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BIRMINGHAM - New Zealand's cricketers are bemused about all the fuss over Kevin Pietersen's switch hitting after it was revealed the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) will discuss its legality this week.
A spokeswoman for the MCC, the custodian of cricket's laws, said the International Cricket Council (ICC) had
requested it be added to the agenda for its meeting in London tomorrow.
The request came after England batsman Pietersen's two huge sixes off New Zealand allrounder Scott Styris when he switched his grip and hit left-handed during yesterday's first one-day international.
Reports today said the ICC cricket committee had privately discussed whether the shot should be outlawed, before yesterday's events.
The Guardian's cricket writer Mike Selvey, a former England seamer, said the shot was unfair because the opposing captain had already set a field for a right-handed batsman, and a bowler was required to declare which hand he was bowling with.
"It now seems certain that the ICC cricket committee, among whose members Michael Holding was commentating here yesterday, will recommend the practice be outlawed," Selvey wrote.
There was little opposition in the New Zealand camp, said seamer Michael Mason.
"I don't really mind because if someone plays a shot like that and it goes wrong they can look like a bit of an idiot," Mason said.
"It's just another part of the game. Good on him if he can play it well, those shots were pretty impressive."
Batsman Daniel Flynn was also impressed, and said innovation was the name of the game amid the Twenty20 revolution.
"If you're good enough to play it I think you should be allowed to go for it. I don't see why you should be restricted. Fair play to him," Flynn said.
"It's a great shot and you've got to give him credit. He's obviously worked on it and it came off for him. Another day it could go straight up in the air, but he got it in the middle both times."
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori was surprised to be told it had reached MCC level, and reiterated his post-match comments that it was good for the game.
His only issue was the umpires needed to give bowlers leniency, and allow the wide line to be the same on both sides if a batsman switched stances.
Meanwhile switch-hitting fever was starting to build, with British bookmaker William Hill offering odds of 7-2 ($4.50) that Pietersen would hit at least one six with the switch grip in Wednesday's second ODI here.
And there was some incentive for New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum, too.
"The only New Zealander who we think could emulate KP is McCullum who we are offering 11-2 ($6.50) to show that whatever Pietersen can do he can do better," a William Hill spokesman said.
Pietersen, man of the match in the first ODI, said any discussion about the shot's legality was "ridiculous" and "absolutely stupid".
- NZPA
