Runs without runners

The ICC, finally seems to have dropped a bomb. Of the many new rules that have been proposed at the recently concluded meeting, one of the most debated ones is the one which prohibits batsmen to use runners to run between the wickets and score for them. Irrespective of the reactions this proposed rule has met with, I for one am very happy about it. If not anything, after a very long time, I can see a rule which is against the batsmen in an era which has always been against the poor bowlers and pro batsmen. In one of my earlier blog posts, I had written about how cricket has been increasingly becoming a batsmen’s game and how the entity called ‘bowler’ might become extinct some day. The proposal to increase the number of legitimate bouncers from one to two per over is also a welcome change.

Though people argue that there are only a few specialist batsmen in the game, and preventing one or more of them, who is genuinely injured, to take the services of a runner can indeed make a big difference on the result of the game. True. But I guess, it is indeed this very rule which will perhaps make the game more interesting.

With a gradual increase in the amount of cricket being played of late, fitness will increasingly become one of the concerns in the game. Rotating players between and within tournaments will be a key strategy of the teams and this will become an inherent and an inseparable aspect of the same. So how a team manages the fitness of its players and its bench strength could become one of the key drivers in a team’s success story. This rule also makes it imperative that no player who isn’t fully fit before the start of the game ends up in the playing eleven.

There have been vigorous oppositions to this rule from many quarters. There have been comparisons made to fielders being substituted when a player gets his minor injury nursed off the field. There have also been questions raised as to why should bowlers get breaks whereas batsmen would not. They say batting is a matter of rhythm and taking a break and coming back isn’t necessarily a solution. They say cricket is a gentleman’s game and it should stay that way. But in many occasions, it hasn’t been just that. There have been numerous occasions when a runner has been misused. A slow player on the field is usually replaced by a quick and agile youngster even without a genuine injury. The rule perhaps only attempts to minimize or even completely eliminate this misuse.

Opponents say cricket will lose its charm with such drastic alterations. I would beg to differ as I feel that such rules will actually add more fun and make the game more interesting, the same way rules of the past like powerplays, free hits et al have. I think those who oppose such changes in the game just don’t have the courage to take change in their stride and move on.