PEAK PERFORMANCE AGE: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF PAKISTAN TEST BATSMEN Imran Abbass ABSTRACT The study intended to explore the relationship of age and performance of test batsmen to know at what age they achieved the peak performance while playing test cricket. Qualitative data was collected through interviews and Secondary data sources were used of different ICC (International Cricket Council) websites and magazines. Sample comprised of top 12 test players of Pakistan from past and present era, who played for Pakistan with distinction. Time series and regression analysis was executed to find the significance of the relationship between their age and performance (Batting average).The findings of the study revealed a parabolic trajectory relationship between age and their performance, positive relationship at the start and then a plateau and then a negative relationship between age and performance. The rise and decline pattern varied and majority of the cricket players touched the peak between the ages of 28 to 34 years. The current study will provide solid grounds to account the role of age in producing expert performance and strongly suggested through the evidence of data analysis that to achieve the expert performance of the enrolled test batsmen, patience is required until and unless the cricket players meet a specific age limit. Key Words: Cricket, Test Batsmen, Peak Performance, Age INTRODUCTION score of 23, Aamer nicked one to On a bright sunny morning of the Bacher in the slips and in 1997-98 winters, stage was set to adding four runs Pakistan top topple the mighty South Africans four batsman were gone to the at eastern shores. South Africans pavilion. After that no batsman were under tremendous pressure appeared to show any guts to and a target of 146 was given to tackle the mighty Africans fero- Pakistan to win the 3rd test match cious bowling attack and bowled and also the series by 1-0 at out at 92 in just 37.3 overs and Faisalabad. Ali and Aamer star- lost the test series 1-0 to South ted the innings with confidence Africa. Chugtai (2001) stated that and things were under control Pakistan had repeated this un- and triumph was certain. At the predictability on number of Peak performance Age times on scrutinized it was found at the sight of our batsmen that fourteen of Pakistan’s sixth struggling to barely clear the in- seven defeats were due to their field. Time and again, their batsmen inability to reach the ta- technical deficiencies and mental rget score. Successful chase de- frailties are exposed, their poor pends on high degree of strategic show punished by dropping planning in terms of solid start them from the side, only for the form the opening batsmen, main- same batsmen to return after a taining the required run rate and brief hiatus, but with little sign of sustained aggression (Qazi, 2015) improvement in their game”. Mohammad Hafeez Former Test Pakistan’s batting is going thro- captain admitted after the defeat ugh a deep crisis but there seems in the ICC world T20 final the te- to be no answer to this predi- am’s major concern is chasing cament. Perhaps, it is time to abilities and this can be over- give hitherto untested players a come through shear hard work chance instead of repeatedly rel- and perseverance (Gulf news. ying on the same set of players” com). Ramiz Raja former execu- (The Express Tribune, 2013). tive PCB said “ Batting has been team Achilles heel, the situation Over the years Pakistan bow- is not going to change unless ling has been the main contri- Pakistan introduce drastic chan- butor in teat victories. Record ges in batting structure, team showed Pakistan’s win/lose ratio simply lacked skills which is in tests dropped down to 1.117 why “we have been flogging from 2.532 in recent years which dead horse ”. “Batting line sho- is quite ordinary as compere to uld have revamp as it has been other top teams. World’s cricket failing to perform in the world data base revealed that seventy event where it is supposed to out of one hundred and twenty perform full. As far as bowling is six triumph were attained by bo- concerned “we always find good wling potential and rest of fifty bowlers” (Nafis, 2013). Pakistan’s five by batting potential. (Cri- current Test captain Misbah-Ul- cinfo.com, 2015). There are num- Haq said “the consistent batting ber of question raised from these failures are worrying” (AFP, stats first is the team not getting 2012). “Team is now left to wince appropriate and right batting 13 THE SKY-IJPEHSAS, Vol. 01, 2017 talent which can absorb the backs have broader peak bet- pressure of test cricket? Second, ween 25 -35 (Schultz & Curnow, are the batsmen getting picked 1988). In majority of the sports for the national side not mature the peak attained between the enough to cater the demand of age of 22 to 30. The age at which test cricket? Are there adminis- performance tends to peak across trative, managerial, environme- sports seems to depend on the ntal and cultural issues that are physiological and psychological not conducive for the develop- demands of the sports, explosive ment of expertise in batsmen? sports peaking earlier as com- Past Literature showed athlete’s pere to cognitive skill based sp- career follows a parabolic trajec- ort. There are also some sports tory: there is elevation as the which depends on the combina- body matures and skills are tion of explosive physical and hone, than a plateau and then cognitive abilities (Peterson, decline phase starts as the ability 2015). Chopra (2009) argued that fades. These ups and downs successful exhibition of cricket depend on the physiological and skills such as batting, bowling psychological attributes of per- and fielding depends on the hi- formance. The rise-peak-decline ghly competent psychological pattern varies in sports. Num- skills. “Psychological state of a erous studies on baseball pegged cricket players could change in a peak age between 27 -29, Tennis short spell of play from being an explosive sports pegged peak highly confident to a state of age between 20-25 years. Basket- utter diffidence. This distingue- ball pegged peak age 27 on all ishes skilled players from the less position, Track and field’s events skilled, not so much due to raw peaking age between twenty to talent but, relatively, to work twenty five and endurance eve- ethic, and a focused state of nts peak after mid-twenties, Gol- mind”. “Cricket successful bow- fer have higher peak age bet- lers and batsmen are the ones ween 25 to 35 and slower decline, who can apply the correct type of Football running backs and attentional focus to the task at receivers peak around 27, with hand allowing them to harmo- running backs showing sharpen nies the emotional, physical and fall off than receivers, quarter mental strands of the situation”. 14 Peak performance Age Owens (2008) argued that “It is Peak performance age will the cricket player’s ability to con- provide the solid base to account centrate on task-relevant cues the role of ageing process in and adapt attentional focus to the producing the expert performa- ever-changing game context and nce and will also help to broaden to continuously employ effective the life span of test batsmen by personal coping resources”. This stoppage in ruining prematurely study was aimed to investigate in early phase of their careers the relationship of age and per- due to ordinary performance. formance of the successful test Understanding of Peak perform- batsmen of present and past eras. ance age could provide informa- Age was measured in years as tion about long term athlete dev- batsmen ageing through playing elopment program, Event selec- test cricket and on the other hand tion, decision regarding resource performance was measured in allocation and team building for terms of batting average / year future events. (Allen et al., 2015). .The study intended to find out the peak performance age of test Materials and Methods batsmen. Study found that Pak- The study adopted qualita- istan’s greats of games touched tive and quantitative approach to the pinnacle of their batting per- collect the data from secondary formance at a different ages, dep- sources including websites, new- end on their natural physio- spapers and journals. Retrospe- logical and cognitive maturation ctives study design was executed age while competing at test level. to scrutinize the batting perfor- The findings of the study will be mances (Averages) of Test bats- beneficial for players, players men. Lewis (2005) argued that support personnel’s, Selectors “The effects of outstanding or and cricket board’s management poor, single performances are and administration in number of smoothed over the larger num- ways .First ,to understand how ber of games”. Averages are sui- the growing age contributes table frame work to analyze the towards peak performance seco- performance trends because it nd, what is the peak performance reflects the individual perfor- age. mances across a series of matches (Bracewell et al., 2009). The 15 THE SKY-IJPEHSAS, Vol. 01, 2017 Theoretical frame work develo- ped for this study comprises age as independent variable and per- formance (Average) as a depen- dent variable. Time series and regression Analyses was conduc- ted to see the performance trends of top twelve successful test bats- men who played for Pakistan with distinctions. There are other Figure-2 variables that can affect the rela- Mohsin Khan Career tionship of age and performance Polynomial Trend line such as batting order, location of the innings, quality of opposition Mohsin Khan had played as and consistent participation but opening batsmen in Pakistan due to limitations these variables cricket team and played 48 test were kept constant because ave- matches and scored 2709 with rage/year reflect overall perfor- the average of 37.10 in his test mance trend of cricket players.