Bat and ball / Andrew Hughes / 12 October 2009 / Leave a comment

We live in strange times. Cricket, for so long the sport of crusty traditionalists, is changing out of all recognition and every month seems to bring a new development in the sport of bat and ball. Andrew Hughes discusses the innovations of 2009 and asks whether they are good for the game.

"Watching Dilshan pull off this shot, it felt like cricket was evolving before your eyes. It looked spectacular, got everyone talking and is unquestionably good for the game."

The Dilscoop

If 2008 was the year of the 'Switch-Hit', the turn-around left handed slap shot pioneered by Kevin Pietersen, then 2009's novelty stroke was the Dilscoop, brought into the world by Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan. Other players had perfected the art of lapping full tosses to fine-leg but Dilshan took things a step further. Going down on one knee to good-length or even short-pitched bowling, he exhibited the astonishing skill of being able to deflect the ball straight over the wicket keeper's head for four. Watching Dilshan pull off this shot, it felt like cricket was evolving before your eyes. It looked spectacular, got everyone talking and is unquestionably good for the game.

Player Referrals

The use of technology to assist officials is a hot topic in most sports and this year saw the ICC's attempt to address the problem. As usual, they made a mess of it. Trialled during two Test series and due to become a permanent feature from this month onwards, the player referral system allows each team to refer a certain number of decisions per innings to the third umpire. It led to some farcical scenes during the West Indies versus England series, with captains unsure when to use their referrals, umpires unsure over whether they or the third official had the final say and everyone tearing their hair out at the inevitable delays. It is unpopular with players, poorly thought out and threatens to fatally undermine the authority of the on field umpires.

Batting Powerplays

Just when you thought the rules surrounding fifty-over cricket couldn't get more complicated, 2009 saw yet another attempt to tart up the least sexy of cricket formats. The batting powerplay is a block of five overs, nominated by the batting side, during which there must be three fielders outside the fielding restriction area. It was designed to help make those tedious overs in the middle of an innings well, less tedious. Unfortunately, just as fielding captains tend to take their bowling powerplay as soon as possible at the start of the innings, batting teams have tended to be unimaginative in their use of the batting powerplay, invariably taking it during the last ten overs. Whilst this tweak of the format was introduced with the best of intentions, it has not had the desired affect and more changes in the fifty over format are likely.

The Mongoose

2009 saw the first major redesign of the cricket bat since the eighteenth century. The Mongoose has a blade that is thirty-three per cent shorter than the standard bat, with the longer handle creating more leverage and enabling the bat to go through the line of the ball more quickly, generating greater hitting power. It has already been used by Stuart Law in English domestic cricket and has been cleared by the MCC. The Mongoose does have its disadvantages, being ill suited for defence, particularly against short-pitched bowling, but this is unlikely to be an issue in limited overs cricket. Unlike the Dilscoop, this innovation is unquestionably bad for the game, lending batsmen an advantage that bowlers will be unable to counter, given that they are strictly forbidden from altering the condition of the ball.

The Strategy Break

The least-loved of all 2009's innovations, the strategy break was introduced during the IPL. It was an interval of seven minutes taken at the end of the sixth over, to enable teams to talk tactics and thereby reduce the time taken to set their fields at the end of each over. It had virtually no impact on time wasting and most teams spent the seven minutes sitting around discussing their dinner plans. Of course, the real purpose of the strategy break was to shoehorn an extra seven minutes of adverts into proceedings. Thankfully, this universally unpopular innovation seems to have died a death and the current Champions League games are bereft of strategy breaks.

Tags: Champions League cricket betting, Kevin Pietersen, Mongoose bat, Tillakaratne Dilshan