The Gold Standard of the Crease
In the sport of cricket, a batsman's primary job is to score runs without losing their wicket. The ultimate, traditional metric used to judge the historical greatness of a player is the Batting Average.
Unlike baseball, where a batting average measures the percentage of hits per at-bat, cricket's batting average measures the total number of runs a player scores per dismissal.
The Power of the "Not Out"
The mathematical genius of the cricket batting average is how it handles an unfinished innings. If a batsman is playing well and their team reaches the target score (or declares) before the batsman is dismissed, they are recorded as "Not Out."
Because they were not dismissed, that innings does not count against their denominator, which can drastically inflate their mathematical average.
The Formula
The calculation divides the total aggregate runs scored by the number of times the batsman was actually dismissed (Innings played minus Not Outs).
Batting Average = Total Runs / (Innings - Not Outs)
The Bradman Benchmark
The undisputed greatest batting average in the history of Test cricket belongs to Sir Donald Bradman, who retired with an incomprehensible, untouchable average of 99.94. For context, a modern batting average of 50.0 is considered the benchmark for absolute world-class greatness.