T-20 and the England Cricket captain

So, the IPL is about half way through and as usual it’s been the usual complement of sixes and some outrageous shots, an unknown Indian batsman suddenly making his name, and some general tamasha.

I must admit that I watch IPL on occasion but I am not a great fan. I don’t follow it and don’t really know what’s going on in the points table. But this is not really something to do with the IPL but a general reaction to T-20 cricket. I do not really relate to it and can’t really appreciate it.

Of course, I realize this is a slightly old fashioned way of looking at things. I am sure there will be some of you who will be saying that this is exactly how people reacted forty years ago when one day cricket was introduced. And there is more than a grain of truth in that. I am certainly a person who grew up with test and one day cricket and that certainly reflects in my views.

However, I feel there is a bit more than that. The basic premise of cricket is that is a game between bat and ball. That did change a bit with the introduction of one day cricket but I believe it remained largely true – even over the last ten years or so, administrators have tried more and more to tilt it towards batsmen. But with T-20 it is unabashedly all about batsmen. So, the game is no more about bat vs ball but about batsmen of team 1 versus the batsmen of team 2. The bowlers have been reduced to the status of ball boys in tennis - can’t really have the game move smoothly without them but really have no attention focused on them.

And that makes the game boring to me. I feel the balance needs to be adjusted back towards the bowlers a bit. And with that in mind, I have a few suggestions which I believe can help a bit.

1. Consider imposing a weight limit on bats. Bats have become so thick it’s not funny anymore - the weight of the ball has not changed for ever and ever but bats have gone through the roof…and the sweets spots become bigger and bigger so that even a touch goes for a six. Let’s limit that.


2. Increase the ground sizes. Administrators seem to have a penchant for bringing in the ropes – whether to seat more people or just to have a shorter boundary, I don’t know. But you have the ridiculous situation of some boundaries being less than 60m. When conflated with the better bats it just means that mis hits go for six, which is plain unfair to the bowler


3. Get rid of fielding restrictions. When they were introduced in the 1992 world cup they were unique and introduced a new form of cricket but really are irrelevant in t-20. I would retain powerplays in ODI but give complete control to the teams (10 decided by the batting team and 10 by the fielding). But in just 20 overs with the batsman already going hammer and tongs, it makes little sense to me


4. Get rid of bowling restrictions. This is something I have never understood, even in ODI. If a batsman can play on and on, why is a bowler not given the same right?


5. Restrict the number of batsmen. This may be slightly radical but just follow me through. When there are just 20 overs, batsmen can go hammer and tongs because they know the chances of getting all out in this span is very low. But what if you told the batting team that if you lost five wickets the innings was over? How would they react? Would that even things out a bit in favour of the fielding team? It probably would.
   Some of you would react that cricket is a game of 11 vs 11 but that wouldn’t change. The batting team could still choose the batting order from its 11 people. But just as its innings is perforce finished when 20 overs are done, so would it be when 5 wickets fall.
   Why 5? I don’t know. 6 or 7 is also fine. It would probably need some statistical analysis to figure out the correct number. But as a concept can we agree that since there are only 20 overs, a batting team does not need the luxury of 10 wickets?
   

So, these are some suggestions to even things out between batsmen and bowlers in the 20-20 format. However, there are no doubts that the kind of skills required in 20-20 will be slightly different than tests and ODI’s. And of course, we have seen many “20-20” specialists. In the past we had “one day specialists” such as Bevan and Ajay Jadeja. And as time goes on and the number of tests reduce we are probably going to see more of Test specialists (Cheteshwar Pujara, anyone?)

But England have taken this to a different pitch with different captains for Tests, one days and t-20. At one level, it may be the right decision but it just gives the feeling of where will it all end?
Cricket has always been a game with a high level of graininess in its description – tests and ODI’s, home and away, first innings and second innings, mutual series and so on. That is why you can have as absurd records as “record seventh wicket partnership for England in the 2nd innings of a game played between India and England at Headingley”

So, with captaincy too are we going to see such level of detail in the future – captains for home games and away games, captains for different opponents, captains for first innings and second innings, captains based on the ground the game is being played.

And in all this, the coach will sit in the background and smile!