Sachin Tendulkar spoke about it a few days ago.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is considering doing away with the two new balls rule in ODIs, albeit not entirely. According to a report in Cricbuzz, while the bowling team will be able to use two new balls at the start, only one ball will be allowed from the 26th over. This rule will remain in effect till the end of the innings. This rule will also help bowlers generate more reverse swing during an innings.
The fielding side will get to choose which of the two balls they would want to carry on for the rest of the innings after the 25th over. This recommendation is set to be discussed during an ICC Board meeting that is currently taking place in Zimbabwe. In the past, bowlers have often criticised the usage of two new balls throughout an ODI innings, claiming that it gives batters the advantage and that there is hardly any reverse swing.
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Should the new rule officially come into effect, the ball that has been used for a major part of the innings will be 37 or 38 overs old once all 50 overs have been bowled.
“Having two new balls in one day cricket is a perfect recipe for disaster as each ball is not given the time to get old enough to reverse. We haven’t seen reverse swing, an integral part of the death overs, for a long time,” Sachin Tendulkar had opined on social media a few years ago.
Former Australia pacer Brett Lee had agreed with the Master Blaster.
“What the bowlers need are the wickets. They have to get wickets that (are) not totally flat (batting tracks) where someone scores 400 or someone gets a 450 score… I still think that a 250-280 score, max, is a good total,” he had said.
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