There is lot of talk going on about Matthew Hayden unveiling the so called 'Revolutionary Mongoose Bat' .
I remember, as a school boy, playing with such a bat for my village team. That was not a technological innovation for us, rather it was an improvisation -- a very good bat broke at the bottom and we did not have much money that we could discard the broken bat, so we chipped away the broken part, shaped the shoulders of the bat a bit to balance the weight and were left with a slightly shorter bat. And in retrospect, we had our own ingenious Mongoose bat. That bat became quite a favorite among the hard hitters in the team. However, even at the village level cricket it was clear that the shortened bat was not the best equipment to play the fast bowler bowling with new ball.
In our times anything that favors batsmen and in particular hard hitting batsmen is always welcome so in that sense it is not surprising that such a bat has been approved for use in the international cricket.
In his first match of IPL-2010 Hayden was supposed to use it. As I read form the commentary on cricinfo that he wanted to start with conventional bat and then once settled, would bring on the 'revolutionary bat'.
I do not want to argue with such a strategy, but I have a couple of questions for the administrators of cricket.
Would they allow a bowler to pick up a ball in the middle of the match because the bowler thinks that with a slightly worn out ball he can get better spin (a spin bowler) or get more reverse swing (fast bowler) and so on... Hayden intending to change his bat to a different one in the middle of his inning is similar. But it is clear from the outset that bowlers will not be allowed to go for such a 'strategy'.
On related note, Hayden wants to use a bat that gives him a better hitting power, are we willing to give the bowlers a choice to chose a ball of his choice for instance one with slightly oval shape because that would swing more, or one with raised seam to get better movement off the seam...
Cricket is a contest between bat and ball and the rule makers and administrators of the game should be aware of this basic fact and follow it while making any policy decision.
There is lot of apprehension among the cricket fraternity about the survival of the game. If there is anything threatening cricket right now then it is biased approach of the rule makers and administrators, which is favors the batsmen more than the bowlers.
The Mongoose bat is yet another instance that reminds us of our bias against bowler and reminds that we should strive for equality of contest between bowler and batsmen else a batmen dominated game would no longer remain 'Cricket' as we have known it.
I remember, as a school boy, playing with such a bat for my village team. That was not a technological innovation for us, rather it was an improvisation -- a very good bat broke at the bottom and we did not have much money that we could discard the broken bat, so we chipped away the broken part, shaped the shoulders of the bat a bit to balance the weight and were left with a slightly shorter bat. And in retrospect, we had our own ingenious Mongoose bat. That bat became quite a favorite among the hard hitters in the team. However, even at the village level cricket it was clear that the shortened bat was not the best equipment to play the fast bowler bowling with new ball.
In our times anything that favors batsmen and in particular hard hitting batsmen is always welcome so in that sense it is not surprising that such a bat has been approved for use in the international cricket.
In his first match of IPL-2010 Hayden was supposed to use it. As I read form the commentary on cricinfo that he wanted to start with conventional bat and then once settled, would bring on the 'revolutionary bat'.
I do not want to argue with such a strategy, but I have a couple of questions for the administrators of cricket.
Would they allow a bowler to pick up a ball in the middle of the match because the bowler thinks that with a slightly worn out ball he can get better spin (a spin bowler) or get more reverse swing (fast bowler) and so on... Hayden intending to change his bat to a different one in the middle of his inning is similar. But it is clear from the outset that bowlers will not be allowed to go for such a 'strategy'.
On related note, Hayden wants to use a bat that gives him a better hitting power, are we willing to give the bowlers a choice to chose a ball of his choice for instance one with slightly oval shape because that would swing more, or one with raised seam to get better movement off the seam...
Cricket is a contest between bat and ball and the rule makers and administrators of the game should be aware of this basic fact and follow it while making any policy decision.
There is lot of apprehension among the cricket fraternity about the survival of the game. If there is anything threatening cricket right now then it is biased approach of the rule makers and administrators, which is favors the batsmen more than the bowlers.
The Mongoose bat is yet another instance that reminds us of our bias against bowler and reminds that we should strive for equality of contest between bowler and batsmen else a batmen dominated game would no longer remain 'Cricket' as we have known it.
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