Legalise Ball-Tampering

Its been 3 days since the Oval test and still ICC hasn't made it clear how exactly Darrell Hair & Billy Doctrove arrived at the conclusion that Inzamam or any other Pakistan player tampered with the ball. The hearing which was to be held on friday is most likely post-poned. Lawyers are being called upon and media is rife with criticisms and condemnations about the incident.

Now this post is not about who is right and who is wrong. The umpires followed the rule book and Inzy is too proud a man to be labelled a cheat. It is just unfortunate that the common sense was over-looked and the situation descended to become what it has now.

However, if there is one good thing that can come out of this controversy is that the ICC pay heed to Bob Woolmer's call to abolish the law 42.3 which deals with ball-tampering. For quite some time now, I've been of the belief that ball-tampering should be allowed. Simply because the game is too lop-sided against the bowlers. I'm sick of watching second class batsman plunder runs on flat pitches aided with heavy bats and short boundaries. Even a mis-timed edge goes over the ropes leaving bowlers to curse their fate. Add to this the fielding restrictions and bouncer rule and you have batsmen who can virtually plant their front leg and swing with their eyes closed. Darren Berry in The Age also talks about the same thing.

By empowering the bowlers we're only going to benefit the game and make it more competitive. Bowlers have to be careful about how to make best use of the ball and batsmen have to come up with ways to counter the late swing and seam. There is more to it than simply scratching the ball and letting it go and who better than Simon 'The Analyst' Jones to explain how its done .