Jahanara speaks out for reducing ground’s size
Image : Collected
|| CF Correspondent ||
Jahanara Alam, pace spearhead of Bangladesh women’s cricket team feels that it would be wiser to reduce the size of the grounds to make women’s cricket more entertaining instead of opting to use smaller balls and shorter pitches.
As a part of the initiative in improving Women’s cricket globally, New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine and India’s top-order batter Jemimah Rodrigues have pledged their support for innovations during the fourth installment of the 100% cricket webinar series recently.
The duo discussed several ideas that could be experimented on a trial and error basis in order to understand the growing demands of audiences all around the world that includes smaller balls and shorter pitches.
However, Jahanara told daily sun that instead of experimenting with those ideas if the ground size is reduced it would be much better.
“I think to make women’s cricket a little more entertaining, if the bowlers get small and the size of the wicket gets reduced, it will go in favour of the batsman,” said Jahanara Alam.
“The ICC has already made new rules for bowlers; the paper works are already done. In the meantime, there is a discussion about the fact that pace bowlers cannot go straight through the follow-through. Experts have commented that it will be very tough for pace bowlers as they had so many years of practice. So, it will be very tough for the bowlers,” Jahanara told the media.
“So I think the bowl size is right for the women and the size of the wicket is also right. But if the boundary line is reduced, like we play in 65 yards at maximum time. So if we have 55 yards then it will be more entertaining, fours-sixes will be more as the spectators actually go to the field to see fours-sixes or to see wicket. So this is my opinion,” she added.
“Already the amount of ounces of our bowl is much lesser than the boys. Light and fit in our hands. We can grip well and the standard size of Kookaburra is the standard size we play in international matches. That too can be gripped very nicely.”
“I don’t think the size of the bowl should be further reduced. It’ll then become smaller. There is also the matter of an adjustment with the hand. I think everything was thought out by the experts who gave the opinion that the size of the bowl for girls will be this and the size of the bowl for boys will be that.”
“And the wicket is actually right. Because maybe there will be many more changes ahead, rules and regulations and other things like the ground will have to be shortened or the umpire may not hold our sweater-caps, they will have to handle by themselves; maybe we’ll have to bowl wearing the mask. Have you ever wondered how difficult it’d be for a person to breathe when they’ll run wearing a mask. So I’m just saying,” she said.
“There is no such rule yet, but if it comes, then everything will be very tough. So if the wicket size is reduced, it will then be very tough for a bowler to handle a batsman. Then the batsman will sit on top of the bowler. I think it should be kept equal. I think it is better to reduce the boundary a little because we already have 25 yards and in some places we also find 23 yards which is already in our favour. Boundary level sometimes gets bigger so if it can be reduced a little from 60-65 yards it would be better,” she concluded.
