New Zealand suggest bonus points should go

New Zealand, having been one of the beneficiaries of the bonus points system in this summer's VB Series in Australia, now believe there is little benefit in continuing with the use of bonus points in One-Day Internationals.

That's the view the NZC operations manager, John Reid, has been putting to the ICC Cricket Committee - Playing in Cape Town.

Because of the early lead it gained in the VB Series, New Zealand was able to milk the points system by conceding a bonus point to South Africa to shut Australia out of the finals.

"The bonus point system can be manipulated and provide an incentive not to win an individual game.

"Cricket must be seen to be 'squeaky clean' in terms of integrity of matches and must not be open to manipulation by teams.

"The opportunity to lose a game to qualify for a final or win a series must not be provided," Reid said.

While New Zealand used the system in Australia, the Australians had tried to use the carry-over points structure to their advantage to deny New Zealand a place in the Super Six of the last World Cup.

"New Zealand's recent experience of the bonus points system during the VB Series in Australia demonstrated it had little benefit in encouraging positive play and instead revealed the significant downside of a team being encouraged to play less than its full potential in order to advance further in the competition."

NZC have not yet decided the fate of bonus points in the State Shield competition and will consider the matter in their end of season review.

NZC also wants to see the extension of new technology to include bump balls.

This had resulted in several bump ball incidents during the summer resulting in incorrect decisions.

"Technology in each instance would have clarified the issue. It seems sensible to provide the umpires with support when often they and the players involved are not able to be certain about the ball's trajectory," he said.