50-over games:
As the format currently stands, 50-over games have become very predictable.
Bat first and score 280+ and provided you have a decent enough bowling attack you can defend that total 80% of the time. Bowl first and restrict the opposition to below 200 and the game is yours 90% of the time.
Besides not much usu. happens during the mundane period between say overs 15-35 when most sides are merely looking to preserve wickets and are just content with ticking off singles and twos with the odd boundary here and there
I was listening to Ian Chappell during T20 Final and he came up with a very good suggestion of splitting 50-over games into two innings of 25 overs each in order to make them more intriguing and entertaining. It will also mean not one team benefiting entirely from weather and pitch conditions.
say Team A is 110/2 after 25 overs and Team B is 140/4 after 25 overs. Team A has more wickets in hand and can still win it if they bat well in their next 25 overs and so on
T20:
Perhaps not much change is needed there. The next Twenty20 World Cup is being staged in the West Indies in April-May 2010 because the ICC wanted to avoid having two major events in 2011, when the one-day World Cup is scheduled to be played in South Asia. Fair enough…
Thereafter T20 World Cup will be held every two years.
I w’d however like to see the requirement reduced down from 5 to 4 bowlers in both 50-over games and T20. i.e. Your two best bowlers will bowl 13 overs each and the remaining 24 overs will be shared by the other bowlers. Or maybe just reduce the games to 48 overs aside with a maximam of 12 overs per bowler.
In T20 - a maximam of 5 overs per bowler
It would make for a more even contest between bat and ball and also mean the end of bits and pieces cricketers even in the limited overs format.
Each side w’d then be able to field 6 specialist batsmen, one wicket-keeper batsman, one genuine all rounder and three specialist bowlers.
What we are seeing now is each side going with just 2 or 3 specialist bowlers and part-time bits and pieces bowlers doing the remaining job during the mundane period of play (overs 15-35)
TESTS:
David Morgan, the ICC President recently hinted at 4 day test matches
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/current/story/411075.html
My first reaction was, 'Is David Morgan out of his mind? Even 5 days are sometimes not enough to force a result in a test match so what makes him think that 4 days w’d lead to more results/better games?
Because of the mandatory 90-overs per day rule and the Aussie innovation since the mid 90s, 75% of test matches produce results. So one can’t really complain too much at the moment
Slow and low pitches are the single most important reason why we still sometimes see dull boring draws in test matches (the recent England-WI series in the Caribbean, Pak-SLA series earlier this year)
That said sometimes a hard-fought draw (the Mohali test in 2005, thanks to Razzaq and Akmal) is more satisfying than a one-sided test victory.
But if you think coolly 4-day test matches might not be such a bad idea IF the no. of overs bowled in a test (450) essentially remains the same. i.e. instead of bowling 90 overs per day you bowl 110-112 overs per day. It would then mean 7.5 hours of play every day (instead of the current 6 hours per day), each session being 2.5 hours (rather than 2) long.
The ICC needs to give all boards more time so they can install flood-lights at all the major test centres around the world and it might be a decade or so before 4-day tests can even be experimented.
The colour of the ball will be an issue. A longer day w’d inevitably mean playing some of the overs under lights each day. At what point in the day do you decide to change from a red to a white ball etc.? or should we play with a different coloured ball e.g. an orange ball? Then there are other issues
Would a longer day mean ==> player burnout+++?
A four-day test w’d definitely miss the intrigue and excitement of a 5th day pitch. So much usu. happens on the final day of a test because of cracks, unpredictable bounce and turn etc.
So perhaps Test cricket should stay as it is. It should not be treated like limited overs games. Innovation is all good but there is no need to break with tradition.
Quality of pitches around the world should be the main focus and the ICC should penalise boards if they make slow, defensive, batting friendly pitches with little or no bounce.
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