Cricket Test Research Articles

UV detection stickers can assist people to reapply sunscreen

Sunscreen when applied at the recommended concentration (2 mg/cm2) has been shown to block the harmful molecular effects of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) in vivo. In real world conditions, however, sunscreen is often not applied/reapplied sufficiently to yield protection. This field study tested the effectiveness of UV detection stickers to prevent sunburn and improve reapplication of sunscreen. During the Ashes Cricket Test match event (November 2017) in Brisbane, Australia interested spectators were recruited into the control group on DAY-1 and during subsequent days (DAY-2, DAY-3, DAY-4) new participants were recruited into the UV-Sticker group. Participants in both groups were provided with free sunscreen and participants in the UV-Sticker group were additionally provided with a UV detection sticker. Primary outcomes were self-reported sunburns and reapplication of sunscreen. Secondary endpoints included satisfaction with the UV detection stickers. 813 participants enrolled in the study, and complete data is available for 428 participants (52.6% response rate, n = 369 UV detection sticker, n = 59 control). Participants provided with a UV detection sticker were more likely to re-apply sunscreen than controls (80% vs 68%, p = 0.04); but do not reduce sunburn rates. UV detection stickers may improve sunscreen re-application in a high UV-environment.Trial registration: Australian and New Zealand clinical trials register (ACTRN12617001572358).

Twitter Intention Classification Using Bayes Approach for Cricket Test Match Played Between India and South Africa 2015

Information retrieval and forecasting in real time is becoming the fastest and most efficient way to obtain useful knowledge of what is happening now, allowing organizations to react quickly when problem appears which help to improve their performance. There is enormous amount of data in the form of tweets. It builds data processing system that creates informative data about the cricket test matches. Using twitter data, the authors find the sentiments or polarity of fans posting tweets related to game. Polarity is given as positive, negative and neutral. The authors also analyze the feelings or emotions of people posting tweets. Emotions are given as anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise and unknown. Machine learning algorithm (Bayes) using R technology shows the accuracy when trained with emotion data.

Queering the pitch: race, class, gender and nation in the Indo-Australian encounter

Recent cricket contests between Australia and India offer a fascinating theatre to examine issues of race, class, nation, and gender. I chart their protean character as they are performed and deployed in these encounters. Instead of exploring relations between already extant and singular entities called “India” or “Australia,” it might be more useful to see the performative practices of those situated at different loci of enunciation by which those categories are momentarily congealed and given meaning or content. While there is a surfeit of charged cricketing encounters between the two nations, I focus on two in this essay: (a) Rahul Dravid's speech at the annual Bradman Oration in 20111, and (b) what has come to be called ‘Monkeygate’ – a bitter and acrimonious cricket test match between India and Australia in 2007 played in Sydney.

Quantifying individual performance in Cricket — A network analysis of batsmen and bowlers

Quantifying individual performance in the game of Cricket is critical for team selection in International matches. The number of runs scored by batsmen and wickets taken by bowlers serves as a natural way of quantifying the performance of a cricketer. Traditionally the batsmen and bowlers are rated on their batting or bowling average respectively. However, in a game like Cricket it is always important the manner in which one scores the runs or claims a wicket. Scoring runs against a strong bowling line-up or delivering a brilliant performance against a team with a strong batting line-up deserves more credit. A player’s average is not able to capture this aspect of the game. In this paper we present a refined method to quantify the ‘quality’ of runs scored by a batsman or wickets taken by a bowler. We explore the application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to rate the players in a team performance. We generate a directed and weighted network of batsmen–bowlers using the player-vs-player information available for Test cricket and ODI cricket. Additionally we generate a network of batsmen and bowlers based on the dismissal record of batsmen in the history of cricket—Test (1877–2011) and ODI (1971–2011). Our results show that M. Muralitharan is the most successful bowler in the history of Cricket. Our approach could potentially be applied in domestic matches to judge a player’s performance which in turn paves the way for a balanced team selection for International matches.

‘Who do ‘‘they” cheer for?’ Cricket, diaspora, hybridity and divided loyalties amongst British Asians

This article explores the relationship between British Asians’ sense of nationhood, citizenship, ethnicity and some of their manifestations in relation to sports fandom: specifically in terms of how cricket is used as a means of articulating diasporic British Asian identities. Norman Tebbit’s ‘cricket test’ is at the forefront of this article to tease out the complexities of being British Asian in terms of supporting the English national cricket team. The first part of the article locates Tebbit’s ‘cricket test’ within the wider discourse of multiculturalism. The analysis then moves to focus on the discourse of sports fandom and the concept of ‘home team advantage’ arguing that sports venues represent significant sites for nationalist and cultural expression due to their connection with national history. The article highlights how supporting ‘Anyone but England’, thereby rejecting ethnically exclusive notions of ‘Englishness’ and ‘Britishness’, continues to be a definer of British Asians’ cultural identities. The final section situates these trends within the discourse of hybridity and argues that sporting allegiances are often separate from considerations of national identity and citizenship. Rather than placing British Asians in an either/or situation, viewing British ‘Asianness’ in hybrid terms enables them to celebrate their traditions and histories, whilst also being proud of their British citizenship.

INSIDE THE HAREM, OUTSIDE THE NATION

Since 9/11, Muslims in the West have been repeatedly exposed to questions from various quarters about their supposed conflicting allegiances: first to the secular law of the nation-states in which they are resident, and secondly to ‘international’ Islamic or shariah law. The subjectivity of the Muslim community has been heightened by intensive media attention which frames their representation within the current context of the international war against terror. Inevitably, they are juxtaposed as the enemy within. I will argue that this frame of representation has been explored on BBC Radio 4 with a series of programmes on Muslims, including Inside the Harem (2004) and Taking the Cricket Test (2006). The limits of representation were also tested in the BBC Radio 4 series entitled Koran and Country aired in 2005, which included topics ranging from the ‘biography of a bomber’ to Muslim faith schools. I suggest that even in the ostensibly ‘liberal’ environment of BBC radio, and in programmes designed to mediate Muslim practices to a western audience, an ambivalence over the delimiting of areas of social custom is in evidence. These programmes feed into the current newsworthiness of Muslims and their truth claims are seemingly underlined by the ‘authenticity’ of the presenters. However, by relying on stereotypes and arranging them within the recognized frame – as a problematic body requiring both to be explained to wider society and bedded into the norms by which that society is understood to operate – do they really offer any kind of alternative critique of prevailing discursive orthodoxy?

Swinging for the fences II – it's not cricket

All right then. Tea, check. Sandwiches, check. A `little something' to offset the chill, check. Canvas-backed chair, lap rug, tweed cap, check, check, check. I'm ready to watch the cricket test. Okay, I'm not watching cricket. I don't know anything about googlies, LBWs, silly wickets or centuries. The only bowling I've ever done is ten pin, and you don't try to hit that ball.Last time, if you recall, we talked about the American game of baseball, which is of world-wide appeal to the six countries in which it is played, and is arcane and hopelessly mysterious where it is not – much like publishing in high-impact journals. There is a competitive, aggressive approach to science that may land papers in such journals. This approach is often described as `American', even when it isn't. But whatever it is, it's just not cricket.In a world of scientific gentle-persons, one would hope that, upon learning an important thing about the universe, we would share the information quickly – if not ready for publication then publicly in the form of talks, posters and the like. This would serve two useful functions – we would let our colleagues know what we were doing (so that, in a gentle personly way, they would steer clear) while, at the same time, giving them insights. Some of us do, indeed, work this way – I like to think that I do. But many don't. Secrets are guardedly kept, ideas and findings are stolen, many race for what is seen as the goal – credit, glory, promotion and prizes.And often, even if it is technically honorable and well played, it just isn't cricket. So some choose not to play. Ambrose Bierce, in his sardonic take on Aesop, described a fox who, viewing a bunch of sour grapes inches from his nose, solemnly declared that they were out of his reach. And so, too, the self-effacing non-players, who though they hope their work will be high quality, assert that they disdain to reach for such unpleasantness.Until they do. And then these same self-named non-players become the most secretive and unsporting lot around. If they hear of another lab that might have similar findings, they do what they can to discredit the other lab, even to the point of dismissing the work to would be (or could be) reviewers who might exterminate it to make room for them. “But Mole,” you say, “we have to be aggressive in this highly competitive business, doing anything we can to reach our goals – all's fair in war and science – especially if the winners are valued and the losers aren't. What else can we do?”In what little I know of cricket, a well-bowled over is loudly praised by the opposing team, and maybe we should act similarly. Science is competitive, and it has always been so. But there is a right way and a wrong way to be competitive. The next time you have the good fortune to discover something truly exciting – the next time you think you can knock that ball for `six' – but you hear that another lab has found something similar, communicate! Yes, there is a chance that they will race to beat you. But, and this happens far more frequently, they may realize that the impact of two such papers is far greater than the sum of the parts. Coordinate your submissions, and share the spoils. Your reputation may be made as the sort of scientist we all appreciate – a jolly good sport.Maybe I'm being old-fashioned but I like working this way. It just feels better. I'm not going to watch cricket on BBC America, and I'm not going to drink tea. But I might have just a little something to ward off the chill while I thumb through the latest issue of one of those weeklies with the nice, soft pages.

Commonwealth Update

Fiji is suspended from the Commonwealth after a military coup. Peace talks progress in Uganda and flounder in Sri Lanka. Pakistan's fragile alliance with the West is highlighted when President Musharraf is simultaneously praised for fighting terror in the USA and blamed for supporting extremists in the UK. A major terrorist alert at UK airports disrupts hundreds of thousands of travellers after police say they have foiled a plot to commit murder on an unprecedented scale. Gorillas return to Cameroon, flamingoes disappear from Kenya and Pakistan becomes the first country to forfeit a cricket Test.

British Spectators’ Perceptions of the Values and Norms in Selected Professional Sports: a Comparative Ethical Survey

In recent years the British media have made much of the apparent decline of standards in British sports. In order to interrogate the veracity of media assumptions regarding the standards of conduct in major British sports, a selection of British sports spectators were interviewed in order to examine: (i) their perceptions of the values and norms of sport; (ii) whether they thought that sporting conduct as currently demonstrated by UK sportsmen and women was positive and related to some ideal notion of the ‘ethos of sport’ and the ‘spirit of the game’; (iii) whether they thought that there had been an improvement, a decline or no change in the ethical standards of conduct in those sports; and (iv) views on the impact of new technologies on the values and norms of sport. At least 200 questionnaires were collected from spectators at each of the following major sporting events: (a) the English Nationwide Football League Divisions 2 and 3 play‐offs, Cardiff, May 2001; (b) the All England Tennis Championships, Wimbledon, July 2001; (c) the England vs Australia Cricket Test match, Edgbaston Birmingham, July 2001; and (iv) the British Open Golf Championships, Royal Lytham and St Annes, Lancashire, July 2001. Results showed that there were statistically significant differences in what sports spectators thought about British professional sportspersons acting in a fair and sporting way and also that standards of conduct had generally declined over the last 10 years. A general pattern of distribution emerged where the team sports (cricket and football) were less favourably perceived than the individual sports (golf and tennis).

Political struggle and West Indies cricket

[First paragraph]An Area of Conquest: Popular Democracy and West Indies Cricket Supremacy. HILARY McD BECKLES (ed.). Kingston: Ian Randle, 1995. xviii + 154 pp. (Paper n.p.)Liberation Cricket: West Indies Cricket Culture. HILARY McD BECKLES & BRIAN STODDART (eds.). Kingston: Ian Randle, 1995. xii + 403 pp. (Paper n.p.)We discovered cricket's importance in the English-speaking Caribbean nearly thirty years ago when we took up our first post in the West Indies. Exploring the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, we were alarmed to observe so many people who appeared to be hearing-disabled. Wherever we went we found people with ear-pieces who were slightly distracted and at the same time prone to violent mood swings, ranging from the depths of despair to enormous elation. Uncertain about the meaning of what we observed, but reluctant, as newcomers, to reveal our ignorance of public health problems in the region, we delayed inquiring about hearing disabilities until we could confide our concerns to a trusted friend. At first convulsed with laughter, she finally recovered sufficiently to assure us that the people of the West Indies did not suffer disproportionately from hearing loss. Rather, the large numbers of people with ear-pieces were listening to a cricket test match!

Using robots to model animals: a cricket test

Abstract The sensorimotor problems faced by animals and by robots have much in common, yet identifying this similarity has so far led to very few successful attempts to implement specific biological neural control structures on robots. One major limitation is that understanding of the biological mechanisms is insufficient for straightforward installation. However, using robots as a method of physically modeling animal systems can potentially contribute to our understanding of these mechanisms. This approach is employed in an investigation of phonotaxis (sound-seeking) in crickets. The process of building a robot forms the basis of a critical evaluation of the neuroethological evidence about the cricket, and generates an alternative hypothesis to explain this evidence. The explanatory power of this hypothesis is explored by testing and analyzing the behaviour of the robot that embodies it. The robot behaved like the cricket, competently and robustly finding its way to a specific sound source under a variety of conditions. It is argued that the methodology is more appropriate than symbolic simulation for the kinds of problems raised in the investigation of sensorimotor behaviour in animals and robots.

Have they passed the cricket test? A ‘qualitative’ study of Asian adolescents

Abstract 50 Asian youngsters from three multi‐cultural schools were interviewed to ascertain their views on a variety of personal, social and educational matters. The primary aim of the project was to investigate the nature of their cultural identities. The analysis of the data showed quite clearly that this group of teenagers are adopting some of the norms of the British society, but at the same time retaining key elements of their own cultures, e.g. language and aspects of religion. They are developing bi‐cultural identities. Muslim boys and girls were found to be more ‘religion’ orientated than Hindu and Sikh adolescents. The findings are discussed and related to previous researches in the field.