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Australian batsman David Warner strikes the third of his 6's against South Africa during the KFC Twenty/20 match at the MCG in Melbourne, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
The umpires were wrong to stop Dave Warner, generally a left-handed batsman, from shaping up right-handed in the last Twenty20 match against the West Indies and then belting the next delivery by switching to his left-hand stance.
The argument used by umpires Bruce Oxenford and Rod Tucker to stop this ploy was that the West Indies would have to chop and change the field all the time, and that this would waste time.
There is no actually law against what Warner proposed to do. The umpires resorted to that good old stand-by, “not in the spirit of the game.”
The fact is, what Warner did was exactly in the spirit of the game in that it was clever, put the bowlers at a disadvantage with their field placings and was effective in creating space on the ground for him to send the ball scuttling over the grass, and occasionally over the fence.
Warner pointed out that bowlers are allowed to decide whether they bowl over or around the wicket and that he was merely adopting the batting equivalent of this.
This is true, of course.
He could have made the further point that fast bowlers come in and sometimes bowl slower balls: legspinners have the googly, and some off-spinners bowl the doorsa, a leg-break with the off-spin action.
The point here is that these bowlers change what they are supposed to be doing. These changes are regarded as certainly within the spirit of the game, and the same tolerance should be allowed for Warner’s great gift of being able to switch hit from either side of the wicket.
For me, switch-hitting is no different from a bowler trying to deceive a batsman with a different type of delivery from his normal stock ball. Or bowling with a different hand.
I played some cricket many, many years ago with Bob Blair, a good fast bowler for Wellington and New Zealand.
Like many quickies of his day (Freddie Truman was another), Blair used to throw the ball in left-handed. Presumably this was done to preserve their bowling shoulder. Blair was so proficient with his left hand that occasionally in club matches he’d bowl an over or two of left-arm spinners.
This switch bowling, in my opinion, enhanced the game and was entirely within its spirit. Warner’s switch hitting similarly enhances the game. It produces problems for the bowlers and opportunities for batsmen who can make the switch hitting come off.
The umpire only needs to establish what side Warner or whoever is going to shape up. The batsman must hold this stance as the bowler comes into bat.
When he makes his switch he remains liable to dismissal LBW, say, if the ball is pitched correctly in terms of his original stance and hits him in line.
Mickey Mantle was one of baseball’s great switch-hitters, with great power from either side. Warner has the talent to become Twenty20s Mantle equivalent, as the Twenty20 game becomes increasingly like baseball, without the longeurs that baseball fans have to endure.