IIT Madras enrols 30 candidates for first cricket analytics course

The participants will be introduced to Python programming as well.

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) has enrolled 30 students for the first cricket analytics course offered by IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation in collaboration with GITAA, a company that the institute incubated.

The candidates for the course titled ‘Howzzat – Cricstats’ are a mix of working professionals and students, IITM said. While a majority of them share a love for cricket, many are new to data science and programming. The cricket data they will study ranges from player statistics to team performance.

The eight-week course costs Rs 10,000 and will have 32 teaching hours. The course gives the students an overview of sports analytics and introduces them to the basics of data science and machine learning (ML) through examples of cricket. The course will be conducted 3-4 times a year.

The participants will be introduced to Python programming as well. Through the course, IIT Madras faculty members will guide them on using the Internet of Things and computer vision in cricket analytics.

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“Our course is unique in that we teach data science and Python programming fundamentals using cricket data, thereby creating an interactive and engaging learning experience,” Suchitra Veeravalli, chief executive officer of GITAA, told Moneycontrol.

The institute will use Tableau software, an interactive data visualisation tool for non-programmers. The students will be introduced to advances in image analytics and how analysts use them.

Career options

According to Veeravalli, the course serves as the foundational step to understanding sports analytics and basic data science, opening doors to various career possibilities.

“The field of sports analytics is growing rapidly. Many universities abroad offer Master of Science programmes in sports analytics. It will soon be a very good career option for those with an extreme interest in the sport and the necessary programming and ML knowledge,” she said.

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IITM Pravartak Technologies is funded by the government’s Department of Science and Technology under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems and hosted by IIT Madras.

As a part of its expansion plan, GITAA aims to provide self-paced, recorded online sessions for greater accessibility and flexibility, ensuring that more individuals can benefit from the course.