Powerplay's...Freehit's...What's Next

A lot of changes in cricket are happening all the time, but are any changes working in favour of bowlers. I feel all the changes made till now are working in favour of the batsman, look at this powerplay there has been always restriction for the fielding on one-day matches on first fifteen overs but the odd thing is “batting powerplay”. For example you are watching a football match which is closing to an thrilling end then the referee comes and says that one team can have only 3 or 2 players for their defence, what would you say? Nothing less than “crazy” comes on my mind. The same feeling happens to me then a good chasing cricket match is going on and nail biting climax is on the making like 40 runs needed on 30 balls, you are not even changing the channel for a second. Then you know what happens next….powerplay tactics comes into play. The match changes to be one sided in a couple of over. Now the freehit, blowers are been penalised twice for one mistake, actually this term freehit should be changed as “with love ICC”.

On a flat pitch when most of the balls are been hit all around the park, nobody complains about the pitch. On the other case then the ball is turning, bouncing and the teams got out on a low score then all are complaining about the pitch especially the visiting team. Good competitive pitches can create good cricket matches. Likewise good bowlers can create good batsmen. The main point is that you can’t increase the standard or interest of cricket by spoiling one part of the game which is bowling. We are still taking about great bowler like Imran,Kapil,Akram,Mcgrath,Waqar,Murali etc and we will be taking about their greatness even after 10 years. Not just because they are great bowlers, also because there wont be too many to fill their vacuum. These players achieved the greatness because they had their chance to bowl on good pitches. But are the current bowlers having the equal chance of the past to achieve the greatness. Above all on 20-20 matches one batsman can change the game completely. One missed catch or runout can finish the match easily because there is not many opportunity for bowlers to create wickets. Bowlers have to wait till the batsmen make a mistake, that is definitely not satisfying for any bowler. The gap between good batsmen and ordinary batsmen are reduced significantly on a flat pitch. Let’s hope the inswingers and outswingers won’t be treated as magic trick in future.