Cricket Tournaments

A day after Pakistan won an eventful World Cup semi final against New Zealand, England played South Africa in the second semi final at Sydney. England batted first and posted 252 in 45 overs, as the Proteas were 5 overs short. This alongside the flawed D/L method, proved to be disastrous for South Africa. They needed 22 runs off 13 balls and were cruising along, before rain played spoilsport. But post rain, South Africa needed 22 runs off 1 ball! England had qualified for their third World Cup final and were to face Pakistan if they had to win for the first time.

In 2001, India locked horns with Australia yet again at home. But on this day, India won the deciding Test at Chennai by two wickets and thus, the series 2-1. Who would have ever thought of an Indian comeback after Australia won their 16th consecutive Test match at Mumbai by 10 wickets? However, the passionate and young Harbhajan Singh bamboozled the Australians with 32 wickets in 3 Tests, and there could have been no better end to the match with Harbhajan hitting the winning runs off Glenn McGrath as the world champion team led by Steve Waugh was stunned. March 22 could be credited for the beginning of an exciting India-Australia rivalry which has been maintained throughout a decade.

Also this day marked Sri Lanka’s entrance into world cricket as a superpower. They won a Test series for the first time overseas that is against New Zealand. In a span of one year, they won the World Cup.

In 2009, the England women’s team could achieve what the men could not. Winning a 50-over World Cup. They beat New Zealand by 4 wickets in the final at Sydney.

It’s been over 100 years since the game’s inception—a lot has changed. The game has swayed from bowlers to batsmen. Some of the factors deciding this could be:

Placid wickets: Flat decks are found in most stadiums across the world. This is due to the commercialization of the game as people like to see more runs scored. As the era has moved on, we see a gradual change from uncovered to covered pitches. In the times of English opener Geoffrey Boycott, the pitches were uncovered thus making batting extremely difficult.

However, in the recent era, pitches are covered to protect from adverse weather conditions. A stat to confirm the above – in the 1990’s, only Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Waugh, Brian Lara and XYZ averaged over 50 after playing 20 Tests where as in the 2000’s there’s been a increased rise in the number of batsmen averaging over 50.

Rules:
In order to help batsman take advantage of the new ball, the ICC, after the 1983 World Cup, introduced field restrictions which basically meant that only two fielders would be allowed outside the 30-yard circle for the first 15 Overs. This was tweaked a little when in 2005 when the power-plays were introduced which is an extended version of the field restrictions.

One bouncer per over: To add to this, in 1992, in order to control the aggressive nature of the bowlers, the ICC introduced the one bouncer per over rule. Not a very famous rule amongst the commoners, the ICC had banned bouncers for a 7 year period. However, they re-instated the rule. Thank goodness for that!

Free hit: The inception of the free hit in 2007 just after the Twenty-20 World Cup only added to the agony of the bowlers. Yet, another rule in favour of the batsmen. The free hit means that if the bowler oversteps, the batsman has an opportunity to play a big shot without any fear of being given out. The only possible way of getting out is a run-out. And worse, one run is already added to the batting team’s total (no ball).

Equipments: One of the ongoing issues that has sparked off a debate amongst experts being the size of the cricket bat. Bat widths seem to be growing year after year. The fact of the matter being if that can happen; then why can’t something be done to the 5 and a half ounce cherry. Why isn’t the ball made smaller/lighter? Why favour the batsmen?
The ICC is still to answer this.

Ground sizes: Grounds in South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand are too small in size thus leaving the bowlers with no margin for error.

One of the major reasons to this (batting friendly game) is the sponsors. Take for case Test cricket. The sponsors in order to fill in maximum commercial slots try and take the game to 5 days which doesn’t happen on a green wicket. The ICC needs to take heed of this and make cricket a contest between bat and ball and not a ‘video game’.