January 8, 2026
Cricket's envy-motivated bowlers
Delighting in England’s humiliation from the stands of the Sydney Cricket Ground, I wondered which bowlers were most motivated by envy: Who is most likely to find the wherewithal to take a wicket when a teammate took one the previous over?
Australian spin icon , that’s who. Five of King’s 13 international test wickets (38%) are, by my ridiculous definition, envy-motivated, a higher percentage for international tests than any other current player in Cricsheet’s ball-by-ball data.
To see each bowler’s envy-motivated test wickets, tap underlined names or dots in the chart.
Among current and retired players with more than ten test wickets to their name, only beats King—half of the dozen wickets the Irishman took in his three tests happened in the over after another wicket. Unfortunately, the data only covers the last 18 months of —115 wickets at a 12.2 percent jealousy rate—and can’t confirm my hunch his younger self hated anyone stomping on his figures.
Outside tests, King’s limited overs record includes the second most envy-motivated wickets in a single over—three against South Africa in 2024—a feat beaten only by Gede Priandana of Indonesia’s five envy-motivated wickets in a single Twenty20 over in December.
As you’d imagine, the supposedly envy-motivated proportion of a bowler’s wickets comes down to earth the more matches they play and wickets they take, so applying an already nonsense metric to King’s 13 test wickets isn’t remotely fair. But administrators schedule far too few women’s tests and we’re not in the business of ignoring their games.
The normal distribution is clearer when the size of each bowler’s dot in the chart is proportional to their career wickets.
I’m sticking with tests here because, to the extent envy does motivate bowlers, it’s mostly likely to show up in tests with their long bowling spells. The density of wickets, pressure of limited overs and risk-taking batting in One Day Internationals and Twenty20s obscures the bowler’s drive as a factor in producing a wicket. Internationally, about 10 percent of test wickets are taken in the over following a wicket compared to 15 percent in one day matches and 26 percent in Twenty20s.
In the elite club of bowlers with more than 200 test wickets, the average envy-motivated percentage is 11.5 percent—apologies again to Warne’s 708 career wickets and Muralidaran’s 800, missing from the data—a touch higher than the 10.2 percent for all bowlers with more than 10.
There are a few other interesting morsels. was the most envied by other bowlers in the data, inducing 66 wickets, followed closely by the GOAT and who inspired 62 apiece. And take a look, for instance, at the average envy-motivated wicket percentage by country.
Envy-motivation by country, test wickets
Of the big hitters, South Africa and Australia’s bowlers appear more envy-motivated than the English and Indian sides. At the very least, this indicates their bowling units are more likely than others to take wickets in pairs, or share the wickets around in a collapse. (I’ve excluded Ireland whose national envy-motivation rate is an aberrant 20 percent in their 12 matches since 2019.)
Use the dropdowns to explore the most envy-motivated bowlers.
The ten most envy-motivated bowlers
| # | Name | Wickets | Envious | Envy-motivated (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | A King | 13 | 5 | 38.46 |
| 2. | MJ Swepson | 10 | 3 | 30.00 |
| 3. | MJ North | 14 | 3 | 21.43 |
| 4. | BJ Webster | 11 | 2 | 18.18 |
| 5. | GB Hogg | 11 | 2 | 18.18 |
| 6. | TM McGrath | 11 | 2 | 18.18 |
| 7. | SM Boland | 82 | 14 | 17.07 |
| 8. | C Green | 39 | 6 | 15.38 |
| 9. | D Brown | 13 | 2 | 15.38 |
| 10. | A Sutherland | 13 | 2 | 15.38 |
The 2025–26 Ashes sides
Among the wicket-takers of this summer’s Ashes, and stick out as the most envy-motivated of the effective bowlers. Archer’s 15 percent is a fair sight higher than England’s 9 percent team average. While the Australians are arguably fielding their all-time greatest bowling unit, the English are feeling the absence of their greats. In absolute terms, Jimmy Anderson’s envy of Stuart Broad is the most productive in the data. Twenty-nine of Anderson’s wickets happened the over after Broad took one compared to just 21 Broad wickets in an over after Anderson.
Speaking of the Australian Cummins-Starc-Hazlewood-Lyon cartel: Here’s the envied and the envious among their 80 envy-motivated wickets in matches where all four played.
The Cartel's envy-motivated wickets
You could read this as “ is the most envy-motivated” and “ is the most envied” but I doubt the differences are big enough to reflect anything but bowling sequence and noise. Hazlewood taking 11 wickets in overs immediately after Starc checks out for an opening partnership where he typically bowls second.
So this measure of envy-motivation is nonsense? Almost certainly. I suppose you could attempt some meaningful statistical work (I didn’t). You might come up with a more sophisticated heuristic for envy or control for bowling partnerships and the advantage enjoyed by sharks with the new ball or dining out on the tail.
But, I tell you, playing Under 11s for Norths I was spitting chips if a batter looked vulnerable and someone else took the wicket before I had the chance to push some scungy off cutters their way. I’m certain my envy motivated some prepubescent focus and an extra five kilometres per hour next I had the ball in hand.
You can play around with the compiled data and an Observable notebook of analysis. I’ve included each dismissed batter’s place in the order in case someone feels motivated to recalculate the envy percentages with less weight for cheap tail ender wickets.