Extreme home field advantages

Australia have the best home winning percentage over the last decade against the top 8 teams in the world. India are impossible to beat at home, and 90.25% of all their home matches over this period have resulted in either them winning or drawing.

As a collective unit, the top 8 teams in the world have won 50.62% of all home Test matches over the last decade. Visiting teams have won 23.27%.

Draws in Test match cricket are at an all-time low.



An historical look at home performances by each team since the first Test match:

I think that in all sport there is a fairly high percentage of home teams winning or at least doing very well..

Even in Olympic sports, athletes are known to perform better in their own country. I think it has a lot to do with being comfortable as well as the cheer of the crowd.

Earlier in this thread I took the time to link to an article which extrapolates the data for home field winning percentages across other major sports. Home winning percentage is higher in cricket than almost any other sport. A large part of that is less to do with playing in front of a partisan crowd, and more to do with the familiarity with playing conditions and the pitch. Which is why England have an advantage playing at home with a swinging ball, India perform so strongly on the spinning dust bowls, and South Africa are almost unbeatable above sea level.

I skimmed some of the replies, I do apologize.

As far as conditions of the field, etc, wouldn't that be the same with some other sports too? For instance, a runner who is familiar with a certain track for training or racing there regularly? The same would be true, you would think, of something like football.

It is interesting that it seems to be higher in cricket, though.

Cricket is one of those unique sports where each pitch is unique (and can be prepared to best suit the home sides strengths) as is each atmospheric condition. One other aspect that makes cricket different to other sports is batting or bowling first. Depending on conditions, this can further influence the result.

If you are interested to learn more about how batting and bowling first makes a difference, and the impact of the toss - you can use ESPN's Statsguru. A fantastic database with a wealth of data to mine.

stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html

Brilliant as usual, dillinger.

Shabash ! 

The home field advantage in cricket is a lot more one sided as you are allowed to prepare the pitch to suit your team, in football for example that isn't really the case. The actual sport of cricket itself lends itself to a bias more than other sports as well, as there aren't many (if any) other sports that rely on the actual pitch in order to gain an advantage over the other team.

Well, to be honest these are things of the past now as cricket in Pakistan is in dire state due to the poor security and law regulation in the country.

Sooner than later, the national team would start losing its mojo as well, as they would not be get enough matches to compete due to almost no opportunity to host another cricketing nation.

Whether security has improved or not is a political matter but cricket is the collateral here.

Pakistan now play their home games in the UAE. Their record in the UAE: 14 wins, 7 losses and 7 draws. They have won 50% of all home matches. An impressive record that is above the collective home winning percentage since 2002.

Perhaps even more impressive, of the 11 series Pakistan have played in the UAE, they have lost only 1 series, to Australia back in 2002. They haven't lost a series in their new adopted home country in 14 years. There is a reason why Pakistan are currently third in the Test rankings, they are a very good cricketing team.