Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

The telegraph reports that the ECB is considering ditching the toss for second division country championship matches next year, as a one year trial. Instead, the away side would be given the choice of whether to bat or bowl first.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricke ... story.html

The idea is to improve pitches, rather than the current situation where counties prepare pitches tailored to their strengths and hope to win the toss. It is also intended to encourage spinners as wickets are more likely to be fairer. That's the theory anyway.

I think this is definitely worth a try. The toss has long seemed to me to be inequitable, both in domestic or international cricket. Although averaged over history there isn't much correlation between 'win the toss, win the game', within the microcosm of individual matches or short series there are definitely situations where it makes a difference. Alastair Cook lost three tosses in a row in the UAE (odds 1 in 8, not that unlikely), and while it may not have changed the outcome, it certainly didn't help England's cause.

For league systems where everybody plays everybody, home and away, simply giving the away side the choice makes sense. For bilateral series and tournaments the best way to replace the toss is a bit more complex. For bilateral series, I had toyed with the idea of giving the away side the first call, then alternating, (away chooses, home chooses, away chooses etc.), but that invites pitch doctoring in the matches where the groundsman knows that the the home side will get the choice. Given how the trend in bilateral series seems to be for home sides to dominate, I think that giving away sides the call in every game might help to even that out a bit.

For tournaments, I am still not sure, as there is often no 'home or away' side. But where matches are knock-out, the toss can still be too important for it to be fair that one side gets a random advantage. One idea I like is that each captain secretly chooses whether they would prefer to bat or bowl first, and bids a number of runs to get their choice. If the captains want to do different things, then no problem, they both get that. But if the captains both choose the same option, the side who bid more runs gets to do it, but the opposition is given the number of runs the winning side bids

(E.g. Australia bids 30 runs to bat first, England bids 20. Australia bats first, but when England starts its innings, it has 30 runs on the board).

It could make an interesting mind-game dimension at the start that will be just as interesting as the toss.

I'd be happy to hand the choice to the away captain for league matches, and international tours, but I'd keep the toss for knock out matches

of course the weather complicates things in Blighty. A county can prepare a pitch that suits them, but then the weather completely changes things handing an immediate advantage to the away side.

Nor is the weather consistent around the country. Being Lancashire captain could be much harder work than being Essex captain

Your bidding proposal will never take off, Fluffy, but I like the sound of that. In other words, the captains say "I reckon batting/bowling first is worth x runs advantage, so I will give this to you to even it up" - is that how you mean it?

Your idea?

Maybe an alternative is to give the final two days of pitch preparation over to the away groundsman.

Worth an experiment. Could be a good way to go for Tests, though a shame that home boards can't be trusted to do what's best for the game. I don't like that run bartering stuff, it just makes the game more artificial, and I don't like having a team score the most runs, but lose the game.

Most important change, getting 15 overs an hour bowled.

I can only see bland, lifeless pitches coming out of this.


The groundsmen would be on a hiding to nothing.

Extended to both divisions from next season-away team may bowl or toss a coin according to Telegraph.

GarlicJam wrote:Your bidding proposal will never take off, Fluffy, but I like the sound of that. In other words, the captains say "I reckon batting/bowling first is worth x runs advantage, so I will give this to you to even it up" - is that how you mean it?

Your idea?

Yes, that's the gist. I'd like to claim credit, but it's not my idea. I forget who came up with it, but I like it.

At present what happens is that there are two unpredictable elements at the toss, which captain will win it and what decision he will then make.Taking one those elements away could lead to all kinds of shenanigans.

westoelad wrote:Extended to both divisions from next season-away team may bowl or toss a coin according to Telegraph.

seems a reasonable starting point, and one that I hadn't considered

with the away captain only able to elect to bowl, there may be pressure on the groundsmen to prepare batting tracks, so we'll have to see how that goes.

that being said, there has been a staggering transition from snore draw seasons where 6 wins will win you the CC title, to seasons where the only matches that make it much into day 4 are those where the rain has delayed things, and champions need to win 10 matches. The winning 10 matches isn't a bad deal, but the 2 and 3 day matches have become far too common, and serve only to shortchange the members.

Aidan11 wrote:I can only see bland, lifeless pitches coming out of this.


The groundsmen would be on a hiding to nothing.

you are rights.
Made this post in the india vs SA thread but is more relevent here.

Although saying that getting the balance right for domestic games are always more difficult think England will have the same issues india suffered 5-6 years ago with so many draws since the bowlers can not take 20 wickets in Test match quality pitches Strauss wants.
Butcher made the point recently as well the reason pitches are bowling friendly is because they can't take wicket without it.
india made pitches bowling friendly because about 50-60% of games ended in draws, now Dravid saying it is going too far and should mirror test cricket. Getting balance right is tough because the players are not obviously the same standard.

Think members for county cricket not gonna enjoy it since bowlers will struggle big time to take 20 wicket and batsman are gonna have a proper easy ride with so many dull draws especially with lack of quality spinners in England.
be jokes if they change it after 4-5 years and say pitches need to have more life in them and back to square 1 again.

The ideal quality pitch is presumably one that lasts into day 5, but where on day 5 at least two or three results are still possible. But of course, it depends so much on the quality and application of the players as well as the surface. A surface that to one set of players lasts 4 and a half days would, to a team with stronger batsmen and weaker bowlers, look flat and lifeless and result in a bore draw.

bigfluffylemon wrote:The ideal quality pitch is presumably one that lasts into day 5, but where on day 5 at least two or three results are still possible. But of course, it depends so much on the quality and application of the players as well as the surface. A surface that to one set of players lasts 4 and a half days would, to a team with stronger batsmen and weaker bowlers, look flat and lifeless and result in a bore draw.

really good point.
if they really want better players they need to concentration on a variety of pitches so players get better all round.
Few green decks, few flat pitches, few dry decks and few test match pitches.

not sure how ditching the toss would make it better.

Aidan11 wrote:I can only see bland, lifeless pitches coming out of this.

The groundsmen would be on a hiding to nothing.

Not necessarily - probably see more batting friendly surfaces in spring and some clubs might prepare blatantly flat surfaces if league positions dictate.

But the last thing counties want to do is flog their pace bowlers to death, especially with a congested fixture list. Also Division 2 counties chasing for promotion won't get very far with high scoring draws.

I'd like to see the draw be worth 3 or 4pts, instead of 5pts in an attempt to make ridiculously flat tracks not worth preparing.