May 27, 2015 Geoffrey Boycott suggests ways to redress the balance between bat and ball, and talks about how the Lord's victory has lifted the spirits of English cricket
Highlights: 5.3 Broad to Taylor, OUT
Highlights: 1.1 Broad to Latham, OUT
Highlights: 128.6 Boult to Anderson
Highlights: 128.1 Boult to Ali, OUT,
Highlights: 0.2 Anderson to Guptill, OUT
Highlights: 126.3 Boult to Broad, OUT
Highlights: 124.2 Boult to Cook, OUT
Highlights: 23.4 Stokes to Williamson, OUT
Highlights: WATCH - Stokes castles McCullum first ball
Highlights: 50.3 Wood to Watling, OUT
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Sep 15, 2015 Geoff Boycott talks about the comeback of the three banned Pakistani cricketers, the English summer, and Australia's new-look squad
Aug 18, 2015 Geoffrey Boycott assesses the careers of Michael Clarke and Kumar Sangakkara, what kind of support-staff help Alastair Cook has received ...
Aug 4, 2015 Geoffrey Boycott on why a well-fought Ashes series has had one-sided matches, what it will take for Australia to bounce back, what surpri...
Jul 21, 2015 Geoffrey Boycott talks about England's batting concerns, the two pitches used in the Ashes so far, what subcontinent teams need to do to ...
Jul 7, 2015 Geoffrey Boycott on what Ryan Harris would have added to Australia's attack if he was fit, Kumar Sangakkara's career, Angelo Mathews the ...
Jun 23, 2015 Geoffrey Boycott talks about Bangladesh's series win over India, England's over New Zealand, and the upcoming Ashes
Jun 9, 2015 Geoffrey Boycott on the captaincy styles of McCullum and Kohli, the dropping of Chanderpaul, and England's Test form
May 13, 2015 Geoffrey Boycott on the KP situation, what England need to do in the summer, and more
Apr 29, 2015 Geoff Boycott talks about Bangladesh's series win against Pakistan, and how to bowl to AB de Villiers and Steven Smith
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@GULNATHANI - no, I'm sorry mate, they are just ridiculous, not thought-provoking.
12 overs per bowler - yeah fine, can't see any issue with that. Ridding the two new balls, ok, maybe yeah. The rest of your suggestions are utterly insane - you've basically just crafted baseball v2.0...
In any case - with the advent of t20 people want to see bat dominate ball more now than ever. You can say what you like of this fact, but a fact it still remains.
Look at how the powers that be enforce rules to ensure this is so (that's why it is a fact).
I'm totally fine with bat dominating ball in the shorter formats - who wants to watch a team graft and grind their way to 230 (*cough* England *cough*) and then have the team chasing grit it out in the 49th over - those times are (thankfully) over.
The days of regularly watching scenarios like the one I painted are finished - we must accept it and move on.
I suggest 12 overs per bowler. Take away the field restrictions. Get rid of the two new balls, and finally take away the rule of arm rotation ( let them throw like baseball). This will surely tilt the balance of bat and ball, and may increase the worldwide audience ( baseball audience will love it). My suggestions are probably ridiculous to most people but thought provoking. Gulzar Nathani
remove 2 new ball rule. Fans would love to see reverse swing back in the game. Then we can see who is really good at playing both new ball and older ball too.
Come on Cricinfo the audio on this wonderful program is becoming atrocious
T20 has been created for the viewers to see 4s and 6s. Keep all your batting friendly suggestions restricted to that format. Keep the Test cricket and ODI cricket clean. Remove all the stupid rules in ODIs and play it like test cricket for 50 overs. Everything will be balanced.
Why tinker with the format itself! Just remove all the fielding restrictions. Bring in good pitches, increase the boundary lines. Oh remove the free-hit. The bowler will bowl another legal delivery and the batting side is awarded a run for it. Why free-hit for a legal delivery?
This idea would not work. We need to see the pitches change, it is unfair on bowlers to constantly have to bowl on absolute roads where the ball is not spinning or swinging or moving off of the seam. It is either roads or slow low wickets where the batsman can grind the runs resulting in a dull game. Where are the dust bowls and lively green surfaces? Having 5x10 overs is fine. Most of the teams in world cricket only bring four bowlers and share the rest around anyway. The tendency of teams to pick lesser bowlers that can score a quick 20 at the end of an innings has also lowered the standard of international bowling in the middle overs. Cricket is a sport and must change with the times, and high scores are in demand, but if its simply the teams with the best batsman winning every game then why even pick a bowler?
Very bad idea and in fact this will favor batsman in the end. 2 bowlers bowling 15 overs each means, that instead of 5 bowlers bowling 10 overs each, teams will only need 4 bowlers. One less bowler, means one extra batsman for the team. If you really wanted to shift the balance towards the bowlers, do something about the flatness of the pitches. Also, the ridiculous 3 men at the boundary in the last 10 overs needs to seriously be scrapped. Allow 5 men to be near the boundary in the last 10 overs and make the 2 new balls rule optional, not mandatory (so that teams can choose to bowl throughout with old ball or get new ball at any time after halfway point). The old ball will bring back reverse swing and the spinner's role while the extra fielder in the deep will cut the amount of boundaries in the last 10 overs immensely
One of the primary concerns has been the "night games" where the effect of dew goes against the bowlers bowling last. The 50 over game should redress by making it 4x 25 over splits. There were some calls by senior players (SRT) to try this out.
This will further shift the balance in favor of those teams who are batting heavy and use part timers as their 5th bowler. Will definately kill all rounders.. solution is to reduce fielding restrictions.