Game: They make sure that their technical game is working well; they are consistently working on polishing their game, maintaining strengths and focusing on weak areas where they may be vulnerable, so that they can turn them into strengths too. They prepare well, knowing what they need to work on during training to make sure that they are fully prepared for the next match. Whether it is for a particular bowler they are going to face or it is work on a specific delivery they want to use.
Lets contrast this with Mindless Cricket.
The Mindless cricketer plays each week without any goals. They don't prepare or plan, subsequently their game stays in the same place. There is no homework on the opposition to know what they do and how they are going to do it. So they make the same mistakes each week, and when they face the same opponents they get out to the same bowlers and the same batsman score runs off them.
Engage Your Brain
The goal is to play better, score more runs, take more wickets, hold more catches, so the need is to engage the brain to play better, smarter, more strategic cricket.