The Hindu : Sport : New rules tough on allrounders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 26, 2005

Sport

Sport

New rules tough on allrounders

Every side looks for players who can multi task so that their team is well-balanced

STEPHEN FLEMING

We will be playing India after almost three years, and I can see that a couple of new guys have come into the team since then. The Indians are a fine team, and it will be good to test our might against a quality side. This will be the first time the Indians will be playing under the new one-day rules, so it will be interesting to see what Sourav Ganguly does on Friday. I did not really have to do too much strategising in Wednesday's game, so in many ways the game against India will also be my first serious involvement with these innovations in play.

The new rules, which came into operation at the start of this month — the Power Play and the Super Sub — aim at giving the game an exciting edge. The power play rule is a great idea since it ensures that the game does not drift between the 15th and the 35th overs. The typical one-day innings was suffering from a mid-life crisis and the flexibility that this rule provides not only adds the surprise element, it also forces captains to think out of the box.

Undue advantage

However, I am not too sure about the Super Sub. It gives undue advantage to the team that wins the toss, which is not good for the game. I also worry that this rule might be a deathblow to the development of the all-rounder. Every side looks for players who can multi-task so that their team is well-balanced. These players will now be an endangered species with a replacement becoming available to the captain. Finally, I think the rule complicates a game that is already pretty tough for the uninitiated. Administrators the world over want the game to become wider in its reach, and I don't think such rules will help.

Coming back to the Videocon Cup tri-series, I have a full strength side at my disposal after many seasons. Shane Bond and Chris Cairns are back after long injury lay-offs, and we are planning our fitness regimen so as to keep them fresh and fit right till the World Cup. The side is looking so good right now, that I can confidently say that it is one of the strongest one-day sides in business today.

This is why we were so dominant against Zimbabwe, and India too can expect a tough and aggressive performance from us.

I am really looking forward to the game, and the Sehwag-Bond contest is one that I am waiting for. The Indian star has come a long way since we played India last, and containing him will be one of our main aims. We have succeeded in doing that in the past by denying him width and tucking him up, and it will be interesting to see how he fares against the pace and accuracy of Bond.

These are good batting conditions, so I expect big scores. However, a longer time in these conditions as well as a full strength team makes me believe that we will have the slight edge, especially if we get Sehwag out of the equation. Quickly.

Gameplan

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