Change the rules to make test cricket more exciting, says Ambrose
WEST Indies cricket legend Curtly Ambrose says the game’s rulers need to make test matches more exciting by creating quicker pitches and removing restrictions on short-pitched bowling.
The former paceman has warned that if changes are not made to make test cricket more exciting, the level of interest in the format will continue to decline, West Indian cricket website cricketmore.com reports.
“The two-bouncers-per- over rule [restricting the number of short-pitched balls a fast bowler can deliver] has also taken away a lot of the flair from cricket,” said Ambrose.
“The International Cricket Council need to look at it again.”
Ambrose was speaking before the test series between England and India, which started this week.
Attendances at test matches around the world are dwindling and some tests are even played against a backdrop of empty seats.
“If a fast bowler can bowl only a limited number of short balls, you’re taking away a weapon from him,” Ambrose said in an interview with Standard Sport.
“If a batsman is playing the hook shot, the fast bowler needs to be able to see whether that was a fluke or whether he is serious. Of course, the umpire should step in if the bowler is overdoing it, but don’t take away the excitement. It’s so difficult for a fast bowler.
“Today things are very one-sided. It is all about the batsmen, while some of the wickets are so slow and low that it is difficult to play well,” said the former Antiguan cricketer, who is also part of the West Indies coaching team.
“If you go to a test match and there is no excitement, it is going to turn people away. If there is a good fast bowler who can rattle the batsman, people enjoy that. When a batsman takes on a fast bowler, people love that competition, regardless of which teams are playing. That is certainly the case in the Caribbean.”
A giant of the game in every sense, Ambrose was the most lethal pace bowler of his generation.
Like his predecessor, Andy Roberts, Ambrose didn’t say much, refusing countless interview requests with the motto “Curtly talk to no man”.
Yet his silence seemed only to magnify his achievements and his menace.
Among Ambrose’s 405 test wickets at 20.99, two spells stand out: the 6/24 that hustled England out for 46 in Trinidad in 1993-1994, and his series-clinching burst of 7/1 against Australia at the Waca the previous season.
Perth’s springboard of a pitch was ideal for a man who stood 2m and released the ball from around 3m high, but there was more to Ambrose’s game than bounce.
When his extreme pace deserted him, he fell back on subtle seam movement and an immaculately grooved action. English batsmen saw a great deal of Ambrose’s hand-jiving wicket celebration, which set his white wristbands flashing like doves taking to the sky. —