Time is ripe for empowering the bowling clan a little more to restore balance. A lopsided contest won't have a loyal audience for too long, writes Aakash Chopra
Aaron Phangiso
Ricky Ponting has reignited the debate that's been occupying a lot of mind space in the last few years — are the modern bats making the contest between batsmen and bowlers unfair?
In the last decade, cricket bats have made a lot of progress in terms of thickness, lighter pick-up and in hitting the ball farther. In fact, if you compare them with the bats used a few decades ago, the modern willow looks like equipment from an altogether different sport.
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The best part about this progression is that thickness hasn't added to the weight of the bat, for the pick-up is still very light. If the thickness came at the cost of added weight, the contest would've been even because wielding a heavier willow comes with its pitfalls.
SA spinner Aaron Phangiso looks dejected as the umpire signals a six by WI's Kieron Pollard during an ODI in Guyana last month. PIC/AFP
Heavily lopsided in the batsman's favour
But since that's not the case, the contest is heavily lopsided in the batsman's favour. Also, one must not ignore the general bias towards making flatter pitches and pulling in the boundary ropes. It's widely believed that the crowd loves fours and sixes more than wickets and therefore, the endeavour is to give them more of it in every game.
David Warner has come out in support of the modern bat and Josh Hazlewood has supported Ponting's concerns about the unfair contest. There are always two sides to such debates:
1. The current international batsmen
2. The former cricketers along with the current international bowlers
It's understandable for a modern day batsman to feel aggrieved if somebody hinted that his batting prowess has a lot to do with the willow that he wields. After all, the same bat in a lesser batsman's hands isn't half as effective and also, it's slightly unfair to pin the blame on him when he's playing within the laws of the game. While his concerns are genuine, it's impossible to ignore the fact that more runs are scored in fewer overs than ever before.
The ball is indeed traveling farther than it ever has. In fact, some of the top edges and miscued hits are landing in the crowd and not in the fielder's lap, and that must ring alarm bells. As far as current international bowlers are concerned, they can also be blamed for moaning to make up for the lack of skills. The general decline in the quality of bowling is palpable and it's one of the reasons for this contest to become uneven. Therefore, it's imperative to get views from cricketers who are still associated with the game but aren't playing it anymore. The likes of Ponting, Dravid, Lara, Warne, Akram etc should be ones entrusted to suggest the way forward.
Ponting and Ian Chappell have suggested regulating the thickness of the bat in which all bats must go through a ring (something similar to the ones we have to measure balls). Currently, only the width is mentioned under the laws of the game. Perhaps, it's time to consider putting the maximum thickness in the laws too. If that's unacceptable for some reason, how about allowing the bowlers to tamper the ball as long as no foreign object like a bottle cap or blade is used, and the seam is not touched (because that makes the ball becomes unreasonably soft)? Or how about giving them the option to take the second new ball at any stage of the game as opposed to only after the 80th over? The time is ripe for empowering the bowling clan a little more to restore balance, for a lopsided contest won't have a loyal audience for too long.
Flat pitches
Warner, in defence of thicker bats, raised a valid point about the quality of pitches. In today's T20 world, pitches have become identically flat across the globe and that is also adding to bowlers' woes. While there's merit in encouraging curators to make slightly bowler-friendly surfaces, it's impossible to make it mandatory.
Same is the case with pushing the boundary ropes back to make six-hitting slightly tougher, for it's impractical to have minimum standard dimensions to cricket stadia across the world. The most feasible solution to restore balance is to either regularise the bat or empower the bowler.
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