G Hawthorne: SA no-balls Aussie idea of introducing pinch-hitters

3rd September 1997

SA no-balls Aussie idea of introducing pinch-hitters

By Guy Hawthorne

The United Cricket Board of SA have no intention of following their Australian counterparts in restructuring limited-overs cricket to accomodate a specialist pinch-hitter.

The ACB this week changed the laws of their domestic one-day competition and teams will this season pick 12 players instead of 11, with one batsman being permitted to play without fielding and one bowler not being required to bat.

Ali Bacher, managing director of the UCB, pointed out that a similar innovation was introduced in what was then known as the Nissan shield in SA in 1989/90.

"We won't be changing things along those lines," said Bacher. "We tried introducing an experimental substitute's rule for a season in 1989/90, whereby each team comprised 13 players.

"The idea was to permit rolling substitutions to have the best batsmen competing against the best bowlers all the time, but it was a bit confusing and didn't really produce the desired results.

"As is the case with the Australian change, that innovation was based on baseball."

Another change being considered to the limited-overs game by the ACB is further restrictions on the number of fielders outside the 30m circle.

Whereas current legislation allows for 5 fielders to be employed outside the circle after the first 15 overs, the ABC are considering reducing that to 3.

"That would tilt the game even more in favour of the batsmen, who already enjoy an advantage," said Bacher.

"In South Africa this coming season we are going the other way. We have decide to permit bowlers to bowl one bouncer per over in the Standard Bank limited-overs matches in an effort to balance the scales a bit."

Source::The Star