Possible Fixes for Relative Age Effect in Cricket

Relative Age Effect (RAE) exists in male and female cricket as well as many other sports and non-sporting areas of life.

Here is a list of some of the possible ways to reduce or remove the systemic bias and discriminatory effects of RAE.

I hope to go into further detail on each option in subsequent posts.

Coach Education

Despite often being offered up as the first step to address RAE it isn’t included in any coach education programme until the highest level (Specialist Coach, Level 4). RAE starts with grassroots clubs and those coaches will usually be Level 1 & 2. Perhaps an online module could be made available to all new and existing coaches. A recent ‘interview’ style video on icoachcricket ‘ Understanding Relative Age Effect’ was a start (registration required).

Age-Ordered Bibs For Trials

A study by Mann and van Ginneken (2017) for PSV Eindhoven football club found that using age-ordered bibs during trials for U11s removed coaches’ RAE bias. Just having access to players’ Birth Quarter data in a spreadsheet had no effect. The information needed to be ‘in play’ to give each action by a player ‘context’. Some as yet unpublished research repeated the age ordered shirts technique but with maturity rather than relative age and it worked equally well in countering coach evaluation biases (Prof. Sean Cumming, Department for Health, University of Bath).  

Birthday Banding

On a players’ birthday they move up to the age group above. By doing this all players will experience, at some point during the year, being the oldest as well as the youngest. This removes any RAE bias. Dr. Adam Kelly et al (2020) studied this in the English Squash pathway. It would perhaps have difficulties in implementation for team sports from an administrative point of view as well as psychosocial issues. 

Average Team Age

Steve Lawrence’s research in the Netherlands has shown that relatively older youth soccer teams are more likely to win games and leagues (1.51 points per game versus 1.32). To mitigate this Steve recommends an Average Team Age (ATA) approach whereby all teams have to be within an acceptable ATA band. This encourages coaches to select later born (Q3 and Q4) players within teams. ATA is yet to be empirically tested but I believe this is underway in Dutch football.

Playing Up/Playing Down

Also known as a ‘a flexible chronological approach’ playing up/down happens at all levels of cricket. It only tends to occur with a limited number of players who are ‘exceptional’. Expanding the use of this option could help to redress the the appropriate level of challenge for each Birth Quarter. BQ1s playing up would have a ‘BQ4 effect’ by having a raised challenge. BQ4s by playing down would have a reduced challenge that could allow them to dominate and show leadership skills. This area needs more research to understand the psychosocial aspects. Decisions taken must be within a holistic view of the player.

Delaying Deselection

Obviously this is not always possible with limited resources but the general ethos of ‘as many as possible for as long as possible’ appears to be a more effective approach. Predicting potential has been shown to be highly inaccurate especially the earlier you start. Specialising in cricket should probably only occur around 16 years of age.

Recording & Monitoring

RAE exists at all levels from grassroots through to the early professional years. Cricket has a potentially powerful tool to help our understanding of trends in the data, namely play-cricket.com. Often much maligned, this platform, with some tweaking, could provide information on RAE levels for all clubs, district, county and regional sides from U9 onwards. Any RAE solutions will need to be measured and monitored. This is essential.

Corrective Adjustments

Arguably, athletics and swimming are more dependent on the raw material of a good athlete than perhaps other sports that have a higher reliance on skill/experience. In these sports, data has been analysed to see just how much of an advantage being an early born makes. Some level of predictability exists and thus can be used to ‘correct’ times and distances for later born athletes. Utilising data in this way can ‘level the playing field’ for relatively younger athletes for accurate comparisons. 

In cricket the play-cricket.com database has the potential to create understanding of how RAE can affect performance but it requires the mandated use of birthday information for every player. For the addition of a not particularly onerous task there are huge benefits. 

Midway Point Between the Chronological and Estimated Developmental Birth Dates

An approach from Werner Helsen et al in Belgian soccer reallocates players based on their Birth Quarter and using their current anthropometry the estimated developmental birth date. This results in approximately 25% of players moving up and 25% of players moving down.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2021.635379/full

Quotas

Perhaps this is the only way. We have been well aware of RAE in sport for over 30 years yet it still exists. Rolling 5-Year averages for a target 25% for each Birth Quarter would allow for flexibility within year groups. This option would require the ECB to mandate it across all counties and would also require accurate and open monitoring. Certainly not impossible given the right leadership. 

As we can see there are a number of ideas out there. Some of them quick fixes. Some of them more ‘draconian’. There is no ‘silver bullet’ and perhaps a well managed selection of these options could help to mitigate RAE in the future.