The Benefit of The Doubt...

"The Benefit of The Doubt must go to the batsman." How many times have
we heard this statement on live television? Have you ever stopped to wonder
why? "It's common sense, isn't it?"Are the first words to form in our mind.
Think harder. Why? Why in a situation that could go either way, possibly
more likely to go in favour of the bowler instead of the batsman, should the
benefit go to the batsman? The answer that comes to mind is -"It's a bigger
loss for the game if a batsman get's out than if he doesn't." This one
statement captures the []

At the beginning, this mentality did benefit the Gentleman's Game. The
introduction of the Powerplay injected a certain aggression into the opening
overs of the game, where batsman often just blocked for the first few overs.
Powerplays offered a balance for both, giving the bowlers a higher chance of
getting wickets early on while offering the batsmen a chance to set a good
foundation for their innings. As batsmen were still not indoctrinated into the
ways of 360 degree cricket, it was possible for good bowlers to restrict
batsmen even with just two men outside the circle.(This too, has changed
today. If it is to survive, the powerplay must evolve). The introduction of the
batting powerplay added an extra dimension of strategy to the game(should
we take it when our best batsmen are set and batting well or later, wh

en we have a better idea of what score we are trying to reach?) This, again
was a double edged sword- what if in trying to exploit the powerplay, your
best batsman goes aerial and misses and you lose him for the rest of the
match?

In 2012, after some mucking around with the timing of the batting and
bowling powerplays, the ICC once again tried to inject some extra adrenaline
into the ODI game. The ICC announced two balls will be used by the fielding
side, one from each end and that only 4 fielders would be allowed outside the
30-yard circle in non powerplay overs, scrapping the bowling powerplay.
Further, pitch regulations were put into place, but the idea of a good pitch in
terms of these regulations seems to be that of either a green top or a flat
track, with crumbling or sticky pitches considered to not be good pitches. .
Given how difficult it is to maintain green tops, most groundsmen
inadvertently serve up flat tracks. Finally, the ICC ordered that the
boundaries at every ground be pulled in, to make sure no players got injured
fielding on the boundary.

These changes led to an avalanche of problems- []

All these problems had been consolidated by the time the 2015 Cricket World
Cup. The 2015 World Cup was one of the highest scoring World Cups of all
time. Long standing batting records tumbled. No one had scored a double
century in a World Cup before, but both Martin Guptill and Chris Gayle
changed that. Kumar Sangakarra became the first batsman 4 centuries in
ODI cricket, let alone World Cup cricket, right before he retired. Sangakarra's
case is particularly interesting. Was he at the peak of his powers right before
he retired? Certainly not and yet, he was able to achieve something no
batsman before him had ever been able to do. One must therefore infer that
it was the change in the playing conditions that made the achievement
possible.

The ICC has since tried to restore balance to the game by allowing 5 fielders
outside the 30 yard circle for the last 10 overs of a 50 over match, but
subsequent matches show that this isn't enough

I don't remember what match this was, but I remember a fast bowler
running in hard and bowling a 150 kph delivery at Virat Kohli, which bounced
slightly more than normal and hit him on the glove. Being a fan of good old
fashioned fast bowling, I was very happy to see this. To my dismay, the
commentator began to criticise the pitch for not being of proper quality. He
said that we cannot afford to have players like Virat Kohli getting injured.
This statement frustrated me because of two things- firstly, it implies that a
good pitch, by the ICC's definition is one where the bounce is predictable,
secondly because no matter how good, no player is bigger than the game.
Virat Kohli wouldn't be where he is if he didn't know how to deal with
unpredictable bounce, we should not be encouraging flat tracks, instead we
should encourage countries to have a balanced mix of all kinds of pitches.