Dhoni Stop Him From Playing

Mahendra Singh Dhoni
banned for slow over rates

The ICC loves to remind the cricket world that it still thinks it is running the game and the decision to suspend MS Dhoni, taken after India were again thrashed in Perth  in what has become a moving orgy of ritualistic killing by Australia’s fast bowlers, is another in the long list of no brainers.

On the surface, making captains responsible for over rates seems a reasonable ploy to make sure the paying public gets value for their tickets. Of course, if this was an important consideration, you wouldn’t see in two days at the Gabba what you can only see in one at the SCG. When the Kiwis were pasted in just three and a half days in Brisbane last November, it cost $135 to see the first three days and public transport  to and from the ground was free. In Sydney two months later, similar seats and facilities over the first three days cost $345, buses and trains cost the earth and parking at the ground was $20 day ... cheaper that public transport but unlike Brisbane, nowhere near as eco-friendly. Heaven knows how much the mums and dads and two or three kiddywinkles cost.

So much for caring about the paying public! Most care is directed toward making sure they keep paying.

Over rates are a modern concern for the game. From the late 1950’s for ten years, cricket was considered dull, with high scoring draws dominating results. The bright spot came during the 1960-61 tour by the West Indies, when the Australia Board of Control was so worried about dull cricket sending patrons running to the beaches, they told Richie Benaud and the touring captain, Frank Worrell that bright cricket would be rewarded. It was at a time when the baby boomers had young impressionable boys running about in their sub teens and the next crop of potential Test players were yet to be steered in the direction of the Baggy Green. The Board consisted of Don Bradman and a collection of venerables who unsurprisingly agreed with with his every word and they saw the danger of surfing champions rising from the bosoms of doting mothers. Of course, bums on wooden seats in antiquated stands never entered their stockbroker, banker, lawyers heads.

Apart from South Africa and the West Indies who played to win, Test teams played to not lose.

Despite this negativity, over rates were splendid. Any number of examples can be found but take the tied Test in Brisbane as one example. Approximately 520 over were bowled (six ball equivalent overs) over the space of five days of six hours each day. That's more than a hundred overs a day and Wes Hall bowled more than sixty of them from a run that pushed off the sightboard.

Then in 1975-76, Clive Lloyd’s West Indians came to Australia and were thrashed by much the same mob of Australians who thrashed the Poms the season before. In his team were the baby-faced Viv Richards, who started the tour as Lillee and Thommo's bunny and finished it with a swagger; and the fast bowling Rolls Royce, Michael Holding, who cried in Sydney when Ian Chappell was caught behind but given not out but bought batsmen to tears ever after. Lloyd took the lesson of three fast bowlers and ramped it up to four and twenty years and three generations of West Indies domination began.

The Big Bird

It was then that over rates plummeted. Twelve overs an hour was the maximum and his bowlers would average 18 overs in the day. You couldn’t wear them out and you could get after them. Two balls an over were bouncers, three were short of a length and maybe one was up in the batsman’s half. If you could score of the fuller and some of the shorter ones, you might get 15 to 20 balls an hour to score off. Bruce Laird once complained to one of the West Indian quicks that they never offered the batsman a chance to drive. "If you want to drive maan, buy a car," came the rum seasoned reply.Coupled with aggressive batting, it was an effective way to stifle the opposition but it also strangled the game. Scoring rates dwindled, beating them became next to impossible and fans lost interest.

In the 1990’s, the ICC moved against slow over rates – essentially against the Windies – insisting on 90 over days or 15 overs an hour and limited the number of short balls initially to one per over but relenting to two. Lights on grounds meant that play could continue well past the scheduled close. My son and I watched Warnie take his 300^th Test wicket in 1998 at the SCG, Jacques Kallis being bowled at about 7:10pm. A line producer at Channel 9 got his backside rearranged by Mr Packer when he aired a Current Affair instead. In the early Naughties some Tests in England played on into the gloom nearing 9:00pm, just to fit in the overs and in one famous example, the Australians fielded in a final session for nearly four hours.

TV executives and players weren’t happy, Mark Taylor chief among them.

So, with modifications here and there, we moved to the current system, where fielding  captains are held responsible for ensuring appropriate over rate targets are met. Sounds fair?

Well, there are issues with this.

Watch how often captains use non regular bowlers to rip through overs towards the end of a session in order get the tally up by the break. Hasn’t it surprised you that Clarke has so often turned to Hussey for three or four overs just before lunch, tea or stumps. In Sri Lanka, Ponting bowled a few overs of offies at one stage. Why do you think Sehwag bowls so often for India? Look at each international team and instead of finding over rated bowlers you’ll see “over rate” bowlers.

Why are so many teams at Test level loathe to play four fast bowlers? Clarke did in Perth but he was confident of running through the Indians. South Africa keep selecting Imran Tahir but its not because he is a classy leg spinner – short run up, six balls in two minutes. The Windies and England have lucked in that Bishoo and Swann also take wickets.

Clarke going through
the change

The worst factor which abuses this rule, are the constant interruptions from “runners”. Unless you attend Tests, you are not aware how often the game stops. When Australia is batting, gloves are changed every 30 to 45 minutes, at which time, the batsman have a drink. This happens all day, regardless of the heat or the circumstances and irrespective of official drinks breaks. There are at least three of these interruptions per session and in Sydney, I counted three sessions that had four and they each rob the game of a minute. Doesn’t sound like much? That’s at least 9 minutes in every days play and with additional half hours being the norm, perhaps its 12 minutes. Bowling teams also have a liability, but watching at the ground, the batsmen seem the worst and in this series, the Australians, in the six days of Test cricket I have attended this summer, are the worst offenders, far more the guilty party than India. The excuse: they need to change their gloves ... gloves that are specifically designed to reduce heat and absorb and hold sweat without affecting grip. Bear in mind, that in the cool of Hobart and with batsman coming and going quickly, the same exchanges still happened.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni – please Mark Nicholas, don’t call him “MS” again ... he doesn't have debilitating disease – the Indian captain, ended Perth two overs short. Wickets falling, injuries and sight screen issues, constant movements in the crowd were all mitigated in his favour but he still finished short of the quota. He was fined 40% of his match fee and the Indian players 20%. He has been suspended because its his second "offence" in a twelve month period, the first in Barbados against the West Indies. Now, in a series which the reputation of some of the most wonderful players of the last fifteen years has been shredded by a bright new captain and his mix of youth and experience, the ICC removes the opposition captain. How is this in the interest of cricket and particularly of the fans, either at home or at the ground? India must turn to Sehwag for captaincy - and he doesn't want it - when only VVS Laxman among the batsmen has a worse record this summer. Batsman Wriddhiman Saha will likely keep.

Give them heavy fines but don't deny them from playing.

Two overs ... let see ... an all pace attack in Perth so perhaps those two overs equate to 9 or 10 minutes. Where else might the umpires have found those minutes do you think and when are umpires going to start saying no to unplanned stoppages which are taking advantage of rules to allow re-hydration of particularly the older players? Its all very well for senior Australian players to call on fieldsmen and batsmen to sort out close catches "in the spirit of cricket" but if the spirit is to run free, it applies to these unscheduled drinks breaks. The old times - anyone pre 1990 is ancient these days - survived on one drink an hour and in fact less, if the fielding captain chose to ignore drinks.

Hmmmm. 

India are beaten and the Indian Board looking for scalps; Dhoni talking about retiring from Tests, so perhaps it doesn’t matter.

Imagine the outcry if the series had been 1-1.