THE recent innovations designed to make one-day cricket more interesting should be scrapped unless the game's administrators were prepared to overhaul them, Australia captain Ricky Ponting said yesterday.
Ponting and his New Zealand counterpart, Daniel Vettori, questioned the viability of the super sub and power-play rule changes, which were introduced to the limited-overs game on a 10-month trial basis in July.
Ponting described the International Cricket Council's edict that teams must name their substitute player before the coin toss as a severe disadvantage to the team that calls incorrectly.
For example, should Australia choose to use specialist bowler Mick Lewis as its super sub in today's one-dayer in Wellington, he would need to be injected into the game from the outset should Ponting lose the toss and be consigned to fielding first.
Under that scenario, a specialist batsman would have to be removed from the Australia line-up immediately and, because no interchange of substitutes is permitted, it would be forced to enter its innings with reduced batting depth.
"To be able to name your sub after the toss would work better for everybody," Ponting said.
"Now it can be too much of an advantage for the team that wins the toss.
"They've obviously picked their sub on the way they want to use him. The team that loses the toss can be stuck with not having that other option. So it's almost 12 against 11."
Ponting gained a sneak preview of the innovations designed to liven up the increasingly tedious middle overs of a one-day game when they were used during a three-match challenge series against England in July before the Ashes series.
The ICC's cricket committee (under the chairmanship of former India opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar) will review the effectiveness of the changes at the end of May and decide whether they will be retained.
Asked if he believed the changes should survive beyond May without fine-tuning, Ponting was emphatic, saying: "In their present form I'd probably say scrap them."
Vettori also harbours reservations about the super-sub tactic, claiming it effectively robs New Zealand of one of its distinct advantages in the one-day arena.
The Kiwis recently rose to be the second-ranked one-day team in the world, largely because of their glut of all-rounders, which meant they could call on a myriad of bowling options while not compromising their batting depth.
But with rival teams now able to swing extra batsmen and bowlers into their playing XI, the absence of specialist players is seen as one of the reasons New Zealand has tumbled to seventh in the rankings in recent months.
Vettori's greater concern involves the spurious power plays that were designed to add an element of intrigue to the abbreviated game's tactics, but have simply ensured fielding restrictions remain in place for the first 20 overs of an innings rather than the traditional 15.
"I don't see a lot of point to them really," Vettori said.
"I don't enjoy them purely as a bowler and I think they make it harder on the spin bowlers.
"I think captains are just trying to get through them as quickly as possible as opposed to using them in any advantageous way.
"That's probably not what they were designed to do but that's basically what they've become. I enjoyed the 15 overs, it was a nice sort of balance.
"The 15-40 overs is somewhere I've bowled a lot and I think it's one of the most skilful parts of the game for the batting and bowling side.
"And as a captain you have to find different ways to attack with different options. I feel like the power plays are taking that away and I think they were designed for the opposite reason."
Ponting suggested that the power-play option could be made more interesting if the batting team was allowed to choose when during its innings to implement one of the five-over blocks of fielding restrictions.
However, as a bowler Vettori was not so convinced. "The 40th to 50th overs could be a bit of fun if the opposing captain had a say in those," Vettori said.
The Australian
Now I see why they aren't happy, it seems when the supersub was introduced NZ slipped further and further down. It does make sense given NZ have so many all rounders.
Its not like he is using the supersub anyway. He just brings him onto field bowl maybe 1 or 2 overs and thats the supersub done for the day.
