A Special Probe Into The World of Cricket

Shaun my good friend, that is one interesting topic that you have left me to ponder but one I am willing to delve into. A quick search has revealed that yes, team scores are tending to be higher these days than in yesteryears - at least for one day matches (and it should be noted one day cricket has only been around for about 30 years). Although the top 4 highest scores of all time (including Sri Lanka’s whopping 5-398 against Kenya in 1995/96) were hit in the mid to late nineties, a large proportion of scores above the 330 mark (when you know you have really been spanked) have been scored since 2000. Now why is this? Is it because players are getting better, or perhaps technology has improved the bats, or maybe even global warming has produced better conditions for batters. No I say, it can’t be any of those reasons. If players are getting better, then wouldn’t bowlers also be getting better? And most of the highest individual scores have been made in the century preceding the one we now call the present. In 1997, Saeed Anwar of Pakistan was able to smash his way to 194 against India. You have to go back to the days of Viv Richards of West Indies (1984) to get the second highest score of 189 against England. Mark Waugh’s (if you didn’t know he was Australian shame on you…shame ,shame ,shame) 173 against the West Indies is the highest score since 2000 (9th all time highest), followed by Craig Wishart’s (Zimbabwe) score of 172 against Namibia in 2003 and, in all fairness to Namibia, I have captained greater backyard cricket sides than the one they produced that day. So it would seem the players are of no higher standard than their predecessors.
So what about technology? Surely that must be having an effect, afterall golfers are hitting further and tennis players hitting faster. But no, cricket is a sport which has kept the rate of technology in check (except for the use of the third umpire – understandable for run outs but catches and LBW’s I mean cmon lets get serious for a moment). The only improvement on the bat is perhaps the quality of wood that is used to make it.
Global warming? The conditions do play a part in the game of cricket but because you cant play when it rains anyway, conditions have a factor of 0 in terms of performance.
So to the reason why team scores are tending to be higher now than before: Back in the mid nineties Sri Lanka changed the way the one day game was played. In the first 15 overs of the innings, the fielding side can only have 2 players outside the inner circle. This means there are a lot of players in close to the batsmen but if they can get the ball through the field it is at least 2 if not 4. The game plan was just to play conventional, safe cricket for 15 overs and wait for the field to spread out a bit. In the mid nineties, Sri Lanka decided the first 15 overs was where they were going to get there runs. With most the fielders up, it meant the boundary was unguarded. So Sri Lanka played unconventional, dangerous cricket - introducing new shots if needed – and took on the bowlers in the first 15 overs of their innings hitting the ball hard, over the top or through the field for boundaries. This is when they scored their 398. Now, although that thinking is still sometimes employed (like when Australia belted 359 against India in the 2003 World Cup final in South Africa and again just 2 summers ago at the SCG) most teams go for the conservation of wickets approach. The theory is that if a team still has 7 or 8 wickets left with just 10 or 15 overs to go, they can start to hit out and take some risks. So early on in the innings, instead of hitting out, teams like to go steady with a run rate of about 4 or 5 an over and keep wickets in hand. If they can make it to 40 overs with a score of about 3-200, they can afford to take risks and will quite often hit about 8 to 10 an over for the final 10 overs, reaching a score close to 300. Ten years ago, 250 would win more games than it lost, now 270/280 is generally a par score. This is also helped with the structure of the team. With each bowler only allowed to bowl 10 overs, there needs to be at least five bowlers in the team. These days there are normally 3 or 4 bowlers and a couple of allrounders. This means the team has more players that can hit the ball and not just swing the bat like bowlers tend to do. And this may also be why individual scores are not breaking records. The batters at the top may go out and have a hit early to try and establish a dominating position over the fielding side but if they fail, the lower top/ middle order batsmen bat to get the team back into a position where they can hit out at the end of the innings. Sri Lanka had the players in the mid nineties where they could keep having a hit early on even if they lost early wickets. These days, its have a go early and if that doesn’t work, consolidate and hit out at the end.
It may also be useful to note that in today’s modern game, many more countries are being introduced to the game. In the last world cup, countries such as the Netherlands, Canada and Namibia took part. The captain of the Netherlands was a doctor that took holidays to participate, Canada’s opening batsman only batted at number 6 for a South Australian district side (although he did hit the fastest ever century in a world cup – 111 off 67 balls – a fair effort ill give him that), and one of the Namibian players also played for Namibia in the Rugby Union World Cup suggesting he is one of the greatest athletes in the world or one of just a few athletes in Namibia – me thinks the latter. This can lead to traditional countries like Australia amassing big totals against these newcomers when they play each other.
On saying that, however, last night Bangladesh was able to cause what is perhaps the greatest upset in sporting history by beating Australia. As an Australian it was a gut wrenching moment (if anybody had been around to witness it, they would’ve seen a grown man cry) but as a sport lover it was good to see such a team take a big step in its development and I look forward to the next 10 years when they will become a much tougher opponent. Bangladesh has a population of about 150 million people and ill put money on that there are about 20 million (our population) kids who are right now holding a cricket bat dreaming of being Ashraful and scoring a hundred against Australia to win the match.

Anyways, this is perhaps the most I have ever written in 15 minutes and if you have made it this far I salute you. Why is it that it takes me all night to write a uni assignment but just a quarter of an hour to explore the fascination that is cricket? And I haven’t even mentioned test cricket yet and the way that it is almost opposite to one dayers (in that team totals don’t seem to be getting bigger but individual scores (like Matthew Hayden’s (an Aussie…shame, shame, shame) 380 2 summers ago and then Brian Lara’s (West Indies – wow brackets inside brackets – is that legal) 400 not long after) are on the rise. And what does this all mean for junior and social cricket? And what about yours truly? As a slow/medium swing bowler heading into the allrounder status, should I change my game to reflect that of the stars? But all that’s for another time. This is where it is at. Where?

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Our fine four fendered friend