The Proteas' extraordinary suggestion came in reply to a post by ex-English star batter Kevin Pietersen.
In an interesting take, former Proteas cricketer AB de Villiers opined that the commentators should be allowed to vote on DRS-worthy close calls instead of assigning it to a third umpire as it’d make the sport “very entertaining” to watch.
The major challenge of the idea is that the umpires go through significant DRS training before getting into the box. On the other hand, commentators are often former cricketers and veteran journalists, without any prior formal technical knowledge. Also, unlike the umpires, the commentators aren’t chosen by the ICC for all series and tournaments. Instead, they are picked by the broadcasters based on their communication skills which implies that an important phase of the game will be shown to all audiences in just one language if de Villiers’ idea is to be considered seriously.
The South African’s extraordinary suggestion came in reply to a post by ex-English star batter Kevin Pietersen. The latter had said a new rule where sixes over 100 meters in distance will be given as 12 runs was “on its way”.
Great idea. 2 things from my side:
1. 12 is too big, I think 8 or 9(upside down 6) is good. Can’t jump from 4 to 6 to 12.
2. I’ve been saying for a while we need to get technology to be more accurate with the distance(like in golf). Absolutely can’t have some random guy in a…
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) January 21, 2024
De Villiers suggested that a significant six should not be rewarded with 12 runs as it would be deemed ‘too big’. Instead, he proposed that cricket should consider awarding eight or nine runs for such shots. He believes that assigning a value of nine is particularly intriguing, as it is a mirror image of six, introducing an additional element of interest to the game.
“12 is too big, I think 8 or 9(upside down 6) is good. Can’t jump from 4 to 6 to 12,” de Villiers said.
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The Proteas cricket icon also urged that improvements in six-distance measuring technology be made before implementing such changes in scoring.
Great idea. Don’t stop there: if a batter is bowled and one of the stumps is knocked completely out of the ground, the next batter should be automatically out too. Two wickets in one ball. KP and AB are geniuses.
— Chris Giffard (@krisxkrosx) January 22, 2024
What if a bowler bowls with 150+ kmph? It should be consider as two balls
— KING KOHLI 18 (@KING_KOHLI_018) January 21, 2024
what about -3 in the scoreboard in case a bowler bowl a maiden over?? or a wicket maiden maybe. what say AB?
— nuktacheeni (@nuktacheenii) January 21, 2024
It’s illogical AB , first of all , distance measuring is not at all accurate,look at moeen six and Ferrera six , moeen was measured 105 while Ferrera was measured longer ,how is that even possible.
Same shot same elevation and distance of yuvi in 2007 WC went for 119metre.— Raazi (@Crick_logist) January 21, 2024
What if a batter play maiden over then he is out. Like play 6 dot balls then he is out
— Krishna Kant Mishra (@stereokking) January 22, 2024
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