Mitchell Starc suggested docking batters runs, to end the habit of non-strikers backing up too far without compelling bowlers to “create potentially ugly scenes by running them out” according to an interview to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.
- Advertisement -
Starc had earlier warned England’s captain Jos Buttler for backing up too far in a Twenty20 game in Canberra, and said that warning batters had been an almost constant theme of his career. Starc told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald his solution was “to use the fixed cameras monitoring no-balls to also check if a batter is leaving the crease before the bowler’s front foot lands. If they move too early, umpires can then call a short run.
Starc reckoned the call must leave realms of interpretation, to the two publications. “While it is hard to do at all levels, why not take it out of the hands of interpretation and make it black and white? There are cameras for front foot no-balls, a camera there all the time [in international cricket] and someone watching the line.
“Every time the batter leaves the crease before the front foot lands, dock them a run. There’s no grey area then. And in T20 cricket where runs are so handy at the back end and games can be decided by, one, two, three runs all the time, if all of a sudden you get docked 20 runs because a batter’s leaving early, you’re going to stop doing it aren’t you?
- Advertisement -
He thinks that there’s no stigma attached once it’s pencilled into the rule books and has real consequences in narrow margins. “Then there’s no stigma. It’s taken away from the decision to have to run someone out or think about it. If it’s blatant, it is a different story, but I feel like that is at least completely black and white,” he was reported as saying.
Starc said he had to warn 7 NZ batters in his last ODI series, with some backing up by 2 metres before he bowled. “I’ve warned batters plenty of times, [Buttler] is not the first occasion. I warned probably seven Kiwi batters in those ODI games in the Top End – some were two metres outside their crease. As I said to Jos, I could never see myself doing it, but it doesn’t mean that you should then feel free to leave your crease early,” he added.
Starc joked he was sure to have support of fellow bowlers at least in his suggestion though the uneasy stigma of non-striker run-outs, despite law changes to make it more acceptable, “was hard to shake”.
- Advertisement -
“With what happened at Lord’s, with Deepti and Dean, there’s a lot of talk around it,” Starc said. “I’m sure it’s probably going to pop its head up throughout the World Cup, no doubt. But whether anyone follows through and does it, I saw the captains say it wasn’t going to happen. It’s harder to do down the levels of cricket, but particularly in international cricket there are always going to be cameras square on for the front foot and for the run-outs. So, why not? And if it either makes the batters think about it, or stops it occurring, isn’t that a good thing,” he ended.
