Over-rates: Underrated?

All top teams operate at the edge of the law, pushing it to the maximum while drawing as much benefit as possible; it is turned into a tactic with which to gain an advantage over the opposition. The West Indians, at their peak, were physically threatening; the Aussies do it with words. The Indians do it with slow over rates.

To be fair, they8217;ve cleaned up their act in other departments. Between the infamous Denness episode and December 2003, 26 players were penalised for various acts of indiscipline; only one Harbhajan Singh is from India.

In effect, it highlights the improved behaviour of the Indians on the field, notwithstanding unreported incidents Parthiv Patel reprimanded by Steve Bucknor during the Sydney Test or excessive appealing 8212; once the bane of Ganguly8217;s captaincy 8212; and bowlers running on the pitch.

But slow bowling 8212; which is more a form of gamesmanship 8212; remains a glaring exception. Whether in Tests or One-Dayers, Team India leads the list of penalties attracted for slow over rate and delaying proceedings, despite several warnings from Match Referees. In the absence of conclusive evidence, it wouldn8217;t be fair to say that Ganguly was using this as a deliberate tactic to unsettle the opposition 8212; but it may not be long before the Indian skipper finds himself skipping a match or two on disciplinary grounds.

It nearly happened at the Brisbane Test, when the Indian team learnt that they were nine overs short during the Australian first innings. The ICC imposes heavy penalties on the captain of the offending team see box and Ganguly, who had led the way with a tenacious batting display, was in danger of being banned for the next Test. The Indians sprinted like hares and Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble bowled the most during the Australian second innings in order to bring down the deficit. Though Ganguly was spared of the ban, he was charged ten per cent of his match fees while his teammates were levied a five per cent penalty.

Which is actually small change for a top Indian cricketer. Because match fees forms a small component of what a player receives for every match; most of the money is through logos. For example, a player earns Rs 40,000 per Test in match fees and Rs 1.8 lakh in logo money. For ODIs, it8217;s Rs 25,000 and Rs 1.6 lakh, respectively. So no contest.

If it doesn8217;t affect the players pockets. surely it affects their image? In an age where cricketers live and die by the number of brands they endorse, surely the frequency of fines and penalties affects the image?

8216;8216;A brand is only as good as its current behaviour8217;8217;, says ad guru Alyque Padamsee. 8216;8216;Brand Team India must pull up its socks!8217;8217;

It8217;s normal Indian behaviour, says his fellow ad-man Prahlad Kakkar. 8216;8216;As long as they are winning nobody in India cares a ! Had they been losing there would have been a furore if their shoe-laces were untied.8217;8217;

Stronger views on the issue can be had from Australian coach John Buchanan though some may feel it8217;s a bit rich, coming from the man who coaches the team that has excelled in bending rules. After the rain-hit ODI at Sydney, he wrote in this paper: 8216;8216;In some quarters, slowing the game down will be viewed as excellent stewardship and true gamesmanship. In other quarters, it will be viewed as not playing the game in its true spirit for which the ICC is strongly opposed. I will be very interested to see how the ICC deals with such issues as it is obvious that an increase in the penalty system for such offences is having little or no impact.8217;8217;

The ICC, as it turned out, dealt pretty severely, fining Ganguly 80 per cent of his match fee and the rest of the team 15 per cent.

Understandably, given the way they play their cricket, the Australians consider time-wasting sacrilegious. Former Australian captain Ian Chappell makes some interesting observations on this in his book Chappelli: The Cutting Edge: 8216;8216;Since adopting a policy of consistently selecting four fast bowlers, the West Indies, have incorporated slowing the over rate into their tactics.

The worst example was at Trinidad in 1990 when Desmond Haynes thwarted England8217;s attempt to go 2-up in the series by slowing the over rate to eight an hour.8217;8217;

And the West Indies, Chappell noted, weren8217;t the first to adopt the policy. 8216;8216;Len Hutton significantly reduced the number of deliveries the Australians received in a day8217;s play in 1954-55 and, combined with the devastating speed of Frank Tyson, it proved to be a resounding success. It does not matter who is slowing the game down. It is the most unfair tactic and should be outlawed.8217;8217;

Former Indian captain Dilip Vengsarkar finds it surprising that the problem persists despite the presence of two spinners in the team. 8216;8216;It is unpardonable8217;8217;, he says.

But Vengsarkar feels that Ganguly8217;s acts are not deliberate. 8220;It is not deliberate, that8217;s for sure,8221; he emphasises. 8220;It is only a question of hurrying up things in between overs.8221;

No one8217;s making the first move to hurry things up, least of all the Board of Control for Cricket in India. In fact, the BCCI hasn8217;t considered it serious enough to merit a mention in their meetings. Not many in the BCCI took cognisance when the Indian team under Sachin Tendulkar8217;s captaincy attracted a 95 per cent penalty for bowling 22 overs short during the Test series in Sri Lanka August, 1997. That nothing much has changed is very apparent.

Perhaps, as Buchanan noted in his article, a change could be enforced by the all-powerful TV channels 8212; who brought about tie-breakers in tennis. After all, slow over rates impinge on their telecast time and affect revenues.

Or can cricket take care of its own problems?

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