Coronavirus: Ramiz Raja suggested reducing the pitch size

Coronavirus: Ramiz Raja suggested reducing the pitch size
Coronavirus: Ramiz Raja suggested reducing the pitch size

Coronavirus has marked a full stop in front of all the sports activities. Cricket is one of the major game that has been delayed and affected amid Coronavirus outbreak. Bowlers might be restricted to use their saliva or sweat to shine the ball which can ultimately affect the reverse swing especially in the red-ball format of the game.

Bowlers can be less effective as lacking reverse swing might help out the batsmen and for being mutually rewarded, Ramiz Raja, the former Pakistani cricketer and one of the well-known commentator of the present era, has suggested reducing the size of cricket pitches. He suggested reducing the size of the pitch from 22 yards to 20 yards.

Ramiz, in a youtube video, said that it might be problematic for the bowlers in the Coronavirus outbreak without a reverse swing that can be in threat if the bowlers are not allowed to use their sweat or saliva to shine the ball and it can work well for the batsmen.

“In all probability, players won’t be able to apply saliva or sweat to shine the ball which will mean that reverse swing will go out of the equation,” said Raja in a YouTube video.

“This will consequently make Test cricket less attractive because reverse swing forms a very important part of a bowler’s armoury in this format,” he added.

“The lack of reverse swing will disturb the balance between bat and ball and so we might have to go towards squeezing the size of the pitch. Maybe turn the pitch into 20 yards instead of 22 so that batting is not very easy,” said Raja.

It is to be noted that Ramiz Raja has indulged in 57 test matches where he scored 2833 runs and signing into 198 ODI matches, he has smashed a total of 5841 runs. The well-known commentator had also been a part of Pakistan’s men team in 1992 when side under Imran Khan won the World Cup defeating England in finals.

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