DAVID LLOYD: Sorry Ben Stokes, but over rates are awful. Just stop faffing around so much!
- England have been punished several times for their slow overshoot
- Ben Stokes complained earlier this week that his team was being awarded points
- But rates that are too high are not good enough and something needs to be done about it
The World Test Championship is a good idea, but I can’t ignore it. And that’s where the problems start.
Some countries play a lot of Tests, others very few. If you are in a league you should definitely play the same number of Tests and play against each other!
They don’t and that’s why no one takes it seriously. England are sixth and have played 20 Tests, while Sri Lanka and South Africa – both above England – have played 19 between them. It’s not right. We try to make the game more attractive, but it is unnecessarily complicated.
Test cricket should be celebrated and the WTC should make every match important, but try explaining it to a newcomer. They just walked away shaking their heads. England captain Ben Stokes called it ‘completely confusing’ and that sums it up.
I agree with Ben about the WTC, but I somewhat disagree with him about the excessive fines he has complained about. It is not unreasonable to bowl 90 overs a day. There are so many crazy breaks for drinks, gloves, bats, towels and pills. They have to stop. The responsibility lies with the players.
It bugs me when players go for a drink, even if it’s not a drinks break, or when the non-striker walks mid-wicket. The authorities must step up and apply the rules of the game. The batter must be ready to receive when the bowler is at the start of his run. They use a stop clock in limited overs cricket and maybe it’s time to have one in Tests.
Ben Stokes is not happy about England getting World Test Championship points because of their slow overrun
But his team has been consistently warned and there must be a deterrent to playing slowly
England won the first Test against New Zealand but need to get through their overs quicker
When I was a referee, we were told by the ICC that there was no reason for a player to drink anything, except in the case of extreme heat and the risk of dehydration.
There is a lax attitude towards the laws and the 15 percent fines are incidental because they do not deter a team. If you had a good deterrent, like suspending captains, it would have an effect.
In my day we bowled 18 overs an hour, but we picked two quicks, an all-rounder and two spinners, hail, rain or shine. Now we’ll choose four quicks, unless you’re in Asia. So attention needs to be paid to seam-friendly locations, as Stokes says.
But his point that we should keep going until the sun sets at 10pm is ridiculous. You have to take fans and broadcasters into account. No one wants to stay there that long.
We have to get smarter. Cricket becomes a pedestrian zone. It must be resolved quickly.