Cricket has been well-served by its many statisticians. We can imagine the early ones sitting with their paper and pencils and india rubber to correct any mistakes. They laboured to produce statistics for their own amusement, but also for others to read. These statistics were the ones that the compilers thought their readers would like to know about.
Sometimes a step change is made, and in the early days of cricket on the internet CricInfo introduced just such a step change. With the advent of their online search engine StatsGuru, a user could now begin to tailor statistics to his or her own thoughts, no longer quite so tied to what the compiler thought they wanted to know. This major step change was the brainchild of the late Travis Basevi, today’s ACS Statistician of the Year. It is a testament to him that, many years later, CricInfo is still using this computer software and it is still one of the best online search engines available.
I am pleased to have had him as a friend, and I’m sure that you will all have read the heartfelt personal obituary by his very great friend Vishal Misra on the ACS website. I would like you all to thank Travis Basevi, the ACS Statistician of the Year, for his contribution to cricket statistics.
Peter Griffiths