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England v New Zealand 20/20 Betting: Short game will suit "cavallier" Black Caps

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Frank Gregan reckons fans need to be kept more involved in Test Matches and tips New Zealand for Twenty20 glory

"Mrs. Black and White, she's never seen a shade of grey, always something on her mind, every single day," is a lyric from an Amy McDonald song. I swear I know Mrs Black and White's husband! He is a regular in my local, ex-RAF aircrew, Vice Chief Wing Commodore or some other nonsense. He can't be that fiercely loyal to the Air Force, he drinks Guinness not Spitfire! He stands in the corner with about twenty other Grumpy Old Men, of which I am one, solving the nation's problems with the stroke of a cruise missile rather than a pen! I often hear him muttering away to himself about "Bandits at one o'clock" and "Chocks away Smithers" and I pick up my Strongbow and gladly ignore him.

However, when it comes to cricket I sit up and listen to what he has to say. He is a member at Somerset, regularly attends test matches all over England and spent a month in the Caribbean watching the last World Cup. I listen to his rants about the state of the game because I think he has spent enough time and money for his opinion to deserve respect.

His two major concerns are bad light and over rates. I sympathised with him when he returned from Lords after the first test against the Black Caps armed with more ammunition for his argument that technology needs to be introduced in order to make the bad light law objective rather than subjective. He was dismayed that no information was available to the masses, the only people in the ground who seemed to know what was going on were the two blokes out in the middle holding light meters whilst dressed like butchers.

My solution is simple. A directive needs to be issued from the ICC that bad light will be offered to batsmen when the light reaches a certain reading and to the fielding captain when it reaches a pre-determined higher level. The reading could be displayed on the scorecard so that the crowd and TV audience is privy to exactly the same information as the umpires. His solution is that one of the umpires should have a limb broken every time they offer the light to either team.

Over rate is also simple to solve. A conventional test match day consists of six hours play at 15 overs per hour, a minimum total of ninety overs. Another small adjustment to the scoreboard, a 60-minute clock and display the number of overs bowled in the hour. If a batsman needs treatment or the players have to leave the field for any reason the umpires call 'time off' and stop the clock. If the bowling team is short of its fifteen overs a penalty is applied, i.e. two runs conceded for every ball not bowled. If batsmen are time wasting, tying laces, unnecessary gardening etc then after receiving a warning they would face a punitive penalty.

Test cricket is steeped in tradition. But change is vital in the present day environment of multi-choice sport at the touch of a button. Football has demonstrated how law change can improve a game. The banning of the back pass to the 'keeper changed the game overnight and increased the tempo.

Audiences have an abundance of sports to watch. Any law change that enables them to know exactly what is going on in the middle has to be for the good of the game.

It could be argued that given their showing thus far the Black Caps need a rule change that will allow them to play sixteen batsmen in order to be competitive. However, I'm hopeful that the Twenty20 format will suit their cavalier style and will be backing them at [2.44] in this week's encounter. I will be looking to trade in play if at any stage they get below [1.45].

And Mr Black and White's solution to the over rate issue? Get rid of Gordon Brown and bring back National Service. That's his answer to every other problem in this country.

• Cricket
• Bat and ball