If the bails would have popped off in the very first over of Jaspreet Bhumra’s first over after David Warner was all squired up, what would have been the result of yesterday’s match between India and Australia in the World Cup match at the Oval? May be, the match would not have been decided in the last over.
But these are Zing bails, which are the new offering from the cricket administrative fraternity to make cricket supposedly more swashbuckling and zany. After all, the lights that glow when the wicket or the bails are knocked off, provide a much better spectacle on the television screen than the humble bails of the yore, as they were dull in appearance and too docile to pop away without announcing the process of fall!
Even Aaron Finch the losing Aussie captain lamented about the condition of the bails and exclaimed that it might have helped them in the present match, but a day might come when they could be at the receiving end.
Well, with the infusion of technology inside the bails the weight of the bails seems to have increased and it is favoring the batsmen in the World Cup. As Naseer Hussain the England captain of yesteryears tweeted This can’t keep happening with the bails!!! Hard enough being a bowler nowadays.. needs changing @naseercricket.
And this is not one-off affair in the current tournament so far, rather it is the fifth such instance and the World Cup is evolving. When a fast bowler like Jaspreet Bhumra or a Trent Boult or a Michael Starc are not able to knock off these bails with their pace, then there really is something amiss with this new innovation that is pandering more to the spectacle panning out on the television screen.
As it is, the game of cricket, as it is evolving in the present times is getting increasingly loaded against the bowlers and the zing bails are making it more exasperating for the bowlers.
While ICC may try to take shelter under the fact that these bails have been in vogue in international cricket since 2012, and have been used in arguably the most successful tournament aka IPL and were also used in the World Cup in 2015 as well, the fact of the matter is that the fans and the aficionados are not liking this performance of the bails. Even the Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli aired his opinion about the performance of the bails, post-match conference and expressed his unhappiness about them.
Also read: Kohli stops Indian fans from booing Smith, shows class
The light emanating spectacle that the pair of stumps with icing on the top in the form of zing bails seems to have been picked up from baseball. But baseball is a different ball game as compared to cricket.
The moot point is, will ICC take cognizance, or the bails would pop as per their wish and not as an outcome of the sweat and perseverance of the bowler?
