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Australia's spin legend Shane Warne has called for changes to all formats of cricket in order to bring about a better balance between bat and ball and sustain the interest of fans.
He believes that One-Day Internationals needs one major change: scraping the maximum 10-over rule per bowler and allowing them to bowl unlimited number of overs.
“Firstly, bowlers should be able to bowl unlimited overs, not restricted to 10.”
Warne also suggested doing away with fielding restrictions in ODIs which he believes would expose defensive captains in the shorter formats.
“We should do away with all field restrictions; the better attacking captains will be able to show their imagination and flair. The captain will control the game with clever field placements, the negative, defensive captains with little understanding of the game will be exposed, as they will just revert to putting everyone on the fence, yawn, boring and the batsmen will dissect that field and manage to get two runs a ball minimum. I also think this will make the bowlers take more responsibility in the fields they want and this change will make the players think more.
“ Inevitably what will happen is that enterprising, attacking captains will mostly succeed,” he wrote in his column on his official website (shanewarne.com).
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Warne, 45, is regarded as one of the greatest players to have graced the game. He took a massive 708 wickets in 145 Tests, the second highest after Muttiah Muralitharan, to go along with 293 scalps in 194 ODIs.
He says though the size, width and weight of bat have changed over the years, the cricket ball, except for a change in colour, has stayed the same for over 100 years now.
“With the aid of technology, cricket bats have improved beyond belief and that’s a good thing, more of it I say. However, apart from a variety of colors, the ball hasn’t changed since Bradman was as boy.
“I don’t care how big they make the bats. Go out there with a railway sleeper if you can lift it, but isn’t it time we did something with the ball to help the bowler?
“Why not look at a two-piece ball? That would make the cherry hoop around, and make things interesting for batsmen and bowlers alike, or a prouder seam to make the ball talk in all conditions. Remember what happens when we tape one side of a tennis ball.
“Surely we could replicate that by it being weighted on one side like a lawn bowl, which would make the damn thing talk,” he concurred.
He is also against bringing in the boundary ropes for bigger grounds like the Melbourne Cricket Ground or other large venues.
“If you’re going to play international cricket matches in countries like New Zealand, where the biggest capacity grounds are build for rectangular sports like rugby and soccer, some venues are going to be very small.
“Nothing you can do about that. But why mess with the boundaries on the bigger grounds?
“Sure, bring them in a smidge for safety reasons, but not 15 metres. Leave grounds the way they are or make them as big as they possibly can, do not bring them in so far. This has to stop.”
Warne also asked the International Cricket Council to re-consider their decision to have only 10 teams in the next 50-over World Cup, in 2019 in England.
“There has been considerable debate about the participation of the associated nations in the 2015 World Cup, with many in both cricket hierarchy and media suggesting that they should be excluded from future tournaments.
“I’m of the view that the more nations the better, so, about a month out from the World Cup, let’s have a competition between all the associated nations?
“Those four teams that get through to the semi-final stage of that tournament would automatically qualify to play in the World Cup. Remember cricket is a global game. We need to also make sure that every country’s A side travel and play against the associate nations otherwise they are never exposed to top cricket,” he said.
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