English County cricket does away with the toss

The England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) cricket committee took a decision to do away with the toss in county cricket in November 2016. Initially, this revolution will be implemented only in Division Two. Nevertheless, following some reconciliation, the board finalized that the tradition of tossing the coin prior to a game shall be broken across all matches for the 2017 season.

As an alternative to the toss, the visiting captain is given the option to bowl first. The visiting captain analyses the pitch and if he indeed decides to bowl first, the words ‘toss uncontested’ go into the scorecard. However, if the look of the wicket doesn’t please the visiting captain and he does not wish to bowl first, then the coin goes up as has been the case for so many years.

Division One has seen less than 50% of its games having an uncontested toss. In Division Two, however, the outcomes have been more positive. Out of the 13 matches held this season, visiting captains have decided to bowl first on 11 occasions, which means the toss was uncontested in these games.

Essentially, what this trend goes on to show is that home teams are not prepared to risk handing out a green wicket and then being asked to bat. The pitch, therefore, does not have much on offer for the quicks.

The batsmen have cashed in on these circumstances, as four double-tons have already been scored in the season which began just 17 days ago. Even the tail of certain teams is wagging vigorously, with Liam Plunkett’s 126 not out at No.8 for Yorkshire standing out.

Nevertheless, these are still early days to confirm whether spinners will indeed have an important role to play in the outcome of the matches. The ECB is still in search of a spinner who can fill in the shoes of Graeme Swann in the English team.

The only spinner who features in the list of top-10 wicket takers of Division One is Stephen Parry. The left-arm orthodox spinner has bagged nine wickets in the 101.4 overs he’s bowled. In Division Two, however, the top-10 bowlers are all fast or medium fast bowlers.

The success of this new idea is still debatable. The trend so far has been pitches that start off as green and get better as the game progresses, unlike Test cricket, where pitches usually deteriorate to assist the spinners. Peter Wright, chairman cricket committee of the ECB said, “By giving the away team the option of bowling first, we hope the home side will be encouraged to produce the possible four-day pitch.”