One of the world’s most outstanding cricket journalists has referred to as for the idea of “retaining” the Ashes to be abolished after the Fourth Test at Old Trafford.
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Gideon Haigh, on News Corp’s Cricket Et Cetera podcast with The Australian’s Peter Lalor, stated that the idea was merely a “convention”, and {that a} drawn collection mustn’t essentially give an implied victory to the prevailing holder of the urn.
“This idea of retaining the Ashes, I think we actually need to think again about it,” Haigh stated.
“It is merely a convention, it’s not codified, it’s not legislated. It’s simply an understanding.
“And an understanding can change by decree of the parties.”
“You do have to win them back, and therefore I think that when neither team wins them outright, they shouldn’t be won by anyone.
“They should remain in abeyance (a state of temporary suspension).”
Haigh stated that the present preparations incentivise “negative cricket”, with the workforce holding the urn needing solely to attract at instances, as would be the case when Australia head to the Oval for the ultimate Test this week needing solely to attract to win the collection outright for the primary time because the flip of the century.
“The draw has an unequal weighting – a draw is as good as a win here for Australia and so in some ways it’s an incitement to play negative cricket,” he stated.
“To simply draw – let’s say two teams are going 2-2 to the Oval, the incentive would be for the team holding the Ashes to draw that, and you don’t want that.”
Co-host Lalor disagreed, saying {that a} workforce must be crushed outright to lose possession of the urn.
“No I think you’ve got to beat the other team, and equally I think you should have to be beaten to lose them,” Lalor stated.
Haigh famous that the origins of the conference are unclear, with lots of the understandings that cricket followers take with no consideration within the Ashes based mostly in nebulous concepts of custom, and took the primary ever 5-0 Ashes whitewash for example.
Haigh famous that Johnny Douglas, the English captain that misplaced 5-0 to Warwick Armstrong’s Australians in 1920-21, was “surprised to learn he had lost the Ashes, because he thought the Ashes was only played for on English soil.”
“Where did he get that idea?” requested a bewildered Lalor.
Haigh elaborated on his ideas in his common column for The Australian, calling it a “convention of mysterious provenance, understood rather than codified.
“And I wonder whether it is quite fair, given that it confers a sizeable advantage before the teams even start,” he stated.
“How to explain to the uninitiated the Oval Test’s weird hybrid character of being ‘live’ where the outcome of the series is concerned, but ‘dead’ in the context of the Ashes?
“I know cricket’s not meant to make sense. But it might, on occasion, at least try to do so.”
Haigh was not the one cricketing determine suggesting a departure from custom after the fourth Test at Old Trafford, with England batter Joe Root calling for play to proceed into the evening till the allotted overs have been bowled, with loads of conjecture round sluggish over-rates within the recreation.
Both groups have been fined 40 per cent of their match charges for sluggish play after the collection opener by the ICC, and docked two World Test Championship factors every, with the allotted 90 overs a day not bowled at any level in the course of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.
“It doesn’t get dark until 10pm here in the summer,” Root informed BBC’s Test Match Special.
“Why can’t we play until the overs are bowled?”
Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg additionally referred to as for a reserve day after the rain-marred draw.
“You can have a reserve day,” Hogg informed talkSPORT after the Test.
“I think they should have said, ‘There’s a chance of rain here at Old Trafford. A huge chance of rain, so we may put a rest day here and push the next Test match another day later.’
“We want to make sure we’re going into the final Test match with an opportunity of both teams being 2-2 and we want that highlight going into the last Test match.
“And now we have just missed that opportunity.”
Hogg’s recommendations have been roundly rejected by the ECB and the ICC, on the grounds that such a transfer would value nearly $3 million over the course of a five-Test collection.
While the World Test Championship remaining wherein Australia performed forward of this Ashes tour has a sixth reserve day within the occasion of rain (which was used for a end result within the inaugural remaining in 2021), it’s a one-off occasion on the finish of a two-year league.
It additionally raises a lot of logistical and participant welfare points, with the ICC at the moment mandating a minimal relaxation interval between scheduled Tests.
The thought of introducing longer time intervals for Test matches is itself unsustainable in an already packed cricket calendar.
Originally revealed as Calls for idea of ‘retaining’ the Ashes to be abolished amid fourth Test frustration
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
