Taking the reverse out of swing

[AsifTheManRahman]

Is reverse swing a dying art? The article also features some good thoughts on what constitutes ball tampering. I personally have always felt that the acts of shining the ball with sweat and roughing it up on the other side should be banned. If these are allowed, then what's wrong with lifting the seam, or scratching the ball, or biting it?

Though reverse swing still lives on and always will, the way we saw it move in the air during the early 1990’s we may never see again, unless the laws are changed.

Few things in this world are serene, yet have the ability to get the adrenaline pumping; aesthetically artistic, yet capable of causing mayhem and destruction. There are a million ways to describe the first morning of a Test match but none do it greater justice than the sight of a man running in furiously from 25 metres and hurling down a shiny red cherry, swinging in the air and seaming off the turf. To complete this picture add some grass, four slips, a gully and a cloud cover making it a tad bit more exciting. While this was the case somewhat on the first day of the drawn third Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Kandy, it did not last long.

Gimme more

[al Furqaan]

Personally I don't have a problem with shining the ball. Seam lifting, scratching, and "tampering" is destruction of the ball that is not natural. Whereas shining isn't destruction per se. If we don't allow shining, then the ball will just get old and worn uniformly. Fair enough but that ruins the "continuity" of the sport of cricket. It makes it even more difficult to compare stats and performances from long ago to the present/future. The alternative is to constantly replace balls like they do in baseball, but that would just be weird, in addition to the points above.

[BengaliPagol]

Maybe every time the ball goes to the boundaryb the oundary person can chuck one of the 20 cricket balls he is holding onto to the bowler. Sort of like they do in soccer when the ball is hit into the crowd. As al Furqaan said it would be weird.