Michael Holding, a former cricket player for the West Indies, is unhappy with how often bouncers are used in Test matches between England and Australia.
Michael Holding said that when he played for the West Indies, they never used bouncers for long amounts of time like they do now. He said that 98% of the deliveries on the fourth day of the Lord’s Test were short-pitched.
Using bouncers as a strategy is something that has happened in the past. In the 1932–1933 Ashes series, Don Bradman scored a lot of runs, so England’s Douglas Jardine came up with the Bodyline plan to stop him. The plan was to bowl bouncers at the body when the leg-side field was full. Even though there was a big fuss at the time, the rules did not change.
“It’s clear that they’re lying. When I played for the West Indies, we never threw bouncers for hours on end like this. At one point on day 4, 98% of the throws were short-pitched. Do you think this method is going to cause a lot of trouble now? It’s England and Australia who are playing, not the West Indies,” Holding told The Indian Express in an interview.
In later years, though, the West Indies began to use the bodyline approach against England and India. It led to the passing of a law in 1935 that gave judges the power to stop bowlers who were trying to scare other bowlers.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the West Indies ruled the world of cricket with their skilled and aggressive pace attack. Again, people were worried about how often they used bouncers and how slow their overrates were.
Mark Taylor, a former Australian Test captain, talked about this problem. He said that if a team had to fight off a flurry of bouncers, they might only score a few runs in an hour. After that, changes were made to the rules to meet these worries.
Michael Holding’s comments show that the way these kinds of methods are seen and dealt with in cricket is not always the same. While the Bodyline plan was criticised and led to a rule change, England and Australia’s overuse of bouncers in recent games has not caused as much of a fuss. Holding’s comment shows how different teams’ playing styles are seen and rated in different ways.
India
