The International Cricket Council (ICC) is planning to use two balls in ODI matches and allow batting and bowling powerplays between the 16th and 40th overs to give a boost to the meandering middle overs in one-day cricket.New Zealand’s representative on the ICC cricket committee, Justin Vaughan, said that despite the success of the recent World Cup, the committee felt the need to inject greater interest during the phase often regarded as the accumulation stage of an innings.Former Indian coach Gary Kirsten made a strong plea at the meeting for the introduction of two balls, saying that between the 28th and 34th overs when the ball was replaced, it had become very soft.He said batsmen found it very hard to hit and were often hitting the bottom of the bat. The use of two balls means that each ball will be used for only a maximum of 25 overs each, enabling retention of hardness throughout the match and thus offering bowlers more seam and bounce, Stuff.co.nz reports.Vaughan said two balls had been experimented with before about a decade ago in Australia during a tri-series.The only other official recommendation from the committee to go to next month’s ICC chief executive''s meeting in Hong Kong, placing restrictions on when the batting and bowling powerplays must be taken.“The bowling team usually took their option from the 11th to 15th overs just carrying on from the game’s start while the batting side often left it until the final few overs of the innings. This way it will become more of a tactical innovation to keep things interesting in the middle stages of a match,” he said.Vaughan said one experiment trialled in Australia last season i.e. splitting of one-day innings into two segments, had not found favour with players and would be scrapped.
0 comments:
Post a Comment