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Forget what old pros like Clive Radley and Mark Alleyne and the MCC universities captain Robert Wooley think about it. Forget what Cricket Australia thinks about it. Forget what my hero Sunil Gavaskar and my favourite cricket writer Peter Roebuck think about it.
They may like the idea of 5ives Cricket, but I reckon it’s a dumb idea.
But firstly, what is 5ives Cricket?
It is a radical proposal supposed to revamp 50-over cricket. Experts think that Fifty50 cricket has lost its spectator appeal after the Twenty20 revolution. It has fallen in a no man’s land between Test tussles and Twenty20 razzmatazz.
Cricket statistician Dick Wood from South Africa has suggested a radical change by introducing 5ives Cricket.
To him, a team batting for around four hours and the opponents coming on the pitch later to bat for another four hours is boring for spectators.
This is not so in other sports like boxing, football, rugby and tennis among others, he explains. In these sports, participants exchange blow by blow, goal by goal, try by try, serve by serve within a short time.
But then why should cricket imitate other sports? Cricket is unique and let it be that way.
Here is Wood’s woolly solution.
To quote Roebuck from the Sydney Morning Herald: “Wood’s solution is simple and audacious. Without tinkering with the laws of the game in any way, he advocates letting teams play in shorter bursts so tension is sustained.”
5ives cricket has a simple format, we are told.
Simple? Here is the idea in a nutshell. Yes, I have used the word ‘nut’ deliberately:
Team A bats for 5 overs then team B bats for 10 overs. Then Team A bats for another 10 overs and Team B for 5 overs. The circus goes on in bursts of 5 and 10 overs till 50 overs are completed for each team. There is a bonus point at the end of each 5 or 10 overs burst.
And the match is decided. Hurray!
But wait a moment. Will there be few minutes’ wait every time an innings is changed as batsmen from Team B wear pads and gloves not to mention helmet, chest pads, abdominal pads and wicket-keeper from Team A dons his gloves and pads and other protections?
Wood has thought of this and has recommended having 12th and 13th men to field as the batsmen / wicket-keeper are padded and gloved up.
By my calculation there will be approximately 12 to 14 turnarounds or interruptions in a match. What a waste of time between every 5 to 10 overs.
Who will want to be a scorer, a scoreboard operator, or an umpire? Who will count 10 overs per bowler in an innings when there will be so many interruptions? There will be chaos.
Currently MCC is trying out this format in Abu Dhabi. But have they given it a serious thought before this trial?
Apart from the MCC, the 5ives Cricket will be trialled by South African universities this summer.
Just as well this preposterous idea will not be introduced in the 2015 World Cup. But after that?
My fundamental question to Dick Wood: why should cricket imitate tennis?
What do you say, Roarers?