LONDON: Armed with statistical analysis from the ICC that over rates in both Test and T20 cricket have slowed down in the past year, the MCC World Cricket Committee on Tuesday expressed concern over the pace of play across the three formats.
At the same time, the committee, led by former England skipper Mike Gatting, discussed and floated the idea of a ‘shot clock’ to keep over rates in check as well as recommended harsher penalties for slow rates. Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting and former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly are also members of the committee, and they gave their views on a variety of issues facing world cricket.
The MCC though pointed out that they did not discuss four-day Test cricket during this meeting. Ganguly was asked about the prospect of day-night Test cricket in India.
“I am a believer in day-night Test cricket and I believe that is the way crowds will return to Test cricket especially in India. But obviously the Indian board has resisted, the players have resisted and we would have to wait to take a call. It is played in other countries like Australia, England, South Africa, etc. I know the Indian board has its own ideas. It is not within the rights of the MCC (to enforce) but we can recommend it and wait for everyone to accept it,” Ganguly said.
He did mention that the BCCI had initially penciled in a day-night home Test against West Indies for this upcoming season, but then did a U-turn. “It was decided in the technical committee meeting last year to have a day-night Test at Rajkot this season when the West Indies come in. But the Indian team management have their own ideas and communicated that they were not ready. Maybe it’s the dew conditions at night, or maybe it’s the Kookaburra ball. SG Test does not have a pink ball yet, so we will have to bring in the Kookaburra ball. There are a lot of issues that haven’t been resolved (before day-night Tests come to India),” Ganguly said.
Ponting stressed on the point that once again this year the over rates have been in decline in all three formats of the game. “So we’ve talked about the idea of the shot clock and that’s basically the dead time in the game. It’s not going to be when the bowler is at the top of his mark and running in because that’s obviously hard to gauge. To put a certain amount of time for an over to be bowled is hard when you get a few boundaries or whatever,” he said. “But the dead time in the game — end of the over the fielders and bowlers have to be back in position and that’s non negotiable.
The same with the new batsman coming to the crease, the bowling team have to be ready when he gets to the crease,” said Ponting.
The MCC World Cricket Committee also discussed ideas for providing head protection to bowlers, prospect of MCC touring Zimbabwe to monitor the situation there, the 100-ball format that has been mooted by the ECB as well as cricket’s global growth strategy.
The ball-tampering saga that rocked world cricket during Australia’s tour of South Africa also came up, with the question of either stamping it out completely or making it legal, put to the committee.
“We talked about a number of different issues regarding the culture of the game and obviously the ball tampering was one at the top of the agenda, and how do we go about stamping that out. We are all in total agreement with what the ICC have done with strengthening the penalties for ball tampering offences. ” said Ponting. (PTI)
