Integer optimisation for the selection of a Twenty20 cricket team

Abstract

The attraction of Twenty20 cricket for spectators has sparked huge commercial interest in the marketing of the concept. The International Cricket Council has sanctioned world tournaments, the inaugural tournament in South Africa and the recent 2009 event, while the 2008 and 2009 Indian Premier League tournaments have generated profitable returns for both players and franchise owners. This paper describes methods for quantifying a cricket player's performance based on his ability to score runs and take wickets. These performance measures are then used to determine the optimal team using an integer programme. An illustration of the method is provided using data from the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup held in South Africa in 2007.

Keywords:

• sports
• integer programming
• team selection
• statistics

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to extend their appreciation to the anonymous referees, the Journal Editor and Dr Catherine Logie whose comments and suggestions improved significantly on an earlier version of this paper. This material is based upon work supported financially by the National Research Foundation, Grant numbers TTK2006061500023 and TTK2007041600001. Any opinion, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and therefore the NRF does not accept any liability in regard thereto.