Home team advantage in international cricket: Impact of pitches, rank and toss on the match outcome

This paper investigates whether match covariates, such as pitch, outfield and toss, contribute to a possible home advantage in men’s international cricket for matches played between 2019 and 2024. Team rankings, referee-assigned pitch ratings and outfield ratings were regressed against match outcomes. Referee pitch ratings were found consistent, and pitches rated ‘Good’ and ‘Very Good’ provided competitive balance. The toss does not impact Test matches, weakly influences T20Is, but increases the likelihood of a home-team win in ODIs. Team ranking emerges as a strong predictor of match outcomes; higher-ranked teams are more likely to win, substantiating the long-term knowledge assimilation and sports entry barrier hypotheses.