Countdown timer clocks to speed up the pace of play in Test cricket

[quincywagstaff]

Quite like the shot clock idea. In a perfect world it wouldn't be necessary but for decades players (and in terms of enforcement, umpires) have been totally incapable of adhering to required rates so this may be the only option.

Re: the free hit rule, only way that could be viable would be if technology came in that would guarantee every no-ball was picked up, otherwise just is a big mess. Not really in favour of it anyway.

 

[Howe_zat]

90 individual countdown clocks a day would be very distracting for me I think.

Don't really like the other proposals either. Free hits in tests can go suck a lemon

Duke balls I could get on board with because it helps my team, but it removes a little of the variety in test cricket that makes it such a compelling game in the first place.

 

[_00_deathscar]

The best thing for test cricket viewership would be for it to be on free-to-air and to not charge through the nose for a ticket like certain countries *cough*England*cough*.

Not many people have the time to go to a game for two days, nevermind a full five.

Stream test cricket live, for free, on YouTube - people can and will watch it at work; might also get a crowd who couldn't go to the game to be interested.

Mind you, that will probably bring in Pepsi wickets etc...

 

[FBU]

Ewww at the free hit thing.

Though Dukes >>> Kookaburra.

Well the Dukes in 2019 is having the seam flattened so it will be more like the Kookaburra ball. This is mainly to help batsmen who play cc cricket at the beginning and end of the season. I suppose these Dukes will be also used for Tests.

 

[Starfighter]

Well the Dukes in 2019 is having the seam flattened so it will be more like the Kookaburra ball. This is mainly to help batsmen who play cc cricket at the beginning and end of the season. I suppose these Dukes will be also used for Tests.

Stupid. The current ball is the best thing about English cricket, it's not the ball's fault the ECB wants their corporate bonuses so they fill the summer with LO trash.


Also where'd you hear about this?

 

[Midwinter]

Countdown clock on each ball might work.

It would stop the batsman faffing about delaying the bowler.

Might show if the bowler is back at his mark and the captain is holding up play setting the field.

Or is the bowler just being lazy not getting back to his mark.

Worth a thought

 

[Senile Sentry]

Standardizing Duke balls is monopoly promotion. Need to spell out strict standards and let individual boards tender it out.

 

[Starfighter]

I still think my idea of letting the teams choose whichever ball they want is by far and away the best.

 

[FBU]

Stupid. The current ball is the best thing about English cricket, it's not the ball's fault the ECB wants their corporate bonuses so they fill the summer with LO trash.


Also where'd you hear about this?

Pringle in the Cricket Paper.
Good article in it by Dilip Jajodia owner of Dukes who is not in favour of the idea of a standardised ball for Tests

 

[Burner]

Free hits in Tests is something I've always wanted. In an intense bowler dominated test match where 200 is a par score and batsmen are struggling to get bat to ball, it is a really exciting prospect imo. It does nothing for a t20 where batsmen are going to go for it anyway, but in tests it's going to be fun because batsmen are going to play shots that they normally wouldn't play.

 

[Starfighter]

Pringle in the Cricket Paper.
Good article in it by Dilip Jajodia owner of Dukes who is not in favour of the idea of a standardised ball for Tests

Any chance of *ahem* reproducing the relevant sentences / paragraph, please?

 

[Test_Fan_Only]

Clocks and free hits are not test cricket, they would take away from test cricket and never should happen.
A standardised test cricket ball seems unnecessary as long as the one used are good quality.

 

[Midwinter]

Of course the problem with timing anything in test cricket is having an appropriate penalty.

That is something we cant agree on.

 

[Red]

I still think my idea of letting the teams choose whichever ball they want is by far and away the best.

It'd be fine at test level but it'd create a host of issues in the grades below test.

 

[Starfighter]

It'd be fine at test level but it'd create a host of issues in the grades below test.

No-one said it necessarily had to apply there. National boards can make different rules for their domestic competitions if they wish.

 

[FBU]

Any chance of *ahem* reproducing the relevant sentences / paragraph, please?

...suggests that the type of ball used should be dictated by the surface and country the Test is taking place in.

Theoretically, having a standardised ball has a certain resonance. Having the same ball would stop teams having the kind of advantage that they currently enjoy. But the simple question you have to ask is are the pitches all the same around the world? I am exactly the opposite to where they stand. I am talking bespoke balls. The question they should be asking more is what is the best construction of a ball for Test cricket. A traditional hand-stitched ball or a machine stitched ball - that's the question they should be asking. If you have a hand-stitched ball which has certain characteristics which are good for cricket, you then have to look at the surface and the pitch that respond to that ball.

In the past I have even said that perhaps a different ball should be used in Perth to one which would be used in somewhere like Tasmania. It is possible to argue that point. The fundamentals of the game are the pitch and the ball and how they react - that is what should be addressed. To suggest that one ball would solve that issue is a nonsense. The different balls used in Test cricket often form part of the theatre that makes the sport's longest format so compelling.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I actually don't mind this one. It should definitely speed up over rates and I don't really see a huge downside.

 

[Starfighter]

-text chunk-

Sorry for confusing you, I meant about reducing the height of the seam on the ball this year (from Pringle?)

 

[FBU]

Sorry for confusing you, I meant about reducing the height of the seam on the ball this year (from Pringle?)

As a former bowler I am actually aware ball tampering is illegal. So why is the ECB messing around with the red ball this season by altering it's ability to move laterally off the seam. The short answer is that they are worried about the reduction in runs being scored across both divisions of the County Championship. It's not just about the runs either or more specifically the lack of them. Spin bowlers too are becoming an endangered species due to the dominance of seam bowlers making merry on the damp, grassy pitches you tend to get at the margins of the season where the ECB has scheduled it's red ball cricket

Cue, then, for 2019 , their panacea - a Dukes ball not with reduced twine in its seam, as in a previous experiment but one where the twine is pulled tighter in the stitch so that the seam is less prominent. We have been here before with such meddling. Almost 30 years ago the TCCB reduced the strands in the ball's seam for the 1990 season. They also introduced a directive to the groundsmen that pitches must start dry and be straw-coloured with no green grass. The upshot was an avalanche of runs as most bowlers struggled to make an impression on the scorecard. One game at the Oval during the first week of May saw Lancs, with Fairbrother making 366, post 863 to Surrey's first innings score of 707, the game petering out into a boring draw. The experiment lasted one season.

Fast forward and the ECB appear to have fallen in the same trap again. Essentially with the 100 set to take prime spot in the summer from next year the County Championship will be pulled even further towards the margins of the season. These changes therefore, can be seen as an attempt to see if it can be weather-proofed by reducing the potency of seam bowlers.

All this comes after the MCC's world cricket committee has recommended the standardisation of balls for use in the Test Championship due to start this year. It could be this season's tweaked Duke is auditioning for more than just an ongoing role in county cricket.

 

[Starfighter]

He recognises it's silly, which is a good thing, and covering up for the trash scheduling.

Kookaburra did the 1990 thing in the late seventies, reducing the thickness of the string dramatically after the 78/79 Ashes, even though the low scores in that series were caused by Aus having a fifth-choice lineup, England being not hugely better, and underprepared, often dry and irregular pitches. I don't know when the transition to machine stitched balls was but that wouldn't have helped either.