MCC World Cricket Committee supports ECB's new toss system

The committee feels current toss system gives too much advantage to home team

The MCC World Cricket Committee chaired by Mike Brearley, comprising former international cricketers, has come up with new recommendations to improve the game. It spoke in support of dismissing the current toss system. The independent body also feels there should be no loss of lbw decision reviews for the fielding side if the ball hits stumps in “umpire’s call” zone.

The World committee discussed about elimination of toss system, that has recently been suggested by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). According to ECB’s suggestion, in county matches instead of toss, the visiting team will be straightaway given the option to bowl first. If they don’t want to take that, only then toss will take place. This is to make the game more competitive as teams largely rely on home advantage. The committee will monitor the success of this new system.

Talking about this and home advantage, the committee said in a statement, “The MCC World Cricket committee is concerned that home advantage in Test Cricket now carries too much significance. In the last three years, over 70% of Test victories have been achieved by the home team.

“There are other factors contributing to this trend, such as shorter tours and a lack of adequate player preparation in local conditions, but there are indications that pitches are increasingly being prepared to suit the home team. The committee would like to see a game-wide agreement that ground authorities be left alone to produce pitches that reflect local conditions whilst encouraging a fair balance between bat and ball.”

No loss of review for fielding side for umpire’s zone calls

Talking about lbw reviews the World Committee said, “The committee debated the 'umpire's call' for lbws and felt there should be no loss of a review for the fielding side if the ball is shown to be clipping the stumps in the umpire's call zone; this could then allow the removal of the reallocation of two reviews after 80 overs.”

The think-tank is supportive of a technology that can help the third umpire to call a no-ball. The statement also said, “The committee received a report from Simon Taufel on technology designed to allow front foot no-balls to be monitored by the third umpire. It felt that a fast, automated system for the calling of front-foot no-balls would be a welcome enhancement to the game.”

The committee which backed the idea of day-night Test matches six years ago, also thinks quality and size of modern bats need to be looked at along with other things like boundary sizes, shot selection, player fitness, quality of pitches and behaviour of balls. The committee said, “It was decided that further game-wide consultation is needed and has commissioned a report to be written and brought back to the committee for its next meeting, at Lord's, in July 2016.”

The committee also feels it will be good to have a World Test Championship. Also, most ODI matches should serve as parameter for qualification in next World Cup. It also believes all three formats of the game should complement each other.