title: Sinister strategies succeed at the cricket World Cup.
abstract: Left-handers occur at unexpectedly high frequencies at top levels of many interactive sports. This may occur either because left-handed contestants are innately superior or because they enjoy a negatively frequency-dependent strategic advantage when rare relative to right-handers. We analysed the batting records from the 2003 cricket World Cup and showed that left-handed batsmen were more successful than right-handers, and that the most successful teams had close to 50% left-handed batsmen. We demonstrate that this was because left-handed batsmen have a strategic advantage over bowlers, and that this advantage is greatest over bowlers that are unaccustomed to bowling to left-handers. This provides a clear mechanism for negative frequency-dependent success of left-handed batsmen. Our results may also support a historical role for negative frequency-dependent success in fights and other contests in the maintenance of left-handedness by natural selection.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. rob.brooks@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.forename: Luc F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Bussière
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Jennions
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hunt
mesh_terms: D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology*