Castrol index for cricket - the new entrant in the world of cricket! This new initiative from the stable of Castrol India vows to make watching of cricket even more exciting for the cricket lovers. Basically an analytical tool, it is designed to objectively analyze the performances of players as well as the teams. Here is more on the web-based tool. If you are really passionate about the game of cricket and the players, then you must thank Castrol India for their second cricket initiative after castrolcricket.com - a cricket website that drew as many as 5.5 lakh unique visitors and 65 lakh page views since their launch last month. Yesterday, Castrol India announced the media launch of their second cricket product and that is ‘Castrol index for cricket’. Specifically developed for the shorter versions of the game, that is Twenty-20 (t20-world-cup-2009.html) and ODIs, Castrol index is a tool to be used for better understanding of the game. It is not only good for assessing various aspects of an individual player’s performances; it can be used for analyzing a team’s performance too. Since, in the shortest format of the game, a cricketer needs to perform in all departments of the game including batting, bowling and fielding, the tool takes into account all aspects of the player’s game at the time of assessing a player’s performance. On the basis of statistics, insights, information and knowledge, Castrol Index produces an objective analysis which helps the fans compare between different players and teams and help them understand the factors behind a win or a defeat.Here is how the tool works:The tool maintains a different tracking system for assessing a team’s performance and the players’ performance. When it is evaluating an individual player, first it classifies the player as a specific category on the basis of his core skills that is as a batsman, as a bowler or as an all-rounder. The tool treats fielding and wicket-keeping as non-core or enabler skills for all players. Each player gains base points for his core skills, while bonus points are awarded for the non-core skills.As it comes to the evaluation of a specific team’s performance, the analytical tool focuses on a team’s cumulative Batting Momentum and Bowling Efficiency across a set of matches. While a combination of total runs scored and the rate (runs per ball) at which those runs are scored makes for Batting Momentum, Bowling Efficiency is calculated as a combination of total wickets taken and the economy rate (runs per over).It also takes into account the factor of batting and bowling performances for a team in the first six overs (quick start) and Batting or Bowling over last five overs (Extreme Performance).For checking consistency of a team, Castrol Index considers a factor called Extreme Pressure Performance (EPP). The overall Castrol Team Index and the EPP index for a particular team may vary in their rating points.Anil Kumble and famous cricket commentator - Harsha Bhogle, who also happens to be the Brand Ambassador for the Castrol Index, said in the Press Conference: “The Castrol index provides differentiated analysis and information that sheds new light on how the game is played and won. The Castrol index provides unique insights into the performance of players and teams - specifically what makes some of them more effective and successful than others. It provides a point of view based on analysis and data not just subjective opinion.”Anil Kumble on the other hand summarized the utility of the tool for the cricket fans. “The Castrol index seems to be a great tool to analyse performances in the shorter versions of the game. You can spend hours on the site, using the Index to compare performances of individual players and teams. It should also be quite a useful tool to players wanting an in depth analysis on what leads to a winning performance,” said Kumble who successfully led RCB to finals after he took the reign from Pietersen in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (indian-premier-league.html).   read more »