Psychological Factors Affecting Batsman Performance in Cricket

FACULTY ETHICS SUB GROUP LOW RISK
Version number:
Overview of Proposed Study
Faculty: Faculty of Life Sciences and Education
Programme of
Study: (if
applicable)
Msc sports coaching and performance
Proposed Project
Title: Psychological factor that influence bastman
performance in cricket.
Co-investigators:
Code(s) of conduct
to be followed or the
guidelines
appropriate to your
area of study or
discipline:
Brief outline of your Research Study (750-1000 words) to include:
1. Rationale, research aims and/or questions
2. Research setting,
3. Your professional role (if appropriate)
4. Your relationship to participants (if any)
5. Details of sample and sampling strategy
6. Methods of data collection1
7. Data analysis
1 Data collection methods could include interviews, group interviews, focus groups, questionnaires,
observation, visual data, assessment or measurement, documentary analysis. Please specify how the
1

data will be recorded (if appropriate) i.e. note taking, audio recording, visual recording.
2

FACULTY ETHICS SUB GROUP LOW RISK
Rationale, Research aim and questions
Rationale-
Cricket is a team sport in which performance of a batsman
significantly contributes to the team score and determines the
potential of winning or losing the game. Psychological
assistance in sports is assessed to be facilitating mental
competency of the athletes that in turn enhances their
performance (Kumar and Shirotriya, 2010). Earlier only runs
scored by batsmen are considered as indicators of
performance but currently, new aspects of considering the
situation in which the batsmen performed against the quality
of bowler have emerged indicating significance of
psychological factors affecting performance of the batsmen
(Shah, 2017). Although it is established that psychological
preparation is effective in improving athletic competency but
specific psychological factors that influences the performance
of batsmen in cricket is not much researched upon. Hence,
this research will help to shed light on the specific topic.
Aim-
This research will be conducted with the aim to determine the
psychological factors that influences the performance of a
batsman in cricket.
Question-
Which psychological factors affect the performance of a
batsman in cricket?
Research Setting
The research will be conducted with 10 coaches with
extensive experience of training batsmen in cricket and 100
individual batsmen. The candidates will be surveyed and
interviewed after the Match or practice or over emails and
telephones to maintain social distancing yet gathering the
relevant data needed to gain insight on psychological
perceptions towards batsmen’s performances. Prior to the
3

collection of primary data, literature review would have been
executed to gain knowledge and understanding about
theoretical constructs related to the research topic. After
complete data collection, analysis will be done. Followed by a
thorough analysis of the collected data specific psychological
factors that influence performance of batsman in cricket is
expected to be identified distinctly.
Relationship to Participants
The researcher will have no prior relationship with the
participants in the research. However, since the participants
include coaches and players, there might be previous
interactions in relevance to sports environment.
Sample and sampling strategy
Sample for this research would be the coaches and batsmen
at local club and university cricket team The sampling will be
done by using purposive sampling strategy. It uses specific
criteria for identifying most appropriate candidates from whom
relevant information could be derived (Gentles et al. 2015). In
this research context, this strategy would help to identify those
coaches who can shed light on the details of psychological
working of the mind of batsmen through their experiences.
The 10 coaches for interview will be selected on the basis of
the following criteria:
(i) Minimum 5 years’ experience of coaching
(ii) Experience of handling at least 10 batsmen’s performances
(iii) Reputation of good and understanding relationship with most of the students
The 100 batsmen will be selected by applying only 1 criterion
of being played a minimum of 10 games at local or national
levels. This will be a random selection because, it will help to
retrieve a wide and unbiased range of information about the
batsmen’s experience and perception of psychological factors
affecting their performances.
4

FACULTY ETHICS SUB GROUP LOW RISK
Methods of Data Collection
Both primary and secondary data will be collected for this
research. Secondary data will be collected by extensive
research over internet and electronic databases like Google
Scholar to access books, journals, reviews and reports from
authentic sources. Primary data will be collected from the
batsmen through survey questionnaire which will be sent to
them over email. It will comprise of 10 questions including
both quantitative and qualitative type of questions regarding
their perceptions towards psychological factors influencing
their batting performances. Derivation of quantitative and
qualitative data from the batsmen will be helpful to align the
information with that of the literature and against the
reflections shared by the coaches through interviews.
Coaches will be interviewed over telephone with 10 semi-
structured and open-ended questions deriving qualitative data
about their opinions on psychological factors affecting
batsmen’s performances. Before conducting the survey and
interview, all participants will be well informed about the
research and their consent to participation will be obtained.
Their participation will be voluntary with scope of withdrawing
from the research as per their own convenience.
Data Analysis
The data collected through interviews will be analysed using
thematic analysis technique. It helps to detect the underlying
patterns regarding the research phenomenon or concern
(Clarke and Braun, 2014). Here it will identify the coaches’
perceptions towards influencing batsmen’s performance
through psychological factors. The survey responses will be
analysed using descriptive statistics. This method helps to
analyse the data through graphical representation easing their
interpretations (Davies, 2020). Here, batsmen’s reflections
towards psychological factors influencing their performances
will be analysed through this technique. Comparative analysis
of the primary and secondary data will further help to deduce
the accurate and specific psychological factors that affect the
batting performances.
5

Reference List
Clarke, V. and Braun, V., 2014. Thematic analysis.
In Encyclopedia of critical psychology. New York: Springer.
pp. 1947-1952.
Davies, C., 2020. A Quick Guide to Quantitative Research in
the Social Sciences. UWTSD, Carmarthen.
Gentles, S.J., Charles, C., Ploeg, J. and McKibbon, K.A.,
2015. Sampling in qualitative research: Insights from an
overview of the methods literature. The qualitative
report, 20(11), pp.1772-1789.
Kumar, P. and Shirotriya, A.K., 2010. ‘Sports psychology’a
crucial ingredient for athletes success: conceptual
view. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 44(Suppl 1), pp.i55-
i56.
Shah, P., 2017. New performance measure in Cricket. ISOR
Journal of Sports and Physical Education, 4(3), pp.28-30.
Responsibilities to Participants
1. Voluntary Informed
Consent
How will you gain access to the participants?
6