Time to ban bouncer barrages
OPINION: The ICC is cracking down on helmet compliance when it should also be imploring umpires to take a tougher line on dangerous, short-pitched bowling.
Thankfully, Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim was cleared of cricket ball-related injury after undergoing x-rays at Wellington Hospital.
But that sick feeling in the pit of the stomach everyone had at the Basin Reserve, watching Mushfiqur motionless on his back on the pitch as an ambulance drove out, should be further evidence for cricket’s governing body to take stronger action.
Umpires need to be told that what we witnessed the last two days in the first test cannot be tolerated, and bowlers need to be issued much stricter warnings when it’s clear they’re aiming for the chest, neck or head region over a prolonged period.
As it stands, bowlers are permitted two bouncers between shoulder and head height per over. Three warnings for contravening this and a bowler is sidelined. That limit needs to drop to chest height, and umpires told to be proactive and intervene.
Umpire Paul Reiffel was quick to issue a first warning to Neil Wagner at the start of his spell on day four when he unleashed a familiar barrage at the Bangladesh batsmen. He kept the bouncers going but if they’re below shoulder height they’re seemingly viewed as OK. Earlier, Wagner got a taste of his own medicine and was struck on the helmet three times by Kamrul Islam in the space of 16 balls. It looked nasty, and was made worse when Wagner took on the short ball and tried to hook, rather than duck. As a tailender he shouldn’t have been subjected to it, but having dished it out he could hardly argue.
Wagner’s done it for much of the past year and been allowed to get away with it by the umpires. He, or any other fast bowler, shouldn’t get that free pass. Any time fielders are posted to deep square leg, leg gully or leg slip the plan is clear, to bombard the batsman and try to intimidate, then surprise with a full delivery.
It’s similar tactics to the infamous Bodyline series in the 1930s - when England tried to intimidate the great Don Bradman - whilst complying with fielding restrictions permitting only two behind square. Place two or three more fielders just in front of the umpire and a captain complies, but it looks terrible and becomes tedious for everyone (except the batsman).
New Zealand adopted that tactic with Wagner because he’s tireless, it’s been successful, and because they’re bereft of other options. On flat pitches with the ball not swinging, it’s the default method, a concession that nothing else is working.
After Mushfiqur scored 159 in the first innings, then began to defy them in the second innings, it was seen as the only way to remove him and Tim Southee got in on the shortpitched act. Angling in from around the wicket, a short one didn’t get up, Mushfiqur turned his back and ducked into it. It wasn’t malicious from Southee but continued a concerted tactic against a batsman nursing a badly bruised finger and thumb from short deliveries in the first innings.
The ball hit him on the back of the neck but the impact was taken by the helmet. It was close to the area Australian Phillip Hughes was hit when he died during a Sheffield Shield match in 2014, a terrible event that prompted crackdowns on helmet safety.
Hughes’ death had a profound effect on the New Zealanders playing a test against Pakistan at the time, and the bowlers kept the ball pitched up without a single bouncer on the way to an emotional win in a test seemingly no one wanted to play.
Banning the bouncer is an extreme reaction. It’s part of the game and creates uncertainty in a batsman’s mind, used judiciously. But it’s gone too far and batsmen are at risk. Not only from concussion, but worse. Thankfully Mushfiqur walked away but no one who was at the Basin ever again wants to see that ambulance on a cricket pitch.