Limited-overs: does it spell progress or recession? (8 May 1999)

8 May 1999

Limited-overs: does it spell progress or recession?

Trevor Chesterfield

Had the limited-overs game not already become a popular variation in England from 1963, you can guarantee the Australians would have found a way to promote such a concept before Australia met England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on January 5, 1971.

As the skinhead, soft-cover pocketbook version of the more entertaining, often more meaningful game, the limited-overs option has, apart from producing its stars and wannabe heroes, has also created a culture of specialist players who have the ability to play both forms well. There are a few, however, who are labeled one-day specialists.

In the 1970s the limited-overs game was dominated by the West Indians and later the Indians; the re-emergence of the all-rounder created a special niche for the multi-talented players. Some had specialist qualities as batsmen who can bowl a bit; others bowlers who can bat a little.

Then, as the game became more skilled and the financial rewards greater, we had those whose fielding expertise gave them extra star billing.

The argument here is that the deployment of three or four quality fieldsmen in each side means they become are as important as two bowlers who have the ability to take wickets and have a runs/overs economic rate which add to their importance.

It was Barry Richards, who on the eve of South Africa's entry to the World Cup at Sydney in 1992 highlighted how the game had not only maintained levels of improvement in terms of players' ability but that the game had not gone backward, as many critics suggested.

The fielding phenomena, always apparent: lurking in the inner or outer ring, which have become synonymous with limited-overs was there, a prowling tour de force yet to be unlocked.

Clive Lloyd was a specialist in the covers for the West Indies and Viv Richards in the slips; India had Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar with Mohinder Amranath good at cleaning up on the boundary; Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas were notable as Pakistan's specialists; England with Tony Grieg and Keith Fletcher had their own and the Aussies came up with Rick McCosker, the Chappell brothers and Ross Edwards.

As Richards (Barry) pointed out four days before South Africa's World Cup debut (against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground), each country had three or more Colin Bland types and the game had profited from this. (Bland, a Rhodesian, did much from 1963 to draw attention to fielding as a specialist role in a team. He spent hours perfecting his returns right to left-handed - to the wicket and breaking the stumps while on the run).

'Fielding has added a new dimension to the limited overs game and the Test sides have benefited from it as well,' said Richards.

When Jonty Rhodes burst into the camera lens on March 8, 1992 at the Woollongabba, Brisbane to run out a slimmer Inzamam-ul-Haq it all changed. The imagery captured by television cameras as well as the photographers of that single event turned would be hopefuls into overnight wannabe Jontys.

The rash caught and spread and within seven years of that single momentous event we have any number of South Africans who are lurking in his shadow; some better in hitting the stumps than others. Recently CricInfo ran a competition whether Jonty or his Australian makover, Ricky Ponting was the No1 fieldsman in today's game.

It is a hard one to call as Ponting may be better at hitting the stumps with run outs but Rhodes saves runs and runs and has taken some outstanding catches.

This year's South African World Cup team is well blessed: Herschelle Gibbs, Derek Crookes, Dale Benkenstein and Daryll Cullinan are known for their ability to take amazing catches, latch on to anything which sniffs of a boundary or cut off singles.

Just who will be this year's outstanding fielders could be an interesting guessing game as outside Australia and South Africa the names of run-savers, run out specialists and brilliant catch takers could pose an interesting guess who game. It certainly has created a culture which was once considered a mundane chore.