Data cleaning plays a vital role in analysis because:
1. Cleaning data from multiple sources and transforming it into compatible format is a crucial step in preparing the input data for data analysis.
2. It increases the accuracy of the input data, and eventually the model and analysis.
3. It is a tedious process which is time-consuming, depending on the amount of data and its sources.
4. It might consume up to 80% of the available time, therefore it's a critical task.