We are 4 matches into the one day series between India and Australia and the scores of the batting teams read thus - 304,232,359,362,303,304,295…… What is the right word to describe this - “ridiculous" comes close.
I remember the time, not too long ago, when a score of around 220 or 225 was considered an acceptable score in a 50 over game. Today, we find that teams get to 220 in around the 40th over of the innings. There are many things contributing to this kind of a change, and I think better batsmanship is only a small reason.
1. The bats are incredibly big and powerful these days. Recently I played a serious cricket match after around 10 good years. I was stunned to see batsmen hit big sixes (even in the local cricket level) with great ease. Even mishits were going for sixes. And I am not talking about the most expensive bats out there. I can only imagine how good the top quality bats are. Put a bat like that in the hands of someone like a Chris Gayle - and what do you expect as a result?
2. Over the years, bowlers painstakingly figured out ways to win back some pride in the limited overs game. The shorter formats can be credited with introducing incredibly good balls that are bowled today - yorkers, slow bouncers, doosras, etc. But recently, there have been some rule changes that have been dumbfounding. First was the rule that said that bowlers bowl with a new ball from both ends of the wicket - essentially meaning that the oldest a ball gets in a match is 25 overs old. A ball that new is very hard to grip for the spinners and the ball just does not spin when it is that new. Also, fast bowlers learnt to reverse swing the ball only after the ball was 45 to 50 overs old. With the new rule, we have taken both spin bowling and reverse swing bowling out of the equation.
3. Rules like 1 bouncer an over, fielding restrictions, power plays, etc only tilt the game further in favour of the batsmen.
The justification given for all of these rule changes is that fans like high scoring games and love to see 4s and 6s. I can categorically say that this is not true. A true cricket fan wants cricket to be a battle between the bat and the ball. These rule changes are responsible for making one day cricket predictable and boring. One should not blame T20 for the demise of One day cricket. We should blame our administrators.
I remember the time, not too long ago, when a score of around 220 or 225 was considered an acceptable score in a 50 over game. Today, we find that teams get to 220 in around the 40th over of the innings. There are many things contributing to this kind of a change, and I think better batsmanship is only a small reason.
1. The bats are incredibly big and powerful these days. Recently I played a serious cricket match after around 10 good years. I was stunned to see batsmen hit big sixes (even in the local cricket level) with great ease. Even mishits were going for sixes. And I am not talking about the most expensive bats out there. I can only imagine how good the top quality bats are. Put a bat like that in the hands of someone like a Chris Gayle - and what do you expect as a result?
2. Over the years, bowlers painstakingly figured out ways to win back some pride in the limited overs game. The shorter formats can be credited with introducing incredibly good balls that are bowled today - yorkers, slow bouncers, doosras, etc. But recently, there have been some rule changes that have been dumbfounding. First was the rule that said that bowlers bowl with a new ball from both ends of the wicket - essentially meaning that the oldest a ball gets in a match is 25 overs old. A ball that new is very hard to grip for the spinners and the ball just does not spin when it is that new. Also, fast bowlers learnt to reverse swing the ball only after the ball was 45 to 50 overs old. With the new rule, we have taken both spin bowling and reverse swing bowling out of the equation.
3. Rules like 1 bouncer an over, fielding restrictions, power plays, etc only tilt the game further in favour of the batsmen.
The justification given for all of these rule changes is that fans like high scoring games and love to see 4s and 6s. I can categorically say that this is not true. A true cricket fan wants cricket to be a battle between the bat and the ball. These rule changes are responsible for making one day cricket predictable and boring. One should not blame T20 for the demise of One day cricket. We should blame our administrators.
Comments
Post a Comment