No abstract

Recognizing sports talent is one of the intensively discussed topics in this day and age. Cricket is a sport of keen interest and has fascinated researchers all over the world to ponder and work in this domain. In this era of technological competence, incorporating technology in cricket talent identification is an incumbent task. Also, early-age talent identification is considered to be more beneficial as instead of wasting time and other resources on random performers, we can limit the training and spending on the talented performers that could yield better results. In this article, a machine learning-based approach is proposed for Cricket Talent Identification using SVM (RBF kernel) to classify a dataset of performers into talented performers (possessing cricketing talent) and non-talented performers (not possessing cricketing talent). The dataset has been collected from early-age performers taking into consideration the benefits of talent identification at early ages. The data have been gathered concerning various physical/motor, anthropometric, and cognitive abilities. Using the feature selection technique, the best-contributing parameters were determined and supplied to the model. After performing experimentation, the results were evaluated based on various evaluation metrics like Accuracy, precision, and f1-Score. we achieved an accuracy score of 96.42%, a precision of 0.94, and an f1_score of 0.96. The results obtained have been cross-validated using the 10-cross validation technique.

IntroductionSports of all kinds even though have an alluring property of keeping their onlookers stuck to their place, the introduction of Technology, however, revolutionized it all together. Not only in legal sports but also the training and teaching methods have been reformed. The use of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) based technologies [Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Hawkeye, Computer vision, Artificial intelligence, etc.] has moderately increased the interactive nature of sports. Employing ICT-driven technologies have continuously been increasing performance levels due to which high effective performance levels have been achieved. In addition to offering information to the users, it also acts as a means for connecting and interacting with the remaining world. In this article, we provide a review of the studies considering the developments and impact of employing ICT technology on sports, especially cricket. The study has focussed on domain-specific developments in cricket sports: developments in the batting domain, bowling domain, and wicketkeeping as well.MethodsFor the study, the analysis has been done following the PRISMA guidelines.ResultsThe study found that even though the researchers have done justifiable work in employing technology in sports as a whole but the domain-specific contribution in sports like cricket is not at the level as is need of the hour. In addition to the mentioned domains in the study, the research should gain speed in other domains like domain-specific Talent Identification for both genders, different age groups, diverse sports, etc.Discussionundoubtedly, the sports domain is employing technology at a vast level but a few domains like sports talent identification especially related to the most famous games like cricket require an immediate and intense focus of the researchers. Since this domain is still carrying out a traditional coach-oriented approach. There is an acute need to revolutionize the domain by incorporating modern technologies into it.