Jump to content

To toss or not to toss? ICC may scrap tradition

Sachinism

By Sachinism
in Cricket Talk

Recommended Posts

Sachinism Newbie

Sachinism

Posted
Posted

Test cricket's fundamental starting point may be scrapped, as the ICC's cricket committee prepares to debate whether or not the coin toss should be removed as a way of reducing home ground advantage in the looming Test Championship.

Every single Test match since the very first, between Australia and England at the MCG in March 1877, has begun with a toss of the coin to decide who should bat or bowl first. The home captain flips the coin and the visiting captain calls heads or tails.

However, there has been a growing body of opinion that home boards have manipulated conditions to suit their team, in turn adding a disproportionate level of importance to the toss. The proposed remedy is to abandon the coin toss for matches played as part of the Test Championship, to commence with Australia's Ashes tour of England in 2019, leaving the visiting side to elect whether to bat or bowl first.

This would be an extension of the playing conditions now used in the English County Championship since the start of the 2016 season, whereby the visiting team can choose to bowl first, with a coin toss to follow if the captain is not fussed. According to briefing notes circulated ahead of the ICC cricket committee meeting at the end of May in Mumbai and seen by ESPNcricinfo:

"There is serious concern about the current level of home team interference in Test pitch preparation, and more than one committee member believes that the toss should be automatically awarded to the visiting team in each match, although there are some others on the committee who do not share that view."

 

Full article: http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/23525914/to-toss-not-toss-icc-scrap-tradition

 

Been suggesting this since it was introduced to English Country cricket. I welcome the change

Link to comment
sandeep Grand Master

sandeep

Posted
Posted

I'm not against scrapping the toss - but just giving it to the visiting team is too much of an advantage.  I would love to see the 'toss' move to an auction instead.  Both captains 'bid' on the right to choose batting/bowling first by giving up runs.  For example, if batting first is an advantage worth say, 50 runs, its worth it to bid 30 runs for the right to bat first, and so on.  This way, the team getting the benefit of the conditions doesn't get a one-sided benefit.  

Link to comment
kosingh Collaborator

kosingh

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, AuxiliA said:

Would be an extremely poor decision.

 

Green tops and rank turners would go extinct and we will see abundance of super-flat pitches, as the home teams wouldn't want to give any advantage to the touring teams. 

Yeah this is my concern. I don't like the idea of the home groundsman knowing that the home team will not be given a chance at choosing whether to bat/field. Will have definite implications for how pitches are prepared. 

Link to comment
Sachinism Newbie

Sachinism

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
20 minutes ago, AuxiliA said:

Would be an extremely poor decision.

 

Green tops and rank turners would go extinct and we will see abundance of super-flat pitches, as the home teams wouldn't want to give any advantage to the touring teams. 

The other side of the coin is, two evenly-matched teams go into a match, knowing you if you're batting the 4th innings, you've already lost. Basically having a match decided by a coin toss.

Or day/night games where dew is a big factor, chasing nullifies any spinners, reduces swing, again result practically dictated by the toss

Edited by Sachinism
Link to comment
Gollum Grand Master

Gollum

Posted
Posted

Will also make the game boring. For example in India all visiting teams will invariably choose to bat 1st. That means there will be only one way for India to win matches, bat big else we'll struggle big time in 4th innings. We will always have to play catch up , react to opponents rather than striving for the initiative from day 1. Also less number of permutations and combinations, the beauty of test cricket compared to white ball cricket is the number of ways you can conduct a match. You can get a big 1st innings lead and bulldoze the opposition, you can have a stinker in 1st innings and then grind to a draw in the 3rd innings, match can be reduced to a 1 innings shootout...so much variety. Now if we are to bat 2nd every time it will get mundane after a few matches. Besides a player (batsman or bowler) has to be tested in all 4 innings of a match, not just 2 out of 4. All players react differently depending on innings number. How will it be fair if Ashwin/Jadeja never bowl in innings 2/4 and Kohli never bats in innings 1/3 in India....this idea is so stupid on so many counts. 

Link to comment
YCCC Rookie

YCCC

Posted
Posted (edited)

Just leave the game alone FFS. Bad enough having this shite in the county championship. Yorkshire have really struggled since it was brought in. Whether that's a coincidence who knows but I hate it.

 

One of the many things I love about the game is the anticipation. Will we be batting first or bowling? Discussing with fellow supporters whether they would bat or field if they won the toss. Bastards administrators. ICC, ECB, BCCI, WICB, CA. The list goes on... All seem to make it their mission to destroy the game I love.

Edited by YCCC
Link to comment
YCCC Rookie

YCCC

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, sandeep said:

:D   

 

Always enjoy your posts YCCC.

Tbh I blame the coaching staff more than anything for our poor form since Gillespie left. The first season of the no toss rule we still had Gillespie, nearly won the Championsship but the cracks were starting to appear.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...