Occasional mention on the radio yesterday about the inability of the test teams to bowl the 90 overs in a six hour day,regardless of delays. When play could be extended for an extra hour the over rate was dragged out to fill the time available
In shield cricket this is a matter of course and at one point teams had to bowl 100 overs in day.
It is a deliberate tatic to reduce the number of balls bowled to limit the scoring, (this goes way back to Hutton and the 51 overs in a day).
In ODI's the penalties for not bowling the overs are severe wuth the captains being suspended for repeated occurrences.
So why is the slow (and low over) rate tolerated in tests ?
I think the answer is simply to suspend the captain of the teams that don't bowl the overs.
But will this happen ?
In shield cricket this is a matter of course and at one point teams had to bowl 100 overs in day.
It is a deliberate tatic to reduce the number of balls bowled to limit the scoring, (this goes way back to Hutton and the 51 overs in a day).
In ODI's the penalties for not bowling the overs are severe wuth the captains being suspended for repeated occurrences.
So why is the slow (and low over) rate tolerated in tests ?
I think the answer is simply to suspend the captain of the teams that don't bowl the overs.
But will this happen ?