Delhi ODI fiasco
Poor bowlers!! What else to say when the batsmen complain when they cannot play properly on a tough pitch and lobby together to force the match referee to call off the match.
The 5th and final ODI of the India Srilanka ODI series was called off by the match referee citing 'the pitch is dangerous and unplayable' as the reason. Sure it was unplayable because the batsmen's quality has deteriorated over the years. The don't feel comfortable when they cant hit freely through the line or can't judge the ball correctly. But what is dangerous about a pitch? Just because you cant predict the bounce makes it dangerous to face fast bowlers?
What if the fast bowlers start extracting more swing and you cannot judge that and get hit in between your legs? And what if the bowler is fast enough that you don't have time to put the bat down quickly? You tell the bowler is unplayable and dangerous and ban him? Charge him with a ticket for over-speeding?
Alas gone are the days when fast bowlers were a thing to be feared for. Now bowlers are just kids bowling at you so that you can whack them all around the park and claim that entertainment.
A friend of mine suggested a nice alternative for the situation. Let us have a common set of bowlers who would bowl to both the teams. And whichever team scores more wins.
Or cricket could be made a sport of individuals rather than a game. Common set of bowlers and each batsman plays for himself. And we get Grandmasters in Cricket!!!
And ICC can maintain different sets of bowlers each having different capabilities and we could have Grand Slams - Spin Open (played in indian sub-continent), Swing Open (played in England and New Zealand), Fast Open (played in South Africa and West Indies)
Why just have one innovation T20....
The 5th and final ODI of the India Srilanka ODI series was called off by the match referee citing 'the pitch is dangerous and unplayable' as the reason. Sure it was unplayable because the batsmen's quality has deteriorated over the years. The don't feel comfortable when they cant hit freely through the line or can't judge the ball correctly. But what is dangerous about a pitch? Just because you cant predict the bounce makes it dangerous to face fast bowlers?
What if the fast bowlers start extracting more swing and you cannot judge that and get hit in between your legs? And what if the bowler is fast enough that you don't have time to put the bat down quickly? You tell the bowler is unplayable and dangerous and ban him? Charge him with a ticket for over-speeding?
Alas gone are the days when fast bowlers were a thing to be feared for. Now bowlers are just kids bowling at you so that you can whack them all around the park and claim that entertainment.
A friend of mine suggested a nice alternative for the situation. Let us have a common set of bowlers who would bowl to both the teams. And whichever team scores more wins.
Or cricket could be made a sport of individuals rather than a game. Common set of bowlers and each batsman plays for himself. And we get Grandmasters in Cricket!!!
And ICC can maintain different sets of bowlers each having different capabilities and we could have Grand Slams - Spin Open (played in indian sub-continent), Swing Open (played in England and New Zealand), Fast Open (played in South Africa and West Indies)
Why just have one innovation T20....
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