Release velocities and bowler performance in cricket

There is a widespread notion in the cricketing world that with increasing pace the performance of a bowler improves. Additionally, many cricket experts believe faster bowlers to be more effective against lower order batters than bowlers who bowl at slower speeds. The present study puts these two ubiquitous notions under test by statistically analysing the differences in performance of bowlers from three subpopulations based on average release velocities. Results from one-way ANOVA (and its modified versions), for international test matches, reveal faster bowlers to be performing better, in terms of Average and Strike-rate, but no significant differences in the Economy rate and Dynamic Bowling rate. Faster bowlers were found to be more effective in taking wickets of lower and middle order batters as compared to bowlers with less pace. However, there was no statistically significant difference in performance of Fast and Fast-Medium bowlers against a top-order batter.