How the analysis works
Every number is computed from imported match scorecards only — never play.cricket's career summary. Here's the logic behind roles, ratings, the overall score, and the ranking.
Rating tiers
Batting and bowling tiers are percentile-calibrated against all qualified players; overall and fielding use the fixed 0–100 scale.
| Tier | How it's defined | Batting | Bowling | Overall / Fielding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elite | Roughly the top 5% of qualified players — genuinely exceptional at this level | 82+ | 78+ | 75+ |
| Advance | Roughly the top 25% of qualified players — clearly above the pack | 67+ | 68+ | 55–74 |
| Proficient | Meets the credibility floors for the discipline but sits below the Advance cutoff. Qualified players only — a bowler who doesn't reach 0.75 wickets per match lands on the volume ladder below instead | < 67 | < 68 | 35–54 |
| Strong | Bowling only — a useful change option, 0.5–0.75 wickets per match, just short of full qualification. Called Handy, then Support, then Proficient, until Aug 2026 | — | 0.5–0.75 wkts/match | n/a |
| Established | Bowling only — 0.4–0.5 wickets per match. Called Occasional until Aug 2026, and Developing before that, which meant one label (and one amber badge) covered both a qualified bowler below the Advance cutoff and a bowler judged purely on wicket rate | — | 0.4–0.5 wkts/match | n/a |
| Part Time | Bowling only — bowls rarely, 0.25–0.4 wickets per match. Not presented as a bowler | — | 0.25–0.4 wkts/match | n/a |
| Needs Work | Overall / fielding only — the bottom band of the fixed scale | — | — | 0–34 |
| Working on Basics | Below the credibility floors — batting: average under 20 or strike rate under 40; bowling: under 0.25 wickets per match. Not presented as a batter/bowler: no strengths, no Elite boards, whatever the score | — | — | n/a |
Percentile cutoffs calibrated 16 Jul 2026 across all qualified players; "qualified" means meeting the credibility floors for that discipline. Strong / Established / Part Time bowlers show a rating discounted by wicket involvement (score × wkts-per-match ÷ 0.75); Working on Basics shows no rating at all.
Reading a bowling badge: the colour is the tier, never the number. Elite / Advance / Proficient are scored on skill, so their badge colour tracks the rating. Strong / Established / Part Time are banded by wicket rate while the number shown is discounted — these render outlined, with a ~ on the number, because that number is on a different scale and does not compare with a qualified bowler's. A Strong bowler showing ~41 is not "three better" than a Proficient bowler showing 38; they are not measured the same way. Hover (or long-press) a badge to see which tier it is.
🎽 Role classification
A player's role is inferred from their median batting position, how often they bowl, and any keeping dismissals.
- Wicketkeeper-Batter — actually kept wicket in more than 40% of their matches (min 3 matches). A one-off keeping stint — say a single WK catch in one game — does not make a player a keeper.
- All-Rounder — bats regularly and bowls regularly, batting in the top 7.
- Bowler — bowls regularly and bats at 8 or lower (or rarely bats). Specialist bowlers are then split by when they typically come on (their median position in the bowling order), and each sub-type is ranked separately:
- Bowlers come on in pairs (two ends), so each band is two order slots wide:
- Opening Bowler — order 1–2 (takes the new ball).
- First-Change — order 3–4 · Second-Change — 5–6 · Third-Change — 7–8.
- Part-Time Bowler — order 9+, only brought on occasionally / deep into the attack.
- Bowling All-Rounder — bowls regularly but doesn't fit the top-7 all-rounder profile.
- Opening Batter (pos 1–2) · Top-Order (3–4) · Middle-Order (5–7) · Lower-Order (8+).
🏏 Batting rating (0–100)
Three parts — consistency, scoring speed, and proven ceiling:
| Average (45 pts) | Not-out-adjusted average ÷ 50 × 45. (avg 50 ≈ full marks.) |
| Strike rate (25 pts) | SR ÷ 100 × 25. (SR 100 ≈ full marks.) |
| Ceiling (30 pts) | High score and milestones — rewards proven big innings (hundreds count 4×, fifties 1×). Stops a fast-scoring tail-ender outranking a genuine top-order batter. |
⚾ Bowling rating (0–100)
Wicket-taking is the priority; economy is secondary. Rated once a player has bowled at least an over.
| Strike rate (68 pts) | Balls per wicket — opportunity is levelled out, so striking more often per over beats taking more wickets off more overs (1 over–1 wicket ranks above 10 overs–2 wickets). No wickets ⇒ 0 here. |
| Economy (32 pts) | (7 − economy) ÷ 5 × 32. The only credit a wicketless bowler can earn — capping them below "Strong". |
🧤 Fielding rating (0–100)
Fielding is the priority discipline — catches are the headline metric selectors compare first.
| Catches (55 pts) | Catches per match ÷ 0.6 × 55. (~0.35/match is a strong junior return; 0.6+ exceptional.) |
| Involvement (25 pts) | Run-outs and stumpings per match on top of catches. |
| Volume bonus (20 pts) | Sustained dismissal volume across a body of matches. |
Run-out credits are taken from the named fielders in each "run out (…)" dismissal — one name = direct, two+ names = an assist for each — not play.cricket's fielding tally, which can over-credit.
⭐ Overall rating (0–100)
Blends pure performance with the representative pathway a player has reached — because selectors weigh the level a kid has played at, not just rates.
- • Fielding 40% (priority discipline)
- • Batting 30%
- • Bowling 30%
Re-normalised when a discipline has no data (a pure batsman isn't penalised for not bowling).
- 🏅 State / national championship — +12
- 🥈 Recorded selector honours — +8 each (max 16)
- 🚪 Green Shield below your age — +4/season (max 8)
- ★ Division 1 representative — +4
- Genuine all-rounder (both ≥ 70) — +8
- Body of work (matches ÷ 50) — up to +5
# Ranking & badges
- Rank (#) is within-role, not overall. Cricket roles are too specific to compare head-to-head — an opening batter and a hard-hitting bowling all-rounder are doing different jobs, so a single ranked list would be meaningless. Instead each player is ranked against others in the same role by a role rating that weights the disciplines that matter for that role:
- Batters — batting 80% · fielding 20%.
- Bowlers — bowling 80% · fielding 20%.
- All-Rounder — batting 45% · bowling 45% · fielding 10%.
- Bowling All-Rounder — bowling 55% · batting 35% · fielding 10%.
- Wicketkeeper-Batter — batting 55% · fielding (incl. keeping) 45%.
The batting component of the role rating is itself role-aware — each role is judged on what its job actually demands:
Role Average Strike rate Proven ceiling What matters Opening Batter 40 30 30 Average and strike rate — see off the new ball, but score Top-Order Batter 55 10 35 Average — build the innings Middle-Order Batter 55 10 35 Average — build the innings Lower-Order Batter 25 50 25 Strike rate — quick runs at the death Wicketkeeper-Batter 25 50 25 Strike rate — busy scoring All-Rounder 25 50 25 Strike rate — impact with the bat Bowling All-Rounder 25 50 25 Strike rate — impact with the bat The list shows "#3 / 45" — third-best of 45 players in that role. Ties share a rank. Use ⊞ Group by role to see players bucketed into roles; sorting by any stat column ranks the whole view by that stat instead. Ranking uses current-season matches only, so a player's imported past-season history (their Journey) never moves the ladder. Switch to the All seasons view to rank on full career data.
- 🏅 gold name — played a state or national championship (School Sport Australia / Cricket Australia State Competitions).
- 🥈 silver — GPS (Greater Public Schools) representative; shown alongside gold when a player has both.
- ★ Star — has played Division 1 district representative cricket (Green Shield, Weblin/Moore/Gee/Cawsey "- 1", etc.).
- Age — the player's age as at the 1 September season cutoff (so a U12 reads 11, turning 12 during the season), inferred from rep age-group and Green Shield eligibility.
- Flags — count of high-severity coaching recommendations (e.g. strike rotation, catching return) — the urgent "work on this next" items.
Benchmarks are tuned for junior representative cricket. The Sheffield Shield page uses a separate first-class-calibrated rating.