The 9 Most disastrous experiments in Cricket

The 9 Most disastrous experiments in Cricket: Every time we try something new we hope it would click. How easy could things be if we knew in advance what would work and what not. But that will take away from the degree of drama and thrill of experimentation. Failures do not necessarily indicate the lack of wisdom. There are a number of factors in play which lead to an idea being gleefully accepted or outrightly rejected. Cricket is no stranger to such risks. While the ICC might have introduced many rules from doing away with the batting powerplay or the use of 2 new balls, not all of them have met with equal success. There have also been disastrous results. Here we list The 9 Most disastrous experiments in Cricket: 1. Triangular Test series: (Photo Source: The Cricketer International) About a century ago in 1912, Australia and South Africa met at the Old Trafford, for the first Test match played on a neutral venue as also the start of the innovatively planned Triangular Test series. The 3 Test playing nations, of the day, the third being England, would play a round robin league of Test matches, meeting each other thrice – nine matches in all across the five Test centres of England. However, the cricket that was finally produced was painstakingly one-sided and failed to get anywhere near the expectations of administrators, spectators or press. Due to this the concept never quite took off. Also Read – 26 Guinness World records held by Cricket 2. The Super-sub: Umpire Rudi Koertzen signals “Supersub” as England replace Simon Jones with Vikram Solanki. (© Hamish Blair/Getty Images) When the super-sub rule was implemented, the teams had to name 12 players before the toss, with 11 in the starting eleven and one as the super-sub. The super sub could come into the game anytime during the match in place of any other player, but the moment he walked in, one player had to go out and was disqualified from coming back and taking any further part in the one day match. The original intention of the substitution rule (acc. to ICC) was to encourage teams to make greater use of all-rounders but in practice specialists were being used to fill a void. The rule was scrapped perhaps because it placed too much importance on winning the toss in ODIs and many former and current cricketers criticized it. In some instances, it appeared a 12 vs 11 contest in favour of the team winning the toss, and heavily unbalanced the game. 3. Super Max: India vs New Zealand Super Max. (Photo Source: PhotoSport) Super Max is a now defunct form of cricket invented in New Zealand by former Kiwi cricketer and captain Martin Crowe which was played primarily by first-class cricket teams in an annual competition. Super Max International Cricket had interesting rules like: Both teams had to play 2 innings of 10 overs each. Wides scored two runs in the format instead of one. If a shot hit the Max Zone the score would be doubled meaning a four would yield 8 while a six will result in 12 runs. In the first version, it included usage of 4 stumps instead of 3. In 2002, India played New Zealand in this format for a charity match and lost by 13 runs. It was later discontinued after no substantial public response. 4. Bowl Out: India vs Pakistan Bowl Out 2007. (© Hamish Blair/Getty Images) Similar to a penalty shootout in football a bowl out in cricket followed a tied T20I game. Five bowlers from each side deliver one ball each at an unguarded wicket and the team that hits the maximum times win. If the scores are tied even in the bowl out the procedure continues and the outcome is decided by sudden death. The bowl out was used as a tie breaker for the first time between New Zealand and West Indies on February 2006 and the Kiwis won that one. Memorably, during the 2007 World Twenty20, India won 3-0 in the bowl out against Pakistan in Durban. Deemed as unpopular, at the ICC Annual Conference 2008 it was decided that the bowl-out should be replaced by a one-over “eliminator” (also called a “Super Over”) Considering the Super Over’s popularity the bowl out rule never quite came back into reckoning. 5. Rain Rule: (© Patrick Eagar/Patrick Eagar via Getty Images) In the 1992 World Cup, the organising committee came up with a new rule for the interruption in games due to rains. The new rule, called as the Rain Rule, stated that for every over lost, the target would get reduced by the lowest-scoring over from the first innings. This rule was introduced as the organisers felt that the earlier rule heavily handicapped the side batting first. The change was a disaster. In the league game between England and Pakistan in Adelaide, Pakistan escaped with a no-result. It proved to be even more disastrous for South Africa, whose target was not reduced in the semi-final against England in Sydney and they were left with the impossible task of making 21 runs off 1 ball. 6. Indian Cricket League (source) ICL was a private cricket league owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The T20 event took place between 2007 till 2009. The league was a major talking point during its period. It will be best remembered for introducing this format to India much before the IPL. There was also a planned domestic 50-over tournament, by the owners but it never quite materialized. The ICL folded in 2009. Aside from commercial factors, the ICL lacked the support of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and International Cricket Council. 7. The Mongoose bat Matthew Hayden Mongoose Bat. (© Julian Herbert-IPL 2010/IPL via Getty Images) There have been a great evolution in cricket bats over the years. In 1979, the Aluminum bat was used by Australian cricketer Dennis Lillee. The result was disastrous as the metallic bat was damaging the cricket ball. Matthew Hayden unveiled the Mongoose bat in the IPL for the first time in 2009. The characteristics of this bat was that it had a blade which was 33% shorter while the handle was 43% longer than the normal cricket bat. This bat never gained much popularity because of the difficulty faced by players to connect the ball. 8. 45 over ODI Games (© Getty Images) In 2010, Cricket Australia came up with the idea of having 45 overs limited overs competition. The format was such that the innings was split in 20 and 25 overs. The maximum number of overs permitted by a bowler to bowl was 12 overs. The players were not in favour of this format and eventually after some domestic games, it got discarded. 9. Super Test ICC Super Test. (© Hamish Blair/Getty Images) The Super series was organised by the ICC in 2005, through a match between Australia and World XI in Sydney. ICC experimented by having the 6-day Test match but it failed to live up to the expectations. The match was hopelessly one-sided and had it not been for rain, the match would have ended in two days. Australia were too strong for the World XI and they thrashed them by 210 runs. This one-sided result forced the ICC to scrap the six-day Test. Also Read – 20 Hilarious one liners used by the Cricket commentators

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The 9 Most disastrous experiments in Cricket

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