Watching the Sydney Thunder play the Hobart Hurricanes and seeing Dawid Malan get hit on the head by a bouncer – yet another player hit on the scone during this series makes – made me think: do we need to jettison the bouncer from T20 cricket?
It’s not unlike the lessons learnt nearly 100 years ago from the Bodyline series and the need to play the game in the right spirit.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but T20 cricket is meant to be all about ‘fun’, and it’s not much fun if someone’s trying to hit you with the ball. That’s based purely on personal life experience, but I’m pretty sure there is a wider appreciation of this approach to life in the general community.
Bouncers also slow the game down, as the helmet and then the player has to be checked afterwards, although I might have that in the wrong order.
(Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
Let’s face it, there are only so many reasons people watch T20 cricket, and chief among them is to see batsmen score lots of runs for entertainment and fun. They want to see a batsman hit the ball ‘out of the park’, ‘into the second tier’ and ‘into the stratosphere’, where ‘they’ll never find that; whatever that was, they’ll never find it again’.
If you want to see someone get hit on the head, go and watch boxing. In boxing you’ll see plenty of head knocks and a few headbutts along with deep and meaningful conversations afterwards based on the remnants of brain matter still intact. I mean, that’s the whole point of it all.
If you’re an American or a Canadian you also have the choice of ice hockey, which has teams of players hitting the other in the head using sticks for acoustic and dramatic effect. Okay, ice hockey also has goals, but they are there to make it look like a game – the truth is that these tiny goals are there so that mothers allow their sons to play, otherwise they’d run out of players. If they were serious about the goals, they’d have proper-size goals like they have for football.
Back to the cricket, the bouncer puts the batsman on the back foot and on the defensive. A defensive batsman is the opposite of what people want from T20 cricket. People go to watch T20 because they want to see batsmen smashing the ball without fear. They want to see the bat swinging, and the bigger the hit the better.
Crowds want to see big scores and even bigger chases. I’ve never heard someone say, “Yeah, I saw three batsmen get hit on the head last night. What a great game”. No – people always talk about the big hits, who got a century and who got a half-century, the number of boundaries et cetera. That’s why they call it the Big Bash. Otherwise they’d call it the Straight Bat.
So if teams bowl bouncers, it should be counted as a no ball and the opposition should get a free hit.
Don’t worry, for the cricket tragics I’m only suggesting this for T20 cricket and not for Test cricket. Test cricket needs the bouncer – it’s part of the furniture.
Finally, I’m still available to represent my country, or at least my son is. That is, I understand that Australia’s most recent Test debutant, Will Pucovski, has also written for The Roar. My son is just under 30 years of age, he has scored an unbeaten century in under-18s, and if this article gets published, we will have basically met all of the necessary criteria to make him or me the logical next selection beyond doubt. Tim, you know where I am.
So the question is: is it time for T20 to have its own Bodyline moment and ban the bouncer?
The answer has to be yes.
Censored Often
Roar Rookie
This is the result of handing out participation trophies and kids growing up never knowing what a skinned knee feels like.
Censored Often
Roar Rookie
Assuming the author is also wanting the pull shot and hook shot banned? Surely he has an issue with a batsman scoring from such a heinous act on the cricket field. Or is this just about reducing the bowlers options?
E-Meter
Roar Rookie
Should be 2 bouncer per over limit.
Tony H
Roar Pro
Agree Rellum. We shouldn't be acknowledging this drivel with a response, but it's just so infuriating that you kind of have to.
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
When did batsmen become so soft and vulnerable that a steepling ball is a threat to their very existence? Good grief, they wear so much padding they'd feel at home in an American Football locker room, which has lead them to the inability to play short deliveries because they simply duck and look away when a ball is pitched short. Then they have the temerity to complain when they duck into the ball. Concussion is serious and the long term effects are catastrophic, but maybe, just maybe, these players need to learn how to protect themselves from being sconed.
andyfnq
Roar Rookie
If you just want to see people hit an enless array of huge shots, why have bowlers at all? Instead, just go and watch someone face up to a bowling machine. 20/20 is supposed to be a short format contest between bat and ball; being short reduces the likelihood of large blocks of time where the result is a forgone conclusion. A bouncer is a legitimate tactic to get a wicket as the batsman fends; it can also be used to mix up the range of deliveries and stop batsmen getting too used to balls being delivered on a repetitve line. A good batsman can score off bouncers, and the hook shot is one of the most eye catching in the game. If "elite" players like Malan are getting struck, it is their own technical deficiency that is the cause, and the bowler wins that particular contest. Being that the number of balls a player can face is severely limited, a dot ball is precious, and helps build pressure on the batting side. While I normally offer congratulations to any new author, your lack of awareness regarding the nature of cricket indicates that you either need to learn far more about the game, or are deliberately running with a clickbait contrarian article. I sincerely hope it is the former, and that enjoying more cricket will help you enjoy all of its varied nuances, rather than just focusing solely on one particular aspect of batting.
Bobbo7
Guest
??? Bouncers are part of cricket. The end. If batsman cannot handle them they should do something else. That's all I have to say.
Simon G
Roar Rookie
I honestly can't work out if this is an attempt at satire or not...
Rellum
Roar Guru
This is some pretty hopeless click bait really, but I am commenting so... IF you are legit then you know basically nothing about the game and what that change would do, but given your comments you clearly don't care. This is the kind of transient entertainment junkie that the BBL attracts, more interested in their own entertainment than the game itself. This sort of attitude is why the BBL does not bring in new cricket fans.
Rohan
Roar Rookie
Caspa
Guest
This is an extremely unintelligent idea. Bouncers are one of the batsman's favourite balls to hit sixes. They are quite difficult to bowl and it takes a great deal of skill from the bowler to consistently bowl an effective bouncer. The bowler will almost always drop a ball too short or too straight, which will then be punished by the batsman. Furthermore most people that are interested in cricket want to see a competitive game between the batsman and BOWLER, in which the bowlers of the BBL achieve hat-tricks and impressive wickets. Bouncers are a key element of the game and if they are taken away for a irrational reason like the one you are suggesting... all the players are gonna get mad and the BBL will suck.
Samuel Power
Roar Rookie
The BBL is barely even cricket anymore, removing a common bowling tactic that's been used for hundreds of years would make the competition even worse. Used to love T20 cricket but it's a joke now.
redbackfan
Roar Rookie
Apologies on both counts then! Cheers
Paul
Roar Guru
I know this might come as a surprise but isn't sports of any kind meant to be competitive? Sure, people go along to T20 games to see all the glitz and glamour but they should also be able to see a contest between bat & ball. I also question whether the author thinks short pitched bowling should be banned as well? After all, this is the type of bowling far more likely to cause injury or stoppages in play, than a ball that goes sailing harmlessly over a batsmans head - often being called a wide. I also wonder if the author has thought about the decline in batting technique that T20 cricket has already wrought on the game. If evading a bouncer is removed, batsmen will quickly forget how to play this type of bowling, so when they DO have to face it, the chances of even more serious injury are massively increased. At the end of the day, faster bowlers have little incentive to compete in T20 cricket if one of the tools of their trade is removed from their arsenal. If batsman are good enough, they'll play this type of bowling well. If their technique is not up to scratch, maybe just for once, the T20 batsman should do something about it.
Mooty
Roar Rookie
You beat me to it Wayne. I must admit I rarely watch the BBL anymore because the whole thing is all about the batsmen hitting fours or sixes. If the bowler is now going to be restricted to stop this, then yes wheel in the bowling machine and have teams of specialist batsmen/fielders with a wicket keeper. The audiences of these games would get used to it pretty quick
Mon
Guest
Well, you’ve misquoted me but whatever.. and as for the 50,000 people at the AO on NYE watching the fireworks and dancing show dressed in their cricket high-viz? While some bowlers out in the middle who stand zero chance get obliterated to all parts? And now there’s a call to ban the short ball?! I actually couldn’t agree more. Another nail in the coffin. And no, I’m not even 40 yrs old.
redbackfan
Roar Rookie
without the bouncer every player puts a foot down the pitch and slogs. leave it in. and mon, "real cricket lovers "think its trash"? cricket was dying a slow death before ipl and T20. in your wildest dreams did you ever think 50,000 people would go to the Adelaide oval on New Years eve to watch cricket? filled with men, women and children wearing team colours. it is enormously skilled, open your (I presume) old mind up and enjoy it
Mon
Guest
Hahaha wow. Yeah sure, go ahead and ban the bouncer. It’ll just add to the reasons why 20/20 cricket is the trash that it is. Actual cricket lovers couldn’t give a damn. And you really don’t know much about ice hockey. Bad comparison.
Wayne
Roar Guru
Ice Hockey puck moves pretty damn fast, goals are a fine size. Batsman have a bat, maybe learn to use that instead of banning bouncers. Why not just ban bowling, and put a bowling machine at each end?
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
Everything else in T20 is favour of batsmen, leave the bowlers something.