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Allow chucking and tampering in limited overs cricket

Roar Guru
12th September, 2014
26

Stocks in biometric testing facilities have recently been boosted by the ICC’s crackdown on so-called ‘dodgy actions’. Saeed Ajmal has now been added to the list of chucking scalps.

There have been more than half a dozen bowlers, predominantly spinners, who have been forced to submit to testing within the past 10 months.

While ex-international batsman and Kiwi favourite Martin Crowe has come out and lauded the ICC, all but labelling chucking as a plight on the game, there’s a good case to allow bowlers more than the tolerated 15 degrees of bend.

However, to truly help balance the battle between bat and ball, a level of ball tampering should also be introduced. Oh no, not change.

First, a caveat. The changes in the article are suggested only for the shortened version of the game, so to all the purists, please hold your barbs. I am one of you. The fact is, Test cricket has, for the most part, remained unchanged through the years, and as such the battle of willow and leather has stayed balanced, with exclusion to the odd shocking pitch.

Yet in the shortened variations, many innovations have been incorporated to meet the crowd’s demand of boundaries, and increase its attractiveness to the masses. I could only imagine an eight-year-old Shane Warne watching a game of T20 thinking ‘bugger that bowling caper, I want to be on the batting end, dishing it out!’ As such, something needs to give to help ODIs and T20 become more of a contest between slingers and swingers.

More degrees of bend
I’m surprised less cricketers have appeared on Dancing With the Stars. The way some of our batsmen shimmy, step and leap at the crease, even before the ball has been bowled, one would think Sonia Kruger would be all over that.

Unlike bowlers, batsmen are not required to stay within the crease, or even restricted to the same action or technique. Their movements before and during the bowling of the ball are nearly completely discretionary. So why are the bowlers tied by such stringent restrictions? In fact, since helmets were introduced in the late 1970s, batsman have become even more fearless and brash in coming down the wicket to thwart a bowler’s line and length.

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It’s true that the invention of the slower ball has hedged batsmen back a bit, but it’s a hard ball to disguise. In limited overs, particularly in T20, batsmen can come to the wicket to the pitch of the ball and pre-empt their shots, knowing that due to bowling with a straight arm there is less pace variation or amount of spin possible.

I’m not suggesting letting players pitch the ball down the wicket, but a relaxation of the current rules would allow bowlers that extra few ounces of pace, or inches of turn. If David Warner can unfurl a switch-hit, why can’t Dale Steyn bend the arm a little more and hurl down a 145-kilometre-per-hour off-break? I would prefer to watch that than the slew of slower trajectory bowlers whose aim is to reduce run rates, not take wickets. Am I alone?

Green light to tampering
I can see this one being really popular. Let bowlers and the fielding team alter the state of the ball during One Day and T20 matches. Ball tampering has always been seen as a heinous atrocity by the fielding side, but let’s take a look at the facts.

Batsmen are allowed to choose the weight of their bat, the location of the sweet spot, the thickness of their edges (which has turned top edges from a gully catch to a six) and even vary the style (see Matthew Hayden’s “Mongoose” bat he debuted in the IPL in 2008).

Meanwhile, bowlers get one ball which can only deteriorate through natural wear and tear. Sounds as fair as a federal budget. To make things worse, there are now two new balls used in ODIs, meaning that ball deterioration is even less and completely nullifying reverse swing in white-ball cricket.

If a fielding side was allowed leeway to additionally rough up one side, or create a more pronounced seam, it would not only give them an added weapon and new tactic to master, but would also see them remain competitive on some of those lifeless pitches we see created for limited overs matches.

Obviously taking a knife on the pitch to cut a chunk out, or warping the ball beyond its spherical nature is too much. But if a player like Shahid Afridi wants to bite into a ball that has been rolling through mud and handled by players and fans alike, I say let him taste leather. It will give the bowler a slightly more customised weapon, and help limit ridiculously premeditated stroke-play.

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In the 1980s a good score for a batting side was the 230-240 mark. These days, with fielding restrictions of Powerplays, fearless batting and the use of two new balls in ODIs, batting first on a decent wicket has you eying more than 290 from the first ball.

Batsmen can change stance and grip, but bowlers are unable to do so much as even change the hand their bowling with. So let them bite and scratch the ball, and straighten their arm more during delivery. It will create a more harmonious contest between batsmen and bowlers, not to mention add the same level of creative leeway given to batsman.

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