Can you think of some similarities between cricket, baseball and lawn tennis? Probably they are all played with balls and bats/rackets, all require good reactions etc. Anything else? Well, there is a beautiful correlation between these three sports.
Let us have a look at cricket. A cricket pitch is 22 yards i.e. close to 20 m. The fastest bowlers bowl at around 100 mph i.e. close to 160 kmph (about 45 m/s). Thus, the reaction time for a batsman facing a delivery is 20/45 = 0.42 seconds
In baseball, the pitcher has no run-up. The counterpart of a fast bowler in cricket is the power pitcher in baseball. The pitcher is at a distance of 18.44 m from the hitter at the time of the release of the ball. A pitcher usually generates a speed of 100 mph (45 m/s). Thus, the reaction time for a hitter in baseball is 18.44/45 = 0.41 seconds
In the case of lawn tennis, due to the advent of better racket technology, the players are able to server faster these days. The faster serves are in the range of 140 mph (62.6 m/s). Now, assume that the serve is diagonal on the court. The length and breadth of the triangle on the court are 78 and 27 feet. Thus the distance covered by the ball is 82.54 feet (square root of 78 and 27) or 25.16 m. Thus, the reaction time for a tennis player to pick the serve is 25.16/62.6 = .40 seconds
This shows us the striking similarity between the reaction times in these popular sports.
PS: Inputs from the book, “100 essential things you didn’t know you didn’t know about SPORT” by John D. Barrow