Suggestions to get more overs into Test cricket
Columnist By Kersi Meher-Homji, 15 Dec 2009 Kersi Meher-Homji is a Roar Expert
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England's Stuart Broad, centre, celebrates with teammates the wicket of Australia's Brad Haddin. AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth
These days captains find it difficult to squeeze in 90 overs a day in a Test match. In the days gone by, bowlers bowled 100 overs a day, no problems. That was with 8-ball overs, too, whenever Australia was involved before 1978.
Here are some suggestions:
* Replace the slim sight screen with a much wider one. So much time is wasted in moving the sight screen to the left and to the right whenever a right-hander and a left-hander are batting.
* Limit the distance allowed to a bowler for a run-up. I concede that Frank Tyson and Jeff Thomson in the past had huge run-ups, but we have no bowler of that speed now. And still they have unnecessarily long run-ups.
* One drinks-break per session is fine. But batsmen or fielders should not be allowed to ask for drinks in between the allotted breaks.
* A no-ball or a wide should count as two runs instead of one run. But no extra ball should be given. At times it becomes an 8 or 9-ball over. We can fit in a few extra overs if this rule change is brought in operation.
* If a batsman or a fielder is hurt badly and needs treatment, it should not be on the field. They should return to the pavilion to get treatment. In the case of a batsman, a new batsman should replace him and the latter can resume batting at the fall of a wicket. In other words, the game must go on.
* There should be some restriction on too much field-place changing. At times it is inevitable when a left-hander and a right-hander are batting. But no tedious conferences between captain, bowler, vice-captain, wicket-keeper and a former captain. “Hurry, chop chop” should be the motto.
* The referral system has as many supporters as antagonists. I was a supporter, but am not so sure now after the recent Australia – West Indies series. To me, it has created as many problems as it has solved. And it wastes time.
* For LBW decisions, the hardest part for an umpire is to make sure that the ball was not pitched outside the leg stump. On TV replays, we see the length from off-side at one end to the leg-side at the other end and from leg-side at one end to the off-side of the other shaded in grey. The umpire has not got this advantage the TV commentators and TV viewers have. If that zone is marked by two straight chalk lines across the area between the six stumps, the job of an umpire is made so much easier. Imagine the time saved by not referring to the TV umpire.
What do the Roarers think? Any other practical ideas?
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December 15th 2009 @ 10:18am
Tock said | December 15th 2009 @ 10:18am | Report comment
My apologies Vinay I must have scanned over your suggestion of the penalty runs.
Kersi I can not see any other way to put the pressure on the fielding team. I accept that batting teams waste time too I would suggest that the scorers will have nothing to worry about until the end of the days play. Further the third ump would start the stop watch as soon as the fielding team is in position to bowl, if the batsman is not ready to face up the time it takes for them to face up is deleted from the 6 hours allotted time. At the end of the days play the number of overs that should have been bowled is calculated by the third umpire by multiplying the lost time by a factor of 100 overs/day divided by 360minutes or 0.277 minutes; that is there is 1 over deducted for every 3.6 minutes lost.
December 15th 2009 @ 11:14am
Shay said | December 15th 2009 @ 11:14am | Report comment
I think it is very clear to all concerned that 90 overs in a day is EASY. And if there were penalty runs attached, the problem would be fixed overnight. Yes, batsmen can waste time and this can contribute, but only to a certain extent. They should be able to bowl 96-100 overs in a session so if the batsmen waste three, they still have plenty up their sleeve. Better still, have a timekeeper in the stands (does the match referee really have enough to do with his day anyway?) who has a clock that he starts the moment a bowler is at the top of his run. That means any mid-wicket conference, glove change, physio work, order from the captain or drinks break is recorded (but only if the fielding side is also ready to play), and one set of five penalty runs that would have been awarded to the batting side will be deducted for every three minutes the batting side wastes. So if the bowling side is five overs short, but the batting side wasted 12 minutes, only five runs are awarded.
I don’t agree with limiting drinks being brought out – some days are just too hot and this can endanger the health of players. Perhaps that rule can be in place ONLY if the temperature is below 30C. Removing the extra ball for no-balls and wides is also fraught with difficulties because as some people have already commented, it can be an intentional ploy if more than 2 runs are needed. In ODIs and T20, it could be easily fixed by forcing balls to be rebowled in the last two overs of an innings, but in Tests, while you could make it happen in, say, the last half hour of the match, this would be unfair on the team that bowled first as nobody knows when the last few overs of the first three innings are.
December 15th 2009 @ 2:08pm
Tony Tannous said | December 15th 2009 @ 2:08pm | Report comment
Kersi, this is slightly off subject and I apologise for raising it on this forum, but I was watching one of those World Series one day Classics on Fox last night. It was from the 83/84 season, deciding final at the MCG between Aus and the Windies. In the run chance, left handed Larry Gomes was facing The Roar’s own Henry Lawson, with his arched back and natural angle of delivery which slants across the left hander. Anyway, Henry was bowling over the wicket, pitched one a mile outside leg stump and it hit Gomes plumb in front of middle, about half way up. It was obviously going to hit the stumps. The umpire (I think Crafter) had no hesitation in raising the finger, but to me it obviously pitched outside leg (a long way), thus rendering it not out, or so I thought. My age was in single figures at the time, so can barely remember the law back then, so was wondering whether you know if the lbw law was any different at the time to what it is now?
December 15th 2009 @ 2:22pm
Kersi Meher-Homji said | December 15th 2009 @ 2:22pm | Report comment
Tony,
To my knowledge, one cannot be given out lbw to any ball pitched outside the leg stump.
December 15th 2009 @ 6:06pm
Tock said | December 15th 2009 @ 6:06pm | Report comment
No Tony, the rule was the same then, the law making an LBW dismissal impossible for a ball pitching outside the line of leg stump, I believe, was introduced in the 50′s. It has been one of Ritchie Benaud’s hobby horses along with the front foot no ball rule fore some time.
I will defer to the older members of the Roar for the actual date that the law was introduced.
December 15th 2009 @ 6:16pm
sheek said | December 15th 2009 @ 6:16pm | Report comment
Kersi,
Some good suggestions. Just a point on Thommo, I don’t think he had all that long a run-up. I can’t remember how long his run-up was, but it was certainly shorter than Lillee’s original run-up, & shorter than most other pacemen of his day.
Thommo generated his awesome pace from his javelin-style action, rather than the buildup in pace to the wicket. Ironic his run-up was shorter than most of his contemporaries, yet he generated the most fearsome pace. Efficient bowling action!
December 15th 2009 @ 6:38pm
AndyS said | December 15th 2009 @ 6:38pm | Report comment
Yeah, in the man’s own words “I just shuffle up and go wang”…
December 15th 2009 @ 8:40pm
Timmuh said | December 15th 2009 @ 8:40pm | Report comment
Kersi, its good to see someone thinking about this. Along with the blandness of pitches its one of the biggest problems in the game.
I’m not so worried about the number of overs as the number of deliveries. As a result, the no-balls and wides aren’t such a big issue for me. They are bowled, bowlers get penalised. Quite frankly, selectors and captains should be penalising some bowlers more, a consistent over-stepper is not a good thing to have in the team. An extra run penalty is hardly a major change, and might do something to change bowlers’ behaviour. (I have my doubts though, the no-ball didn’t count 20 years ago if it was scored off; and the additional penalty doesn’t seem to have done any good.)
The amount of mid-pitch conferences between batsmen, captains going up to their bowlers 2 or 3 times in an over, etc, really is unnecessary and should be clamped down on harder by the Laws of the game and by umpires.
I do like the idea of a batsman or fielder being forced to leave the field for treatment. Retired – Hurt is in the rules, a batsman can come back. For a bowler or fieldsman, if he’s hurt to the point of requiring more than a few seconds the odds are he’s better off off the field anyway.
The referral system does use up a lot of time. Hopefully, as it settles players will get used to it and start using it more wisely. I’d like to see it introduced for run outs and stumpings, rather than always going to the third umpire the umpire in the middle makes the call and only then, if a player is fairly sure of getting a decision reversed, would the replay time be used. It seem that the third umpire used for run outs that should be clear to the on-field umpire at that end half a dozen times each 50 over match, over the course of a day’s play it must be a good 15 minutes wasted on making a decision the guy in the middle should have been able to make.
December 15th 2009 @ 9:52pm
vinay verma said | December 15th 2009 @ 9:52pm | Report comment
Kersi,in the ODI today both teams took an extra 40 minutes to bowl their 50 overs. So the slow over rate is not limited to Tests only. As an aside we should start celebrating the death of Twenty20 if todays match is any guide. This must be the second greatest ODI after the SAF/Aust clash a few summers ago. India score 414 and won by three runs in the end. SL needed 6 with three balls to go.