Jrod: Declare war on the ICC
November 14th, 2008 by JRod in Australia in India, Miscellaneous, Test cricket
Cricket is a professional game, we all know this. Some of us may not like it, others hate it with a fiery passion. This is big business now, sponsors are king, image rights are gold and TV deals are oxygen.
Do you know why this is a big business? Because of us. Each and every one of us is why this game is professional – we watch it, read it, smell it and breathe it. We make the game, the players, the officials and the sponsors money and what do we get for all this: slow over-rates. It’s a slap in the face.
Almost all teams do it, whether they have spinners or not. The half-an-hour extra on a Test day is automatic now and we are the ones who miss out.
Instead of watching cricket we see worried looking captains running up from slip pointing in all directions. Bowlers following through past the batsman and then dawdling back to their mark. People running onto the field with everything from moist face washers to complicated mathematical sums. And let us not forget the sightscreen, something that should be idiot proof, but instead we have to wait for faulty electronics to get rid of the ad that is promoting the series sponsor while it delays the series itself.
Enough.
The ICC could stop this. They could suspend captains. They could end people coming on the field between overs, they could initiate the old fool-proof sightscreens.
They don’t. They know how much we hate it but they apply small fines, let captains off the hook and generally contribute towards the problem.
So perhaps we have to do something. You can join the International Jihad on Slow Over Rates or IJSOR for short. Sign here.
Sign the petition and then tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell Tony Greig, just do something, because this is our game, it isn’t some faceless suit at the ICC’s game. We make the game special, without us the players would have no one to admire them and the sponsors would have to find another way to flog their products.
We deserve respect. We deserve cricket.
Jrod is an Australian cricket blogger, his site Cricketwithballs.net won July’s Best of Blogs in TWC
Posted in Australia in India, Miscellaneous, Test cricket |
November 14th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Signed and spreading the word.
Harder penalties must be put in place. Some have suggested adding on runs for the no of overs that are not bowled in session.
Lets say 30 overs a session is minimum. However many overs are not bowled in the session need to penalised.
Lets say a team scores 100 runs in 25 overs bowled in a session. Thats a rate of 4 per over.
So for the 5 overs not bowled you get penalised 4×5= 20 runs.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
With you on that Damith. The only thing that changes players’ minds is run penalties. And that applies to bad behaviour, cheating etc.
Get rid of fines and bans and just wade in with run penalties.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
To be honest, I don’t really think too much about over-rates, slow or fast. In fact I don’t mind the extra 30 minutes either. And at times, watching Mike Hussey pretending to take wickets can be really funny.
My only point is, the money deducted from erring captain and his colleagues should go to create a “Spectator of the Match” award.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
D Charlton,
Drop the run penalty in the hat and Im sure the overrates will soar.
Its ridiculous that we cant bowl 90 in a day.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but in Indian domestic cricket the opposition used to be awarded 4 runs for each over you “bowled short”.
Here’s an example from 20 years ago:
http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/49/49309.html
I’m not sure how well it worked, but it has been tried.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Brilliant scorecard that Len. Right lads, we’ve scored 444, let’s get a first innings lead and push on from there.
Ah.
And then you get runs added on for slow over-rate…
November 15th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Runs deducted rather than runs added to the other team - way to go!
November 15th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Great work Len. Now all we need is Jrod to start another petition !
November 16th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Funny how whenever someone out-thinks the Aussies, they start asking for a change in the rules. First, Bodyline. Now over rates.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Jagadish, I first asked captains to be castrated if they had bad over rates during the Australia V India test in Melbourne, but don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.
November 16th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I just looked at the scorecard
What a boring game