Sport - Cricket

A welcome change

The decision by the two-third majority of the 18,000 MCC members to alter Law 6 regarding the specifications of a bat has been accepted by the ICC. This is a welcome change as the batsmen were gradually being given the liberty to dominate the game.

The new clause will ensure that the bat handles have 90 per cent of cane, twine and glue, and rubber may be used for grips for the other 10 per cent. Graphite and titanium can no longer be used.

With the advent of Twenty20, the manufacturers were beginning to have more graphite in the bats as it would have packed a punch.

The use of such bats by the powerful hitters, given the shortened boundaries (IPL games have shorter boundaries) in Twenty20 and later in other forms, would have certainly had an impact on the game.

Perhaps, the MCC members may not have realised that kids as young as 15 use heavy bats. The bats are used for lofted shots as the kids are not able to use them for strokes behind the wicket. The square-cuts and late-cuts are non-existent. And the rule of having fielders in the 30-yard circle encourages the batsmen to use lofted shots more often.

It’s when the kids are out of their teens and made to face wily, experienced bowlers that they find attacking not only difficult but extremely tiring, as they are not accustomed to placing shots at the junior level.

At the NCA, when former India batsman Parthsarathy Sharma did some research, he found that when specially-manufactured light bats were used by the 15-year-old trainees, they were comfortable playing cuts and other shots. They were getting less tired and had the energy to look for the gaps and place their shots.

Now that the MCC has altered Law 6 for bats, there is a need to have a look at Law 5 for the balls which may have similar specifications laid down by the MCC, but there is a vast difference between the construction of the Kookaburra and SG Test balls.

The SG balls afford more manoeuvrability to fast and spin bowlers so much so that a mediocre medium-pacer well-versed in the art of reverse swing can wreak havoc.

Comparatively, the Kookaburra balls are batsman-friendly.

Similarly, though the pitches in Australia and England are conducive to playing good cricket for the entire duration of the match, the pitches in India are doctored under the pretext of gaining home advantage. What advantage did we derive in the Chennai Test against the South Africans?

The Kanpur pitch was even more disgraceful, and for that we were warned by the ICC.

It has been embarrassing to see three Tests at the Wankhede Stadium getting over in less than three days in the past decade.

The ICC will have to do some research on balls and pitches the way they have done on the bats. There is no balance between the playing equipment and surface.

The process of pitch preparation needs to be scientific, but all credit to the poorly-paid groundstaff who are toiling in extreme conditions and continue to produce good surfaces.

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