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

[FBU]

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.

Some more
It's a lot of responsibility to be heaped on a ball so another tweak from the ECB to enhance run production has been the return of the heavy roller. Banned a few years ago it was re-introduced sparingly last season to the point where it could be used, at the home side's instigation for a maximum seven minutes over the course of a four day game. Not many opted to use it for fear of handing opponents a double advantage. After all if the visitors were allowed to use their veto of the toss to bowl first, with all the benefits that might have if the pitch was damp, then the home side would not want them to be able to roll out any dents the ball might have left with the heavy roller when it becomes their turn to bat. The absence of dents being seen as more preferable conditions for batting than their presence.

 

[Starfighter]

It's a lot of responsibility to be heaped on a ball so another tweak from the ECB to enhance run production has been the return of the heavy roller. Banned a few years ago it was re-introduced sparingly last season to the point where it could be used, at the home side's instigation for a maximum seven minutes over the course of a four day game. Not many opted to use it for fear of handing opponents a double advantage. After all if the visitors were allowed to use their veto of the toss to bowl first, with all the benefits that might have if the pitch was damp, then the home side would not want them to be able to roll out any dents the ball might have left with the heavy roller when it becomes their turn to bat. The absence of dents being seen as more preferable conditions for batting than their presence.

Then can we admit that the no-toss experiment is a failure and should be gotten rid of so pitches can be rolled properly during a game? No wonder the ball misbehaves all match.

So the ECB has ruined the scheduling for cash, meaning that much of the season is played on damp pitches, ruined the normal pitch treatment to compensate to compensate for not having a toss, and now ruined the ball to compensate for the substandard pitches. You'd get the impression that they didn't care about quality of county cricket and were just there to maximise money.

 

[FBU]

England are considering using last year’s batch of Dukes Test balls in their bid to reclaim the Ashes this summer. Hope there are enough left! I remember we did that one year but can't remember which year. 2010 was a very good one.

'Although attention has officially been switched to securing a maiden 50-over World Cup win following the surprise 2-1 away defeat to West Indies, discussions have taken place to source the remaining balls from the 2018 summer.

One of the idiosyncrasies of producing hand-stitched cricket balls is that batches vary annually and last summer’s vintage were thought to be particularly bowler-friendly, swinging and seaming lavishly for both bowling attacks throughout the England v India Test series.

That has prompted talk in the England camp to begin the series against Australia in Birmingham on August 1 with the leftovers from last year..

 

[weldone]

We from CW should organise a demonstration in front of ICC headquarters or something if free hits are introduced in test cricket.

This is bollocks.

 

[FBU]

In the season's curtain-raiser in Dubai between MCC and Surrey a count down clock will be used. The bowler must be ready within 45 seconds of the previous over ending. Fall of a wicket 80 seconds. They wanted to look at a free hit for a no-ball but that has been blocked by the ECB. The lack of electronic no-ball detection is the sticking point for the ECB.