Why Data will drive the future of Sport

[Music]

hello

thanks for the opportunity given for me

to take you through to the 18 years of

my experience of my journey

which really started you know i could

rather say

i’m someone who started studying in a

government

voice school in krishna a small town in

tamil nadu

and then i played some cricket there and

i played close to

under 1922 under 25 combined b6 for

tamil nadu and i’ve been part of some

goals too for cricket as well and i also

had a dream of playing for the country

and representing india doesn’t it

everyone will have the same kind of

passion when you really put your pats on

and i was no different but finally i

came to know that there are a lot of

players who are better than me so i

couldn’t really

get through to that level what i really

wanted to be the

burning passion inside didn’t really

take up to the next level

in 1999 i became a qualified umpire in

bcca

thanks to again to the cricket

association i had dreams

of really making it to the international

stage you know by stepping into

melbourne

eden gardens and new landscape town as

an empire but unfortunately even that

didn’t kick up

i was studying electronics and

communication engineering in university

of madras

so the pressure actually was to make

sure you need to study well get a

distinction

and then probably try and look for a job

and then play cricket but then pursue

your umpiring carrier but unfortunately

you know what

that’s not what exactly it’s going to

work if you have that pressure going on

and then i ended up in a very good it

firm

and a very good salary and all these

things but always i wanted to make sure

you know i want to do something what i

am doing but i

i don’t know how exactly i’m going to do

that because as a player

unfortunately i was not up to the market

as an empire i don’t know how to proceed

after i got my qualification certificate

so when i was thinking about it

then in 2000 early in 2000

when i saw an article that came up in

the hindu that the indian cricket team

headed by the coach john wright is

sitting in a software firm called

phoenix global solutions

to develop a software tool which is

going to help the cricketers

really to take their game up and do some

strategies for the opponents and other

things

then i thought look i got some

cricketing knowledge about this passion

i’m a very good software developer why

can’t i do things of my own that is the

day i started developing my software

apart from working in the software

company and the passion continued there

so that is where once i got my software

done i used to take it to all cricket

associations

i think used to take it to all clubs i

used to take it to all former cricketers

to really get the feedbacks

how exactly it was looking and then

luckily

i landed up in the national cricket

academy where i was living in bangalore

to showcase

you know the software to fee of the

coaches who came for the seminars and of

course the admin manager at that time

so they really got impressed and said

that okay look this is really looking

good

he said that can you come and join the

national cricket academy

i didn’t have any second thoughts at all

i said that i’m going to quit my highly

paid i.t job to join in a contract job

for the national cricket academy because

i knew that

now at that age i can take a independent

decision of mine to make sure that i can

really get

a life out of my passions and then

slowly

i got a chance to be a part of the

indian under 19 team

in a world cup in 2006 which was held in

colombo in sri lanka

so that is what exactly that gave me a

break a struggle for you to convince

that there is a

place for the laptop in the dressing

room that took a while

and there was nobody to mentor me or

gave me what exactly has to be done

in performance analysis to make sure

it’s going to be an

influence in the bracing room i had no

idea the software is going to throw you

all the statistics and other things

there is much more into it

how are you going to involve data into

it how are you going to get the

strategies

pertaining to the opposition how are you

decode

you know the weakness of the operands

how are you going to make sure you come

up with some intelligence which is going

to improve the performances of your own

players and your team i had no idea

all of a sudden i got an approach from

indian hockey coach mr joking carvalho

all of a sudden i got a call saying that

we need you in the sports authority of

india

in bangalore i got no idea at all why is

this gentleman calling me the moment i

stepped down to his room

the one thing he told me is we want you

in the indian hockey team

i can be very honest with you saying

that i had no idea

whatsoever about hockey at all i told

him that i have not even seen one

match i don’t even know what i can do

with the hockey team he said that i like

your brains

i read a lot of articles about you i

want to make sure this is what

i need to do from you then what happened

was

i sat with him and he said that tomorrow

you’re going to come with us you’re

going to travel with us

with to the indian hockey team for a

champions trophy

in germany i said that it took a while

and said okay let let me think about it

the greatest motivation i got that time

is when he left the indian team

he wrote in his book and he came up with

a book called

indian summers where he wrote very

clearly about this guy who’s a

passionate guy used to come from

the i.t engineer from bangalore and used

to feed me

you know all the knowledge and all these

things which was really really helpful

i wish to see him one day in

international cricket that was the

biggest

boost i got and going back to 2007 with

a hockey team

another thing is the coach asked me only

one thing look we are giving you an

opportunity to serve the nation the next

year there is

olympics coming in we will teach you the

game

all i wanted to know is i want to make

sure i take your intelligence your

brains to see that

how can this benefit the hockey team i

had no idea

next day we are catching the flight from

bangalore

to france in 11 hours the coach is

sitting next to me and he’s telling me

what has to be done for the software i’m

doing the coding

software programming in the flight from

bangalore to france that is 11 hours

when he landed in france the software is

ready

it took me that particular tournament

for me to get used to what hockey is all

about

and then finally we ended up with a

bronze medal there

and then we went for the asia cup three

four months later and

finally we ended up winning the asia cup

so before that i also developed a

software in tennis because

i’m always a passionate fan of tennis so

and then once i developed the software

you know i put a paper submission to

international tennis federation saying

that

this is what the match analysis software

can tennis

can do and how are you going to decode

the opponent strengths and weaknesses

and how it can be useful

so i got a call from international

attendees federation saying that

you know we are more than happy for you

to come and give a lecture

on your software on september 9 2007 in

uk

but unfortunately the finals of the asia

cup between

india and korea that is going to be held

up in chennai was also on september 9th

the coach told me only one thing hockey

coach i’m not going to stop you but we

need you this is the finals we need to

win the asia cup

it’s your decision because we’re not

going to stop your growth it’s for you

to decide whether

the gold medal for india and the asia

cup or you want to just decide going on

to present your paper submission in

that itf seminar unfortunately we got

knocked out in the final seconds

england that’s the first time indian

hockey team unfortunately didn’t make it

to the

main olympics in 2008 that was going to

be held in

beijing china so that was really a

heartbreak and then that is a time

ipl came into emergence and raul dravid

approached me

and asked me can he join our team

then all of a sudden out of a blue moon

then i got a

i got a call from one of the cricket

managers dr musaji from qriket south

africa saying that i am in bangalore for

the icc awards function

i just want to have a look at what you

can offer then i showcased him what i

can do

and then he immediately said look we are

going to give you a contract

that is only for six months probation

leading to the world cup in 2011 in

india

and then the first time i’m going to

south africa to be part of the proteus

team even though i’ve been there

for ipl and champions league but this is

going to be the first time going to be

the proteus team

in south africa there the opponents are

none other than india

so when i went in there a lot of people

will be asking that how much

data drive performance analysis so i’m

going to showcase you

a few of the examples on how influential

is your data

and how much you really make the data

drive performance analysis so it’s

either way you need to make sure you

need to make a right marriage between

data

and your performance analysis skill it’s

the first time people

felt that india edge over south africa

so one of the key factor for them is

going to be

explosive here in the savage top of the

order

so he’s someone who used to take the

game away in a session or two when you

allow him to back

close to two or three hours so when he

started analysing virende seva

so when i saw the last thousand five

hundred

test runs within the seventh school lot

of friends have gone through third man

so my way of doing it i used to watch

the last two

000 deliveries battered by batsmen

patiently

and then i will draw my own strategies

of

what is going to be the line of attack

what is the field i am going to set

so when in the strategy meeting when i

said that i want to have a

third man for beer in this seva because

of the slashes that’s going in when i

when i clearly watched his technical

flaw what he has got or rather i should

not take it

as a technical flaw that’s the technique

what he has got

where he drives sun slashes one degrees

most of the balls

go through the air and third man i said

i want a third man but not many people

were really ready to accept that idea

because in a test match

when you take the new brand new ball in

south africa you would rather want to

have another sleep or you want to have

another attacking catching position

that’s what exactly everyone felt so i

said that this is what it is going to be

a catching position

so after a lot of deliberation finally

the captain graham smith said

let’s let’s try this for the first six

hours not many people are

happy about it but finally they said

that okay let’s try this for

the first six over they took one fielder

for the left side that’s from mid on and

put him on

the third man we took only three balls

when dale stay involved that particular

delivery where he exactly wanted the

ball

leaving the covers out third ball

virender sevak flashes

and he becomes the first batsman in test

history

to get out within two overscored third

man

it went straight to ashimamla at short

term

if you can ask me what exactly is the

amount of

data drive in this it’s minimal

because normally when you sit in a

meeting people are going to say when i

say

third man is a catching option lot of

people will come and ask me can i have

his dismissals getting caught at that

man

i didn’t even have one to show because

that is the first time it has happened

for him

so this is how you need to interpret

data

into performance analysis so when you go

for the next stage where i am going to

say how much

pivotal role that has played i can take

another

example in t20 world cup 2014 in

bangladesh when we are playing new

zealand

in a must win game because we lost the

first game

to sri lanka if we lose another game we

are going to be

back home to south africa so that time

we battered and we scored 170 against

new zealand

and normally when it comes to t20

cricket there is a lot of data research

there when the player really comes in

first

because in t20 there’s going to be a

power play of only two fielders outside

and it’s up to the power play it’s going

to be five fielders outside

so the extractor players for them if you

see that is going to be obviously

martin guptill at the top kane

williamson with the topper

and rostral of the order so if you can

see

the particular strategy document what

i’m sharing here is it’s a pitch map for

rostel

with strike plates mentioned normally

what we do is what type of rockers

that’s going to be a potent weapon which

everyone knows that’s not going to be a

rocket since what kind of joker

where he struggles based on very news on

the crease and where he plays his shots

so why do you have a system your

flip stamp yorker straight yoga feet

yorkers

and then what else of the other delivery

when you see when we particularly

saw that that the good length at five

meters

when he bowled probably

or the fourth stump of the fifth strum

that is where he had got

least strike rate the game boiled down

where they required 55 runs of seven

hours kane williamson batting on 50 and

ross taylor batting

i don’t think there is any rocket

science to say which team is going to

hop around that side the only thing you

need to make sure it’s whole

good length on a bangladesh tracks where

it’s not much of a bounce which

doesn’t allow him to really swing his

own the last ball when it required

three runs you can see ross taylor

moving outside the austrian

the moment he moves out straight awesome

when you say that it’s a fifth stump

good length okay what you’ve got to do

is to adjust your length based on that

particular distance when he moves on

and that’s what dale stein did and that

ended in a dirt ball again for us

to win that particular match and we

entered the semi-finals

so this is how the data drives you

through

so there are also sometimes where the

data also can be tricky i’m going to

take you to

another example where when south africa

toured india in 2015

the game started boiling down to the

wire

where there was a situation where

eighteen runs required of nine balls for

the great minecraft dhoni was in strike

so the particular time that when

mahindra singh dhoni came on strike

out of the 30 balls he played he just

got one boundary that uniques

and that is the time the last two hours

it ball down do i took my walkie-talkie

to relay the information

for the bowling coach who’s standing in

closer to the place saying that dhoni

doesn’t play the lap shot at all

so please keep the fine leg in and dale

strain was calling

benstein had the fine leg back the stat

says dhoni has never played a lap shot

until then that’s what the stat banking

have got so based on the information

that gone

when the situation boils down to

eighteen of nine balls dale stead brings

the final again

and dhoni plays a lap shot that goes for

four

and the situation all of a sudden

becomes fourteen of eight and dhoni is

still there with eight balls to go

so what do you expect the result when a

king finisher like dhoni is at the scene

can you blame the data you can’t blame

that can you blame your analysis you

can’t blame the analysis but that’s how

sport is

so if you really feel it’s data that

really drives everything

that is what i want to tell you you need

to drive the data and not let the data

influence your analysis i’ve been part

of

indian hockey team i’ve been part of

tennis for a while

so when it goes to a team something like

a hockey it’s all

even based i’ll be sitting and talk

in front of the uh there’ll be a

particular place for people like us to

keep our cameras keep our laptops

connected

and then we’ll be seeing we’ll be having

we’ll be tagging the

game where the events are going on we’ll

be moving the camera with one of the

hands

and then we’ll be having the

walkie-talkie saying that the midfield

is open

we need to target there they’re changing

their combination they’re having this

many forwards and having this many

misfits

midfields this this guy is moving here

this guy is moving there so that is

completely even based

so that is not really we are not going

to talk about individual player you’re

going to talk about the particular

events here

how to penetrate the forward how are you

going to

attack their midfield how are you going

to break their defense

so those are the things you need to

really be careful of when it comes to

a penalty corner okay if i do a single

dummy there

if i do a double dummy there or if i do

a draft flick there

what is the percentage of success of the

goalkeeper opponent goalkeeper when you

draft flick

or you shoot straight or you shoot on

right corner body shoot on left corner

what is the initial movement what is he

going to do

so how are the guys going to approach

you or attack you or

defend the particular penalty corner so

when it comes to hockey it becomes

slightly

more database research because you talk

about

more as a even-based sport when it comes

to tennis

when i send my research on arousal

federer

he was he was he was a king on grass so

someone like roger federer when you try

and keep him six rallies

on a grass particularly the sixth rally

is going to come up with a booming

winner so when he comes with a booming

winner at that point of time

in 2007 71 percentage i mean

forced error you’re forcing him for

error

particularly when you try and approach

the net and try and force him to pass

so that is where you really force him in

error so these are the kind of things

when it comes to tennis it’s going to be

a man-to-man where the data drive is

going to be more

when roger federer is going to serve

1540

what is the type of serve most

percentage

whether it’s going to be flat sir

whether it’s going to be a kickstart

whether it’s going to be down the middle

or it’s going to target the right corner

whatever it is

what is the percentage then you tell

your opponent to make sure okay

when he’s 1540 don first serve what is

the percentage of him going for this

kind of a serve

second serve when the first serve is a

fault what is it going to do

so this becomes a completely data

mining scope when it comes to individual

sport

so all he got to know is to make sure

how are you going to

drive this so if you ever think that

completely the performance analysis is

data driven

i want to humbly beg to differ it’s not

completely data driven at

all so this is how we need to make sure

how are you going to get your data

influential based on the research what

you make

so that is how you make people believe

you

really make an influence of what you do

it’s all about

of use your intelligence how you

intelligently use your data

and make sure you can make a life out of

it so this is the inspiration i want to

give for people listening

to this talk and seriously think about

how to put your steps forward

and really make a career out of it and

really thank you people for giving me an

opportunity on a short burst of going

through my 18-year career

thanks a lot and wishing everyone who’s

watching this all the very best for your

future

thank you