What a Tosser
The first cricket test started yesterday in Dunedin.
Yep, a test match in Dunedin in November. Suppose we should look on the positive side … at least it didn’t snow.
The test raised a couple of interesting points related to the toss.
For a start, the game is technically a home game for the Pakis so Daniel Vettori as the “visiting” captain called the coin toss. Strange that.
Which of course raises a completely separate issue about the importance of the toss and “home” advantage.
Listening to Mark on Radio Sport, he argued that the home team should get to call the shots – no toss, just choose.
I think he’s half right. In many cases, there’s too much attached to the toss that there needs to be a real incentive to make sure teams don’t doctor the pitch.
By giving the AWAY team the right to choose, any attempt to doctor a pitch is almost certain to fail.
In baseball the visiting team always bats first, according to Wikipedia.
An inning is broken up into two halves in which the away team bats in the top (first) half, and the home team bats in the bottom (second) half. In baseball, the defense always has the ball — a fact that differentiates it from most other team sports.
(I left the last sentence in only because I’m a trainspotter – still an interesting point!)
Anyway, that’s sorted. Let’s get rid of the toss and give the away team the choice.
Now that’s choice!
