ICC Cricket Committee looking to give leeway to bowlers on wides: Shaun Pollock

PTI, Jan 11, 2025, 11:25 AM IST

Durban: South African legend Shaun Pollock says the ICC Cricket Committee is working towards giving bowlers “bit more leeway on wides” as the current rule is “very strict on them”, particularly when batters make last minute movement.

Across ODIs and T20Is, batters make late movements across the crease to disturb bowlers’ line and lengths and they end up giving wides.

“I’m working on something. I’m obviously part of the ICC Cricket Committee and we’re looking to come up with a bit more leeway for the bowlers on wides. I think it’s very strict on them,” Pollock told PTI on the sidelines of SA20.

“If a batter jumps across (at the) last minute, it doesn’t really work out for me. I think a bowler, at the start of his run-up, needs to know where he can bowl it.

“The current rule tends to suggest that if he moves and it’s that point of delivery where the batter is, and that’s according to where the wide will be called, I want a little bit of a change,” added Pollock.

The 51-year-old said bowlers must know where they have to bowl while on top of their run-up.

“I want them to know exactly when they’re running up why or how. How can a bowler be expected to change his game plan at the last second when he’s bowling? He needs to have a clear idea where he can go,” he said.

“So it’s in the pipeline, we’re all discussing. We need to give a little bit back to the bowlers,” he added.

Pollock said the SA20 has gone from “strength to strength” like IPL has over the years.

“It’s just gone from strength to strength. Some of the activities at the ground as well, the Catch 2 Million competition this year has been added,” he said.

“I know the young kids are taught, ‘you’ve got to get to the ground’, because we need some money these days with the economy the way it is. But it’s definitely gone from strength to strength.

“South African cricket needed this injection — there’s no doubt about it. They needed something to create a bit of unbelievable interest in the game,” he said.

The former all-rounder said South Africa should look to leverage on their players’ experience in the subcontinent conditions during the upcoming Champions Trophy “You’ve got basically the similar players that were at that (ODI) World Cup (2023) where we got to the semifinal and lost to Australia,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of IPL stars who play for South Africa. In those situations, everything looks good. The amount of IPL players, people like Klaasens, Millers, even de Kocks, all those guys who spend so much time over there, getting an understanding for conditions, that can only help South Africa.

“They (have) got the ICC Test Championship now as well so it’s been some good stuff and, hopefully, some younger individuals come up. We’ve seen it starting to develop in the Test arena,” he added.

Pollock said while it is understandable that T20 leagues around the world are “moneymakers”, he would prefer players not turning down the national duties for franchise cricket.

“There’s always cricketers (available) so you’re going to be able to create leagues. It’s the moneymaker for a lot of the cricket boards around the world,” he said.

“You can understand why these leagues are presenting themselves. If you can find windows for them, that’s fine. But my biggest concern is where you’ve got international players who go away and play in these leagues and don’t end up playing for their international teams.” However, Pollock said he will not grudge players for making that choice.

“Ideally, I would prefer that they make themselves available for their own international countries as often as possible. But you do understand it’s an earning capacity.

“It’s a certain time where they can make money for the rest of their lives and you can’t begrudge them on that,” he signed off.