Overuse of bouncer condemned

Press, 8 May 1985, Page 76

Overuse of bouncer condemned

NZPA staff correspondent Kingston The New Zealand cricket manager, Dr John Heslop, stepped into a row over short-pitched bowling yesterday, saying cricket was a game of chance and challenge, not a gladiatorial contest. Addressing a West Indies Cricket Board dinner, Heslop said he had no objection to the use of the

bouncer but felt the standards of the game were lowered if it was overused. Both New Zealand and the West Indies were guilty of using short-pitched bowling as a weapon in their current series, he said, and this detracted from the game’s spectacle. “Cricket is a game of chance and challenge and should not be a gladitorial contest,” Heslop said.

“Cricket is a percentage game and the use of the bouncer cannot be condemned.” Nor could it be condoned when it was overused, he said, because the game was slowed and deprived of spectacle. “Any batsman of international repute should be able to cope with the bouncer but when the ICC has been unable to come to any agreement on legislat-

ing against it, who can blame the umpires if they take a lenient view.” Using the phrase of the former West Indies off spinner, Lance Gibbs, he said: “I ask where are my Ramadin and Valentine (two former great West Indies spinners). “It has long been a game of many skills and the lady may become wilful if not fully used.”