Ponting calls for longer boundaries

Ricky Ponting wants boundary ropes pushed back to restore the character of Australia's grounds and even up the contest between batsmen and bowlers. Ponting made an unbeaten 111 in Tasmania's one-day win over New South Wales at the small North Sydney Oval on Sunday but he would like to see batsmen tested with bigger boundaries.

"A ground like this it does create a nice little carnival atmosphere but to tell the truth I'd like to see our playing arenas a bit bigger," Ponting told the Australian. "I've been a bit worried the last couple of years how much we've roped off a lot of our grounds in Australia. It takes away the character of the grounds.

"If you look at a ground like here it's obviously a very, very flat wicket anyway and the ground is very small, so everything is in the batsman's favour. It wouldn't be much fun being a bowler out here."

Although ropes help with player safety they have encroached further and further into the field of play. "Somewhere like Adelaide - the straight boundary there is roped in 30 metres and I don't think anyone is going to slide that far into the fence," Ponting said.

"At the MCG sometimes the square boundaries are roped in 30 or 40 metres as well and I don't think that needs to happen. You should be trying to make the playing surface almost as big as you can if the wicket is somewhere near the centre of the ground."