Boundary for advertisers

From T Ali, Pakistan
I don't know if this issue has been looked into before, but I feel that the advertising hoardings are, most of the times, far too close to the boundary. Now it may seem justified, that anything outside the boundary rope has no relevance to how far away it is. Common examples are the dug-outs in Twenty20 games, the white uniformed kids who run around to pick up a dispatched ball and return it to the closest fielder. But the most interfering thing are the advertising hoardings.

I have been observing for quite a while that boundaries are conceded because the fielder chasing the call indulges in second thoughts on whether to dive or not with the hoardings 2-3 feet away from the rope. Most of the times, the fielder in question decides against diving and thus avoiding a high risk of getting injured. This, of course, robs the fielder of any chances of saving a run or two, which might have been saved, had the hoardings been a little farther.

This is not the case in every ground in the world, but I'd like to mention Taunton as one ground where this problem exists. I, by chance, watched a Pro40 match on TV which was played at this ground, and several would-have-been-stopped boundaries were conceded. Finally, I'd want to say that It'd be a good idea if a distance of 5 meters would be allowed between the rope and the hoardings. Doing that, we'd play it fair with the fielders.