I filtered by last 3 years of data (2016-2018).

I looked at all players with 30 balls faced at a stadium and what their run rates are at that stadium and compared it to their run rates outside that stadium.

Example

Dubai International Cricket Stadium

We have 82 players who faced more than 25 balls in Dubai. So for example we will take Dwayne Smith. He faced 424 balls in Dubai for a run rate of 1.22, outside of Dubai his run rate over 1700 balls was 1.35. This is a difference of 13 points for a relative factor of 87. (Average being 100, the difference is what I used instead of a ratio as ratios were tilted by a few big ones when averaging together).

We do this process for the other 81 players to get a weighted score of 91. This means the average player will see a 9 point drop in their run rate so if they score 1.3 normally, they can expect to score 1.21 in Dubai.

Anyone with a bit more math muscle, let me know if I should use ratios.

Here are the park factors (run rate) for every park where I can get 1000+ balls in my sample

Ground Location Park Factor Trent Bridge Nottingham 128 Headingley Leeds 118 County Ground Worcester 116 Brisbane Cricket Ground Brisbane 116 M Chinnaswamy Stadium Bengaluru 114 County Ground Hove 112 Holkar Cricket Stadium Indore 112 Sabina Park Kingston 111 IS Bindra Stadium Mohali 110 Adelaide Oval Adelaide 110 Lord’s London 110 Eden Park Outer Oval Auckland 109 Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium Chittagong 108 Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium Pune 105 Sydney Cricket Ground Sydney 105 Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium St Lucia 105 County Ground Taunton 105 County Ground Northampton 104 Grace Road Leicester 104 Saurashtra Circket Association Stadium Rajkot 104 Bellerive Oval Hobart 103 Sydney Showground Stadium Sydney 103 Kennington Oval London 102 Eden Gardens Kolkata 101 Edgbaston Birmingham 101 Sophia Gardens Cardiff 101 Docklands Stadium Melbourne 101 Feroz Shah Kotla Delhi 100 County Ground Bristol 99 Wankhede Stadium Mumbai 98 M Chinnaswamy Stadium Bangalore 98 County Ground Derby 98 Warner Park St Kitts 98 Central Broward Stadium Florida 98 Sharjah UAE 97 Western Australia Cricket Ground Perth 97 The Rose Bowl Southampton 97 Queen’s Park Oval Trinidad 96 Kensington Oval Barbados 96 Sawai Mansingh Stadium Jaipur 95 Melbourne Cricket Ground Melbourne 94 Riverside Ground Durham 94 Sylhet International Stadium Sylhet 94 Rajiv Ganhi Stadium Hyderabad 92 Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium Visakhapatnam 92 Dubai International Cricket Stadium Dubai 91 Old Trafford Manchester 88 Shere Bangla National Stadium Mirpur 87 Providence Stadium Guyana 83

If you are analyzing a players season, park factor must be accounted for. A player averaging 1.3 runs per ball playing half his games in Guyana might have averaged 1.52 if he was playing his home games in Nottingham.

Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed M Chinnaswamy Stadium in there twice. This is because a renaming of the city caused the data to be split, and the park factor now looks very different. Why is this? I have a theory that something weird happened in 2017:

wonkyiness in 2017

I’m not sure if they changed the boundary or the weather was different, but the huge change in 6 rate, against the very clear and strong trend was bizarre. This actually makes me more confident in the park factor numbers because the park in “Bangalore” actually was playing much differently.

Whether to use 3-year numbers or not is a question for further exploration, that’s what baseball often does and I just did it to get a broad section of parks with a big enough sample.

Comparing Cricket and Baseball

The highest scoring ground in baseball comes in with a park factor of 133 in the light air of Coors Field. The next highest park is at 110 in Washington.

So Trent Bridge is a bit behind Coors Field for T20’s highest scoring park but I think can be called the “Coors of T20” but then cricket has more high-scoring parks than baseball.

Citi Field is the lowest scoring park at 83, so Providence Stadium is basically an exact match.

Let me know your thoughts, corrections, and ideas please. I welcome the feedback.