School of Don Bradman: sporting genius and statistical Health Design, and outlier? Trials & Related Professor Stephen. J. Walters Statistics E-mail: [email protected] Research

Introduction Objectives

The test career batting average of, But just how good was Bradman’s Australian Test cricketer, Sir Donald sporting performance? Bradman of 99.94 runs per innings is one of the most famous and iconic How does his performance compare sporting performance statistics. to his peers of other test cricket Bradman only played 52 test matches, batsmen and other legendary figures with 80 innings, over a 20 year career, in other sports? from 1928 to 1948.

Although many more test matches are now played Bradman’s performance Statistical methods still stands out.

In the 137 years of test cricket no one This poster will investigate Bradman’s has a batting average remotely close performance and compare and to Bradman’s. His career batting contrast it with other cricketers and average is almost 39 runs higher than other sports using a variety of the next batsman (who have batted summary statistics including the more than 20 times); and Bradman number of standard deviations that scored a century every 2.75 innings. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Bradman they stand above the mean for their _australian_cricket_player_pic.jpg This image is of Australian origin and is now in the public domain because its term of sport (the Z score statistic ). copyright has expired. According to the Australian Copyright Council (ACC)

Bradman runs per innings and Dot plot of batting average for Box and whisker plot of Z-scores batting average scorers of 2000 or more test runs for seven sports

Table: Statistics for several prominent sportspeople by comparing the number of standard deviations that they stand above the mean for their sport

Name Sport Statistic Qualification Z-score Data source D -G Bradman (Aus) Test Cricket Batting average Batsmen with 2000 or more runs 6.48 http://www.espncricinfo.com/ J Nicklaus (USA) Golf Major Wins Players with 2 or more Major wins 5.02 http://www.espn.co.uk/golf/sport/site/4.html Just Fontaine (Fran) Association Football Goals per game Scorers of 30 or more international goals 4.32 http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/century.html#goals R Federer (Swiss) Tennis Grand Slam wins Players with 2 or more Grand Slam wins 3.92 http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/site/5.html M Court Tennis (Womens) Grand Slam wins Players with 2 or more Grand Slam wins 3.77 http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/site/5.html J-M Fangio (Arg) Formula 1 Motor Racing Races per win Drivers with two or more Grand Prix wins 3.81 http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/site/index.html D-W Carter (NZ) Rugby Union Points per game Players with 200 or more points 2.11 http://www.espn.co.uk/scrum/rugby/site/index.html

Other statistics Conclusions

Bradman was out for 0 in his last (80 th ) innings. If he has Bradman’s Z-score is superior to several other prominent scored 4 more runs in this innings he would have finished sportspeople. his career with a batting average of 100. No other athlete dominates an international sport to the No other player who has played more than 20 Test match extent that Bradman does test cricket. innings has finished with a batting average of more than 61.

Bradman's total of 12 Test double hundreds is the most achieved by any batsman.