Finn's comments after the Nottingham ODI, when he was lauded for taking one for 51, triggered the apathy alarm.
"You almost have to accept you're going to be hit for boundaries. It's just trying to make sure they are playing good shots and not hitting bad balls.
"[Brendon] McCullum hit me over wide long-off for six today and I thought: 'That was probably hitting the top of off stump'. So you have to walk back and think, 'Fair play, that was a good shot.' It's that sort of attitude that bowlers are having to take into games.
"I feel really good about my bowling. Even at the Oval, when I went for 69, I bowled the ball where I wanted to, but they just happened to hit it."
Try putting those words into the mouths of say, Dennis Lillee, Michael Holding, Fred Trueman or even Sir Richard Hadlee. It's impossible to imagine them accepting a role as cannon fodder.
Call it party-pooping but hopefully basic supply and demand eventually rules over how many sixes and fours are required to elicit enjoyment. You can have too much of a good thing.
Two of the current ODI series matches, at the Oval and Trent Bridge respectively, entered the charts at No.4 (458) and No.8 (414) for most ODI runs scored from sixes and fours in a match.
Add to that standard arguments about bigger bats, shorter boundaries (the straight ropes at Southampton were brought in about 12-15m), flat pitches, powerplay fields and a cache of Twenty20 knowledge. It's a recipe for flogging.
Bowlers, and particularly spinners, unless a Daniel Vettori lurks in the dressing room, are becoming cricket's slave labour. Most surely feel aggrieved?
The current system highlights good bowlers, but does it highlight good batsmen if all that's required is the courage to hit into an expansive acreage over the infield?
Fortunately balance should be on its way with this week's International Cricket Council's chief executives meeting.
They vote on whether to:
- Remove the batting powerplay
- Allow five fielders outside the 30m circle between the 41st and 50th overs
- Remove the need for two fielders to be in catching positions in the first 10 overs.
New Zealand coach Mike Hesson was asked if the series risked needing an asterisk with the current restrictions.
"I think allowing five out in the last 10 overs would be a good decision... but not every series is like this. We've played in many series where the same rules applied and 200 plays 201."
So what is the perfect balance to an ODI match?
Surely that's simple. If you hit at more than a run-a-ball over 50 overs you deserve a decent chance to win most games. Build the format around that premise to find an equilibrium and cricket, a game so reliant on its relative history and traditions, could have a means by which to compare generations.
At the moment it's about batsmen getting greedier and bowlers becoming a mere means of production.
#Ford, the driving force behind the Black Caps.
