Time for elegance in the Twenty20?
Mar 17 2009 by Brian Halford, Birmingham Post
Never mind video referrals, power-plays and the like, there is just one law change I would like to see just implemented for the 2009 English county season. Let’s give another go to the net system, with which the county game toyed so briefly – and ditched so prematurely – in 1900.
The net system was, as documented by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians in their excellent “First class cricket matches, 1900”, this: “A net three feet high was placed around the playing area to form a boundary. The object of the experiment was to discourage boundary hitting. Therefore hits over the nets counted only three. Any hit that did not go over the net was to be run out and two additional runs allowed if the ball reached the net.”
The theory was that batting should be about elegance and strokeplay rather than bludgeoning. The law-makers wanted to deter alehouse batsmen (the Kevin Pietersen ilk) and reward stylish exponents of the batting art (Ian Bell).
So there were no sixes. While a slog into the far distance yielded only three runs, a glorious cover-drove brought four, five or more, depending on how quickly you ran. Great idea – although sadly, the MCC far too quickly had a rethink.
The net system was first used on May 2 and 3, 1900 when MCC played Nottinghamshire at Lord’s. And an attractive contest, with batting for the connoisseur, it was too. Nottinghamshire won by eight wickets and spectators were entertained by some skilful and dainty batting.
But not everyone agreed with the merits of the net system. Feverish debate raged over whether the MCC should apply it to all matches. The MCC controlled cricket back then, of course and, it must be acknowledged, did not always supply the brilliant, clear-thinking, uber-efficient leadership that the ECB provides today. For example, the first championship match of the 1900 season, between Lancashire and Hampshire, was delayed because the MCC forgot to allocate umpires to it.
The net system was used again when Leicestershire played MCC at Lord’s. But the Luddites were starting to mobilise. By the time Sussex started a two-day game at Lord’s three days later, the “revised net system” was in place. Rather heavily revised.
“Hits out of the ground counted six, hits over the net counted five, hits which bounded over the net or through it counted four, all other hits to be run out.”
On the same day as the revised net system first figured at Lord’s. Warwickshire began their championship schedule. Sydney Santall swept Leicestershire away with eight for 23 at Edgbaston, Crowther Charlesworth clobbered a beefy 67, the Bears won at a canter and the only nets in sight were the ones the amateurs practised in.
The net system never reached Edgbaston. MCC stuck with their revised version for a few more weeks but that first version surely had some appeal.
No sixes, no boundary hits at all, in fact. Rewarding, instead, the nurdlers. Time to give it another try, perhaps. How about in this season’s Twenty20?
