Scoring a double century in ODIs has become too frequent. After the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Rohit Sharma did it, two more batsmen in the 2015 World Cup achieved the feat. After the West Indies hit-man Chris Gayle sent the Zimbabwean attack on a leather hunt, New Zealand’s Martin Guptill made the highest score in the history of the World Cup cricket.
Thanks to the prevalent ODI rules, the batsmen don’t fear the bowlers anymore. If you just rewind a bit and reflect on how cricket was played earlier, there was always “a fear of getting out” factor inside the heart of every batsman. The good deliveries were respected while the bad ones were dispatched. But now, even the good deliveries are losing the battle in front of the batsmen.
The two new-ball rule in fifty over format makes life easy for them. As opposed to the previous rule when only one ball was used for the match and it wasn’t easy to toy with the bowlers then. These days, the field restriction is also helping the batsmen immensely. With only four fielders being allowed throughout the match outside the circle, it’s more or less a child’s play to hoick any bowler for a boundary.
The ongoing World Cup is a perfect case to make the world governing body (ICC) to understand how difficult it will be to maintain the sanctity of the game if one of the existing ODI rules is not changed. Already, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) has made the right noise in the ICC meetings and tried to make the other Test playing nations understand that the two-new ball rule is killing the game and the art of spin bowling. This in turn is harming the spinners across India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Still, the current India team under MS Dhoni, needs to be complimented for the kind of performance they have given in the 2015 World Cup. They are the only Asian team in the semifinal line-up, as the others are Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In the last edition of the World Cup, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand were the semifinalists along with India.
They say that the spinners find it tough to grip a new ball and the biggest disadvantage is new ball skids a lot more than gripping on the surface. On the other hand, if the other Test playing nations like Australia, South Africa and England may think that the new ball is helping their seamers, they are totally wrong. By looking at the sheer number of runs being scored in this World Cup, it’s quite evident that even the pacers are not getting too much advantage with two new balls. The new ball comes quickly to bat and that helps a batsman enormously.
It is revealed that the technical committee of the ICC is going to review the World Cup and recommend their suggestions to other ICC committees. The problem here is that the head of the technical committee Anil Kumble, who is a former Indian spin legend, never had problems bowling with new ball during his career. As a bowler, he depended a lot on variations, bounce and subtle spin to become a renowned spinner.
However, the question is not who favour what. The need of the hour is to strike the right balance between bat and the ball. Right now, the game is tilted heavily towards the batsmen. ICC needs to find a middle-path and time is running out. So far, only five batsmen have crossed the milestone and more are waiting to be a part of the elite club. Before the club membership sells, ICC needs to act!
