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Following Phillip Hughes’ tragic death, some want to ban the bouncer. Thankfully they’re in a minority.
If Hughes had recovered – and how we wish that he had – he may have argued against a ban. Why? For a hundred years the bouncer has been a measure of a batsman’s calibre. And sport is nothing if not a test of speed, agility, resilience, hand-eye coordination, nerve and adaptability.
Twenty-first century judges of sporting events are now armed with a relatively new measure – ‘degree of difficulty’ over and above the existing measure of ‘execution’. Why? We’re getting better at separating great from good.
If we banned the huddle of horses on a racetrack, can we tell one jockey’s skill over another’s, in manoeuvring his mount? If we banned the wicked turn on a Formula One track, can we tell one driver’s skill over another’s in making the turn while still at high speed?
Hughes suffered a freak injury. Neither he nor Sean Abbott were at fault, it was pure chance that the ball hit where it did and that he succumbed in spite of ‘protection’. But to ban the bouncer in the belief that it’ll make cricket safer is to miss the point.
First, at some level, nearly every outdoor sport is dangerous. Pre-war, hardly anyone died of injury. With growing competitiveness at least half a dozen have died since – Abdul Aziz in 1959, Ian Folley in 1993, Raman Lamba in 1998, Zulfiqar Bhatti in 2013, Darryn Randall in 2013 and now Phillip Hughes 2014. Where death didn’t result there were grievous injuries – too many to list here.
Second, bouncers and bowlers aren’t the only villains. Batsmen aren’t the only victims. Bhatti was struck on the chest – should we ban even chest-high deliveries? In 2009, Alcwyn Jenkins died. He wasn’t even batting. He was umpiring and struck by a fielder, not a bowler. Lamba wasn’t batting, he was fielding. In 2012 a flying bail – not a bouncer – hit Mark Boucher’s eye and forced his retirement from the game. Bowlers have been hurt while attempting return-catches or trying to stop a ball speeding to long-on.
Third, serious injury is no longer the rarity it was in the Don Bradman era. It’s now commonplace. One reason why protective gear really evolved only after the 1970s was that there wasn’t a strong enough need before then.
Gideon Haigh wrote, “cricketers teethed in the 1990s and 2000s exhibit an aggression more calculated and cruel than anything dreamed of around the time of the Great Depression”. Barring the aberration of Bodyline, Bradman and his peers played in relative civility.
Finally, are bowlers the high-precision rifles that some believe they are? Granted, good bowlers bowl a perfect length, ball after ball. Better bowlers can bowl a perfect line, for an over or two. Which is why it’s easier to more consistently hit the stumps lower down.
But can even the best get bounce aimed consistently at a batsman’s head? Are they attacking the head or merely compelling the batsman to freeze up, fall on his stumps, sky, change foot-work or misjudge line and length?
Even the most cunningly prepared pitches are fickle. Even the best bowler cannot contrive bounce height the way a sniper nurses a sights-knob to precision. All he’s hoping is for some sting. He wants the ball to nip up, suddenly. But he cannot tell how high it’ll rise. Sometimes it’s chest-high. Sometimes it’s helmet-high. At other times it soars over uplifted bat and way above helmet.
Is that height pre-determined? Does a bowler ‘attack’ a batsman’s head, 22 yards away, just as a boxer aims his fist at a rival’s head, a yard away? Of course the occasional pacer brings his anger onto the field and makes it all very personal. Others just want to make a game of it.
Do batsmen have no options when the ball is on level with the helmet? Aren’t even mediocre batsmen bobbing about? Ducking, weaving or hopping up so they can get helmet out of the way and keep eye on ball. The best have already shown us what they can (and will) do.
On occasion they dodge, but on most occasions they want to punish. And they have – Garry Sobers, Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar. The bouncer wasn’t the only yardstick we used to measure – and reward – their greatness, but it was a crucial measure.
Thankfully, the majority don’t want a ban. Most players want what Hughes wanted on a sunny morning in Sydney – to be tested, to be tried, to aspire to greatness ‘within’ the spirit and competitiveness of the game he so dearly loved.
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