Andrew Alderson: Wanted - dignity for bowlers too

Sixes have rained down this summer. Photo / Getty Images

Watching New Zealand bludgeon 283 for five from 21 overs against the West Indies in Queenstown and the visitors repaying the favour with 363 for four in Hamilton and being told how wonderful it is to see all these "maximums" (the new word for six), it raises the issue of whether we are forgetting what cricket is supposed to be.

As uber-compressed bats dong balls at will out of small grounds with the majority of fielders huddled in the 30m circle, you have to wonder if the sport is evolving into T-ball.

Surely cricket's purpose is not for bullying bat to constantly deal it out to benign ball. Where is the enjoyment watching a procession of bowling slaves dish up their offerings on to a close relative of tarmac, to be belted to all parts?

Since 2005, when Twenty20 internationals were introduced, and ODIs included 20 overs of power plays, the statistics tell of a bowling Ice Age; they've been frozen out.

The 10 highest ODI totals (all over 400 runs) have occurred in that time frame, along with eight of the 10 highest scoring overs (all 30-plus runs), seven of the 10 fastest hundreds and seven of the 10 highest innings strike rates (for scores over 25). Bowlers must be feeling marginalised.

This is a by-product of the T20 revolution. It's hard to lose 10 wickets in 120 balls: let's slog to our heart's content. This has seeped through to 50-over matches.

Three out of four matches in the most recent New Zealand-West Indies series were tepid spectacles as a result. One six was hit every 32 balls and, if you happened to be at the hosts' innings in Queenstown, it was one every 5.73 deliveries.

No one can deny the impressive hitting. Most of it is clean and highlights the extraordinary hand-eye co-ordination, timing and power with which top batsmen are blessed.

That said, surely there is no harm in the bowler claiming back some cricketing weapons, rather than going into each contest delivering a five-and-a-half ounce white leather sphere on to a flat, brown surface. It's like the bowlers have signed a non-proliferation treaty while the batsmen are in an arms race, building their resources into an arsenal of tonks.

Suggested ways bowlers can claim back their dignity:

1. Narrower bats/smaller ball

We're not talking Bradman in front of the water tank with a stump and a golf ball, but how about reducing the bat width from the current 10.8cm? Nothing drastic, just something the plane in Grandad's shed might deliver. It might help bowlers feel less like they're running in to bowl to someone wielding a tree trunk. Alternatively, reduce the size of the ball so it's harder to hit.

2. Bigger grounds

Want to see a real six? Google Lance Cairns' one-handed pasting of Dennis Lillee at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in February 1983 over deep square leg when the MCG's biggest boundaries were around 120m. Push those ropes and hoardings back. This should reduce the need for lasers to measure sixes 10 rows deep on some grounds which are little more than grandiose back yards.

3. Remove fielding restrictions

Are these really helping much in shorter form cricket nowadays? If a bloke's going to hit it over the fence with his slab of timber, then it doesn't matter if you've got two, three or four players outside the circle in the power play overs. Allow more players to be pushed to the fence, open up the field and tempt some easy singles. Clearing the fence will still be an incentive for most.

4. Greener pitches

Remove the complacency from a limited overs batsman's mind when he heads off to work. At the moment, a bowler knows the ball's going to need panelbeating and a touch of paint after a handful of overs. That wouldn't be the case if it was allowed to move about a bit more off the seam early. We're not saying the pitch should be ready for grazing; there needs to be just enough grass to allow a bowler to teapot and puff out his chest when the batsman misses one every so often. Wide restrictions could also be loosened so batsmen have to go after the ball more. That could increase the chances of slip catches.