Monday, December 01, 2014

Cricket, lovely cricket?

Following the tragic death of Phillip Hughes, has the time come to outlaw the head-high bouncer?  It was of course us who started it all with the (in)famous "bodyline" series against the Aussies back in the 1930s and the objective was simple - to stop Bradman scoring.  Not necessarily to get him out, you understand, but simply to try and prevent him getting runs.  And therein lies the nub of the matter - the head-high bouncer is not normally bowled with any realistic intention of getting the batsman out, but to restrict his ability to score and - more recently - simply to intimidate.  So should any ball which reaches the batsman above chest height be called a no-ball?  Of course that wouldn't necessarily stop a bowler bowling them - it might be thought worth losing a run or two to put the fear of God into a batsman - so maybe some more drastic punishment might be needed.  Or is it in fact a legitimate tactic and we need to accept the death of Hughes as just sheer bad luck?

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