An Open Letter to Bowlers

Dear Bowler,

You might have heaved a sigh of relief this morning when you saw Indian bowlers dominate the pre-lunch session of the first test at Hamilton. Elsewhere, in South Africa, Mitchell Johnson and Dale Steyn have been flying the flag on your behalf.

Apart from the above two, you would admit that the scene for you is grim, pretty grim. Sixes rained during the ODIs and 20-20 games in New Zealand, batsmen played till they got bored in the recent England—West Indies series, and had it not been for the unfortunate terrorist attack on the Lankans, the Pakistan—Sri Lanka series was going the same way.

It’s raining runs, and the cost of getting a wicket is going up with every match. Old-timers say that the bowling community across the world is showing a decline in standards.

They turn nostalgic when they talk about the Windies pace quartet  of '70s and '80s, the Indian spinning quartet of '60s and '70s, as well as the English and Australian attacks of similar vintage.

Simultaneously, some of them advance another argument—they say that the batsmen of that time were better as well, since they played and scored against better attacks. Confusing indeed—if the batters were better, and the bowlers even more, are we seeing a fall in cricketing standards all over?

This writer doesn’t know nor will he claim to as confusion abounds. Run rates are going up in test matches, we see a greater number of them resulting in decisions, and they say that there is an off spinner who will breach the 1000-wicket mark.

We are also told that batsmen have better bats, rules are forever being changed such that the game stays in their half, and it’s a bad time to choose to be a bowler.

Where do you stand in all this? Do you think it’s time we agree that we can allow captains to present ten batsmen and a bowling machine as their team? Do you think some of the rules need to be looked at once again, and the balance restored, to whatever extent possible?

Or, would you say that all of you need to get together and figure out a re-orientation programme such that some sort of sanity returns to cricket grounds, and the romance of the bat vs. ball battle returns to charm us, the cricket romantics?

Answer please.