Low inflated rates could be the deciding factor in fourth test loan results: Reuters/Lee Smith
Last week, the International Cricket Council announced an easing of sanctions for inflated rates. The penalties for players have been reduced and it has also become more difficult to score teams in the World Testing Championship.
Usman Khawaja, Australia's first batsman, was right when he lamented that Australian players were fined 80 per cent of their match fees during the first three Ashes Tests. It's also true that, given all the problems that Test cricket faces due to the changing playing landscape, heavy penalties for players risk making the five-day game less attractive to players.
Complaints about inflated stakes may seem commonplace when the entertainment provided by an afternoon in Test cricket has never been so good. Would you rather pay for a second day ticket to Old Trafford after seeing England take Australia's last two wickets and then go 384-4 – in just 79.2 overs – or in Durban at England's last test in the 1990s when England crawled to 135-2 from 85.2 overs after the first day?
Zach Crowley scored 189 of 184 goals to help England take the lead in the third Ashes Test. Photo: AFP/Oli Scarff
But as Manchester weather intervenes at Old Trafford, a funeral over stakes earlier in the test risks costing England a 2-2 draw at the Ashes. In the first three days – even without counting the two lost overs on each change of pitch – 26 overs were lost due to slow betting: the equivalent of an entire playing session. With no more games at Old Trafford and England win at the Oval, belated over-bets could cost England the urn.
Judging by their hefty fines, both teams were guilty of sloppy betting throughout the series. Andrew Samson, Test match statistician, calculated that 75 overs were lost due to slowdowns in this series, and only on days that did not rain or were not the last day of the Test: an average of 6.8 per day.
All in all, there was nothing cynical about such exuberance: a simple reflection of the amount of pace bowling, the number of field changes – especially by Ben Stokes – the time lost due to the review system and the sheer intensity of Ash's cricket. No one who paid for a day of Ashes cricket in this series, even with extortionate ticket prices, can claim to have been cheated.
However, the betting controversy isn't just about value for money for fans. We are also talking about the impact of inflated stakes on the game.
In the 1980s, the West Indies were criticized for playing overs slowly. It wasn't that the West Indies, one of the greatest Test teams of all time, wanted to take their minds off the game, but that the bowling gradually maximized the effectiveness of their great pace attack. Bowling 12 overs an hour allowed fast bowlers to rest both between and during spells: a four or five minute break after each over allowed Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and company to rest and then play again at 90 miles per hour. It also meant that the West Indies didn't have to resort to a fifth bowler to increase their overrate.
A similar dynamic was at work in this series of Ashes. Overspending rates dropped markedly after Edgbaston as the rotation was marginalized. Eight overs were lost at Headingley on the opening day when there were only nine overs as first England knocked Australia out and then Australia began to retaliate. Even on day four, during England's run chase, late bets were still an important tactical weapon, allowing Pat Cummins and Mitchell Stark to score 31 of England's 50 overs between them. Photo: Reuters/Andrew Boyers
However, slow overrates are not only caused by bowling. Whenever a batsman is floundering or one bowler is in the midst of a menacing spell, the day ends with batsmen diligently tying their shoelaces and changing their bats and gloves, all in the name of stealing overs from the outfield side. At the beginning of their partnership, Marnus Labouchagne and Mitchell Marsh went through this nonsense in the last throes of the third day. In the first hour and a half of the fourth day, England only managed 16 overs; the excess speed was only improved when bad light required a full spin attack.
Australia, of course, just behaved the way any team behaves in the same situation. Recall how James Anderson and Monty Panesar repeatedly called for new gloves and drinks as their 10th wicket stand saved England from a tie at the 2009 Ashes Test in Cardiff. It is said that back at Headingley in 1953, the England team deliberately slowed down the busting speed: 12 overs in the last 45 minutes, which was considered to be about three overs slower than usual. This helped Australia not reach its goal on time.
The reduction in player penalties suggests that the ICC and top-heavy countries like Australia and England care little about this issue. But while reducing fines seems to be tantamount to giving up even the excuse to care about the law and not the rates, the existence of fines has proved futile. And players who have served cricket as convincingly as Ash have a right to the fact that they do not have to effectively play almost for free.
Draconian fines may not have been the right decision, but they did solve a real problem.
And so an alternative approach to inflated rates is needed. Just as the last hour of every fifth day must contain a minimum of 15 overs – meaning that playing time is extended until the number is reached – the same can apply to every day; it is at the end of the day when one team is trying to defend their position that the most blatant slowdown often occurs from both batsmen and bowlers.
Referees should be empowered to be more vigilant of teams slowing down games, such as bringing drinks outside of scheduled breaks. Instead of severely penalizing players, perhaps referees should even be given the ultimate tool to stop wasting time during games: penalty runs that could be awarded to opponents if one team gained an advantage by moving slowly.
Recent Comments