While many of the changes of the ICC Chief Executives Committee were on expected lines, the one expected change to the power play will finally come into play.
The ball change at the thirty-five over mark stays despite reservations of certain captains. The only consolation perhaps would be that all teams will face the same scenario thus, eliminating the issue of unfair advantage. The free hit rule will continue in keeping with it being a hit in the Twenty20 version.
Perhaps one area where more thought could have been put into would be the case of not only reducing the time interval between innings during a delayed one day match but also, look to reduce the number of overs for both teams when the threat of rain remains strong. Some of the more recent matches have shown that matches were pointless prolonged over the first innings of an ODI match only for the match to be abandoned for want of time for the other team to even have a chance to bat.
But perhaps the much anticipated fillip in the one day game will come from the amended powerplay rules. It has been tossing around the minds of cricket circles for quite some time and will come into effect come October.
The player substitution rule made a quick exit while the powerplay rule stayed on. But the rule has stagnated over time with the fielding team almost always taking the two powerplays in succession after the mandatory powerplay of ten overs. The general attitude has been to get them out of the way which has resulted in a greater percentage of times when they were used over the first twenty overs or in a smaller percentage, kept behind hoping that the game would end before necessitating applying them in the course of the game.
With the batting team now being able to make a call on one of the second or third powerplays, it allows a little bit more thinking into the game and eliminating the routine that had set into the one day version of the game. Now if only the ICC can avoid the team colluding unintentionally to ensure that the powerplays are once again used up in the first twenty overs itself!
