Analytics is need of the hour in cricket, says CIO Milind Khamkar

World Cup Cricket 2015 fever might have been over for majority of Indians after Dhoni and his boys lost their semi-finals against Australia. But in India, neither the cricket season ends, nor cricket fans’ appetite for more. After the World Cup, the Indian Premier League matches seem set to treat the fans to another round, starting on April 8. Be it World Cup or IPL, the excitement remains more or less the same for fans. Moreover, tossing in technology with cricket promises an interesting fare for the game lovers. Most of the Indians may know and understand the game part, but very few know what exactly makes cricket an interesting watch for billions. And, one of those very few persons is Milind Khamkar, Group CIO at Supermax, and also formerly at Sanofi India. On the impact of analytics in cricket, Milind explains, “As saying goes, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’, insightful information with data visualisation is extremely impactful and hence used extensively during last several tournaments of Cricket. In a short span of time one has to grab attention and give meaningful information to sustain viewers interest which is otherwise impossible. Cricket is such a game which is as much as played off the ground. Most of the fan followers make their prediction by emotions and also by insightful information.” [caption id=“attachment_2176805” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Milind Khamkar, Group CIO, Supermax[/caption] And why just fans, this technology can even be leveraged by players as skills improvement tool. In order to put this in a better perspective, he believes that nowadays analytics is extremely popular in every game. It is not only used to study and plan against competition but also to improve self. No game is averse to use these techniques. “Game plan, team meeting, training camp and even personal coaching are formalised and monitor using analytical techniques.” Moreover, analytics does mean business in sports. Milind asserts on the fact that that people play game for winning and nowadays even for building wealth. “Hence, game is no more only fun but profession for many. Their planning, prediction, selection and execution have to be close to exact so that objective can be achieved, which could be possible with good analytics tool in hand.” Not just in sports, analytics is need of the hour in businesses too. “Because of its great potential to support business analytics is continuously evolving, and also appreciated in every business,” he highlights. It won’t be wrong saying that analytics played an important role in helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secure the biggest victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.  “All past elections as well as the famous Delhi election are great cases of social sentiment analysis and predicting game plan accordingly," concludes Milind.