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Smaller bats? David Warner won't be worried

David Warner celebrates a century. (AFP PHOTO / Patrick Hamilton)
Expert
8th December, 2016
11

Former England captain Mike Brearley heads the little known MCC world cricket committee that is proposing to limit the size of bats.

The suggestion won’t change the maximum width of 4.25 inches (108 mm), nor the maximum height of 38 inches (965 mm).

Under scrutiny is the depth of the bat and the thick edges which have combined to make the current bats a weapon of bowling destruction.

There’s no better example of that than Australian vice-captain and opening batsman David Warner.

Compare his bats with those of a decade ago, and it’s more like a tree trunk to a sapling.

But it will take nearly a year before any changes become law, as the MCC continues on its usual hasten slowly policy.

Will any change worry Warner?

Not a toss, he’ll still hammer bowlers all over the park, and over the fence – he’s that sort of batsman.

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The committee believes the contest between bat and ball has moved further in the batsman’s favour, although you won’t find any batsman feeling sorry for the trundlers.

Never forget the bowler has first crack at the action, but over the years the bowlers have had their advantages cut back by flat tracks, covered wickets and ropes making grounds smaller.

It’s a mind-boggling thought what Don Bradman would have done with the modern-day advantages for the batsmen – he’d probably average around 120 instead of “just” 99.94.

Throughout his career, The Don had to overcome sticky wickets with the fence as the boundary, and the back foot no-ball rule, where fast bowlers with a long drag virtually bowled off 18 yards.

On the other side of the coin, there’s England offie Jim Laker’s world record 19 wickets against Australia at Old Trafford on a wicket that was dusty in Australia’s first dig where Laker took 9-37 off 16.4, and a sticky wicket in the second dig where Laker grabbed 10-53.

All up 19-90 off 68 overs with 23 maidens – astonishing figures.

Interestingly, sticky wickets were a dime a dozen for over a century.

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Covering wickets pre-match only started at Lord’s in 1872, and it took 38 years of discussion to decide that the pitch ends were covered in 1910, and another 69 years before wickets were totally covered at any time rain fell during a game.

That became law at Test match level in 1979, and first-class level in 1982.

It was more of the normal hasten-slowly MCC decision-making.

Two other traditional changes shocked at the time.

Former Australian opening batsman Jimmy Burke turned up at Mosman Oval in the early 1960s playing for Manly in a tennis T-shirt.

The other 21 cricketers in the game were shocked Jim had broken with tradition by wearing short sleeves when everyone else had their long sleeves neatly rolled up to the elbows.

Short sleeves were normal not long after.

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No cricketers ever thought of wearing sunglasses on the field, even though baseballers had long worn them to make sighting fly-balls easier to see in the setting sun.

Dean Jones was the first cricketer to wear them at the SCG looking into the setting sun – and was roundly criticised for breaking with tradition.

But sunglasses have been normal practice for the last two decades – Jimmy Burke and Dean Jones were tradition game-breakers.

And the same will happen with bat sizes, but red cards, arguably the biggest tradition-breaker in history, will try to overcome growing aggro towards umpires.

It’s a sad indictment, but the world has become very aggressive, and cricket has followed suit.

Any player who cops a red card from an umpire will be rubbed out for the rest of the game.

So nothing is sacred anymore in the grand old game.

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