With fading hopes of a review of the use of two new balls and new field restrictions India’s medium-pacers and spinners may have to grit their teeth and compete in One-Day Internationals.
The International Cricket Council’s cricket committee meets once a year and the outcome of next year’s meeting in May is unlikely to cheer up the Indians and other Asian teams.
“The ICC would like to keep the ODI playing conditions stable until the World Cup (2015) in Australia and New Zealand. We have had a number of changes in recent times,” said ICC chief executive David Richardson here on Tuesday.
Varying conditions
The former South Africa wicketkeeper said conditions varied in different parts of the cricketing world and that in the sub-continent the bowlers had been at the receiving end with pitches not affording sideways movement and turn.
“But overall if you look at the results, what we are seeing is that the total runs scored in an innings have more or less remained constant when compared to the previous years before the new regulations were introduced. The average runs scored in an innings is about 250 and the data only shows that a higher percentage of those 250 are scored in fours and sixes as opposed to ones and twos.
“This is the reason why we introduced the fielding restrictions in the first place to try and make the game more attacking and exciting. There are more wickets falling and more boundaries being scored and the totals on an average have remained the same.’’
Without mentioning the big scores in the recent ODIs played in India, especially against Australia, Richardson said wickets had been really flat and the bowlers had a tough job. “If you look at the results in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa you will find that the new fielding restrictions and also the fact that we are using two new balls, has allowed the bowlers to take more wickets especially in the first 10 overs.
“I think the use of two new balls have worked well. Overall it has been a success.”
ICC guidelines
When asked if the ICC would issue guidelines for preparation of pitches for the World Cup, he said: “Certainly for ICC events we do give directions to host countries. It will be the same as the World Cup that was held in the sub-continent.
“The pitches in Australia and New Zealand tend to be more seamer-friendly as opposed to spinner-friendly; so our direction would be for a pitch that provides good bounce but not too much lateral movement. Generally in one-day cricket we try to favour the batting team and we look for totals between 230 and 260.”
