Cricket: MVP system gaining acceptance

The number 99.94 used to be the one statistic every cricketer knew - everything beyond Sir Donald Bradman's test batting average was best left to anorak-clad cricket tragics.

However, with more powerful computing and quicker calculations, cricket's started to emulate baseball for its degree of minutiae.

That's being brought about by the likes of the MVP system, introduced to New Zealand last year at domestic level. It's designed to gauge player performance on more than just batting and bowling averages.

Buy-in from New Zealand Cricket and its players has seen the concept backed at international level this season to provide more context to on-field achievements.

New Zealand Cricket Players Association business development manager and former Black Cap Glen Sulzberger is charged with its implementation.

"It's relevant to modern day cricket because it works on players being multi-skilled. It's not just runs scored, but how they were scored. If it's wickets taken, then the system asks was it a top or lower order batsman as well as questioning how much the player's actions helped to win a game."

The NZCPA wants it accepted by selectors, players, media and fans but Sulzberger knows that's dependent on educating interested parties who can check the scorecards to examine the evidence.

A downside is that, like the Duckworth Lewis system for rain-affected results, the MVP weighting system is hard to explain without an Excel sheet.

But 39-year-old veteran Chris Harris, who finished 103rd of 136 players overall last season, says it is fair.

"I'm not sure exactly how it works but it seems to recognise the subtleties of the game more, such as the importance of strike rate in shorter versions. And all cricketers know a bloke blasting 30 off 15 balls in a one-dayer can be just as valuable as someone who's battled to 60 off 100.

"The winners are not necessarily all-rounders. I mean, look at Skippy [Mathew] Sinclair taking it out last year. It shows if you concentrate on one form of the game, you can still get up there. Ideally, though, you'd want to be a strike bowler who bats up the order."