Michael Clarke says the fabric of cricket will be destroyed if bouncers aren’t allowed to be thrown at tailors or, indeed, those who rise through the ranks at a young age.
On Monday, the MCC held an extensive conference call to discuss whether bouncers are still fit for the modern game.
The number of balls above shoulder height is limited under current MCC laws, but a better understanding of concussions in sports and degenerative brain disease has led to more discussion about the continued use of short-pitch bowling.
As such, bouncers were a major point of discussion at the meeting of the MCC’s World Cricket Committee, which also includes Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting.
The MCC will now investigate whether to update rules around bouncers, starting with a survey released in March among various stakeholders.
Data from the survey will then be discussed by the MCC, while any changes to current legislation should be led by various committees and sub-committees, as well as the International Cricket Council, with a decision to be taken in December 2021.
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Aussies breaking the past
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But Clarke, one of Australia’s top hitters of the 21st century, who led his country to World Cup glory in 2015, said making short-pitch bowling illegal for those under 18 and those hitting number 8 or below. waste.
No. No, you learn it from an early age, Clarke said Sky Sports Big Sports breakfast on Wednesday.
Make sure our protective gear is as safe as possible, because if you miss a bouncer, you have a helmet on, or a set of gloves, or a neck protector, whatever it is, that’s key.
It is an essential part of the game.
While the ball dominated the bat in Test cricket during the recent Australian summer, all forms of the game are increasingly bat-friendly wickets.
In large part, that’s because of covered wickets, the technology invested to make bats as thick and light as possible, and broadcasters want matches to last as long as possible.
An early at bat collapse sinks the Aussies
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For that reason, Clarke said it would be a hard blow if bowlers were limited in where they could bowl.
People who haven’t played the game don’t understand how much easier it is as a batsman when you can just plant yourself on the front foot and position yourself, he said.
It’s already a game of hitting, so you take away any kind of advantage that the bowlers have if you can only bowl a certain length.
For a fast bowler, that is your greatest weapon; a few short balls, they don’t have to be headed, they can sit by the ribs, push the batsman back, then bowl that ball, that good length, that’s going to hit the top of the off stump. The batsmans have been pushed back so he stays in the crease, that’s the ball he kinks or misses and comes out lbw.
A lot of the time with a wicket, it’s the lineup, it’s what happens to the ball before the batsman gets out, not the actual ball.
There are so many things that happen outside of the ball in cricket that are so important to the game and bowling bouncers is one of those things.
So I think trash, I think you have to face it from a young age, learn it from a young age, make sure they are protected. We don’t want to see accidents like we’ve seen in the past, but protective gear has been improved. It improves every day and that’s the most important part.
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The varying ability of those who hit the lower order is another reason the subject is so irritated.
While Mohammed Shami was ruled out from Indias three final Tests against Australia in December after being hit by a short ball in hand, others have scored hundreds in the tail.
Australian Ashton Agar scored 98 on his debut against England in 2013, while lower hitter Ravichandran Ashwin scored his fifth-century hitter at No. 7 last week.
Clarke went so far as to say that the regular Australia number 11 Nathan Lyon would score for centuries if bouncers were made illegal for tail-enders.
Changing the game and asking bowlers not to throw bouncers at the tail like who is the tail? he said.
If you don’t throw bouncers at Nathan Lyon, make a hundred.
Ashwin hit eight [seven] and made a hundred in a test match.
So if you say No. 8, No. 9, 10, 11, we wouldn’t be throwing bouncers at them, I say don’t worry Steve Smith, you can bet this game No. 8.
