Laxman Sivaramakrishnan will champion the cause of bowlers in a game dominated by batsmen, as a member of the ICC Cricket Committee.
Sharing his thoughts with The Hindu on Monday, the 47-year-old Sivaramakrishnan said, “It is a great honour. I will have to see what’s on the agenda and then take a call.”
The former India leg-spinner, however, was willing to share his ideas on several key issues.
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Sivaramakrishnan favoured a points system for drawn Tests. “In case, the series ends in a stalemate, then we should see which team has clinched more sessions in the drawn match or matches to determine the series winner.”
On the use of technology, Sivaramakrishnan said, “If batsmen and bowlers can make mistakes, why cannot the umpire? To err is human and we should not take that element away from the game.”
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He added, “If we have too much technology, then we would not have the best umpires doing the job. We would be taking their natural instinct away and make them too dependent on technology.”
Talking about the strict ‘calling’ of wides in the abbreviated forms of the game, Sivaramakrishnan said, “I would rather go by where the ball pitches rather than what it does after pitching. Suppose a googly lands on off and goes past leg, it should not be called a wide since the batsman has every chance of getting to the ball.”
He was all for pacemen sending down two bouncers per batsmen in an over rather than the existing two-bouncers-an-over rule.
Siva was not willing to be drawn into a discussion on being elected as players’ representative in the ICC panel despite India not having a recognised players’ body but did not hold back his views on cricketing matters.
He backed a stronger lbw law. “If the ball pitches outside off and is going on to hit the stumps, the batsman should be adjudged leg-before even if he is playing a shot. Even if the delivery pitches outside leg and is going on to knock down stumps, the batsman should be adjudged out.”