My third grade cricket team’s season wrapped up on Saturday, with steady showers followed by a quick downpour bringing an early end to our two-day match. And although finishing with our traditional wet sail, we have again missed the semis by less than two wins for the umpteenth consecutive season.
Despite our game finishing in a rained-out draw, and with nothing really to complain about considering our opposition needed less than a hundred to win with eight wickets in hand, the concept of the drawn game has again had me thinking about how unfulfilling a result it is for we in grade cricket land, and how we might possibly be able get more from such an outcome.
But then at the same time, it occurred to me, and particularly with South Africa staring at a series white-wash this Thursday, that maybe the draw is becoming a Test cricket tactic?
From almost the time when Jesus was playing grade cricket for Nazareth, the model has been six points for a first-innings win, and two points for the draw. Some competitions offer up twelve points for an outright win, but generally in Australia it’s ten points if you can roll the opposition twice for less than your total.
Now in the case of the draw, two points is awarded for washed out games (as was the case for us, and plenty of other teams around the country on the weekend), just as it is for games that go the full two days without a clear result. But it hardly seems fair to me that a team who clearly outplays its opposition over the length of match gets the same result as a team who never lifts the covers (or never had them to start with).
Likewise, a team who suffers a top order collapse, but then lasts out the day under enormous pressure gets the same reward as the team who shuts up shop and uses their innings as nothing more than a centre-wicket net session, and then buggers off at Tea with no result possible (and don’t dare finish before Tea on the second day, competition administrators believe that’s not in the interests of the game apparently).
It’s at this point that the popular English league system of winning and losing draws becomes more appealing, but more on that later.
Test cricket of course, doesn’t have points or competition ladders to deal with. Results are simply recorded as wins, losses and draws, and series decided by the most Tests won. Sure, world rankings are determined based on Test and Test series wins, but apart from rankings and pride, the draw counts for little else than a Test not lost.
So looking forward to Thursday, it occurred to me that South Africa may not be concerning themselves with winning the last Test against Australia, but rather, just not losing it. Three fairly significant personnel changes might reinforce my theory too.
On the other hand, with the nature of Test pitches being the flat and barren highways that they appear these days, perhaps just playing to not lose isn’t such a silly idea. Bats being thicker and boundaries being shorter probably adds weight to this argument too, and so it’s no surprise that a vast majority of Tests already played in 2009 have ended in draws.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to see what can be done to encourage attacking Test cricket to be played these days, and that’s despite the images of vast areas of empty stadium seats currently on show in South Africa and the Caribbean, in Pakistan too, before the horrific attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore. It would seem that England and Australia are the only countries that can consistently boast healthy Test crowds.
Perhaps one measure would be to give more Test ranking points for matches won than is currently awarded? Make a win worth significantly more than a draw is, and that might encourage teams to play attacking cricket and push for the result, rather than just survive or playing to not lose.
In fact, when I think about it, I would be pretty sure that someone who claims Test cricket is boring hasn’t been watching a match that ended in a result.
Back in grade cricket land, I’m still struggling to work out how games that just end without a first innings result can be worth the same as games that are washed out.
I mentioned the English system of “winning” and “losing” draws before, and I think it’s a system that could encourage attacking cricket by rewarding teams for effort.
Essentially, teams who rack up a large first innings total are rewarded for their batting effort, perhaps more so if they don’t lose all ten wickets, and likewise a team batting second could be rewarded to reaching, say, 90% of their target.
A team who makes 180 when chasing 200 (and maybe even if they are bowled out) should be rewarded more than a team who just plodded their way to 3/120. Similarly, a team who takes eight or nine wickets when striving for the win should be receive more than a team who chases leather to all points of the ground.
Points systems should be staggered in a manner that rewards positive cricket all round, encourages attacking declarations, and puts more emphasis on chasing a target, rather than just playing to not lose. I do acknowledge that there will be some situations where a genuine draw probably is a fair result, and where a share of the points is well deserved. On the whole though, we should be encouraging the result, and I believe the winning and losing draw system does this.
Who knows, it might even produce pitches that assist the bowlers, although as a batsman, I obviously wouldn’t encourage this!
With grade cricket competitions often very close, particularly to the middle grades where our kids earn their cricketing stripes, surely a points system that rewards performance is worth exploring.
And if there are such systems already in play, I’d love to hear about them!
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