Cricket Height Research

Statistical analysis of height selection pressure across 23 ICC World Cups (1975-2026)

This research investigates whether international cricket teams systematically select taller players over time, and whether this trend exceeds natural population height increases across participating nations.

Research Question

Do cricket teams exhibit "height selection pressure" — a measurable bias toward selecting taller players that goes beyond general population height trends?

Methodology

Data: Tournament-by-tournament player data across 23 ICC World Cups, organised by four functional categories:

• Wicketkeepers (WK)
• Batsmen (BAT)
• Fast Bowlers (FAST)
• Spin Bowlers (SPIN)

Variables: Height (cm), date of birth, player category, nation, tournament year, verification status

Statistical Techniques:

• ANOVA with interaction terms (category x era)
• Population-adjusted regression analysis
• Breakpoint testing (2007 T20 era hypothesis)
• Temporal trend analysis with confidence bands
• Data quality validation (height range checks 155-220cm, verification flags)

Data Pipeline

Raw JSON (per tournament) --> CSV (cleaned) --> Parquet (analysis-ready)

Tech Stack

Purpose	Libraries
Data	pandas, numpy
Statistics	scipy, statsmodels, pingouin
Visualisation	matplotlib, seaborn
Pipeline	Python scripts, JSON to CSV to Parquet

Visualisations

• Violin plots: height distributions by player category
• Temporal trend lines: mean height 1975-2026 with regression bands
• 4-panel publication figure: distributions, trends, country comparisons, ODI vs T20
• Forest plots for ANOVA effect sizes

Setup

git clone https://github.com/brettleehari/cricheightresearch.git
cd cricheightresearch
pip install -r requirements.txt
python scripts/analyze.py

Author

Hariprasad Sudharshan - GitHub