Cricket: Time wasting not fair deal for cricket fans

Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum. Photo / Getty Images

There's an old saying: It's just not cricket. At times during the New Zealand-Pakistan test series, it was especially true. So much time was wasted, it literally was not cricket.

At times it seems - once the energy drinks are quaffed, brows mopped, gloves fitted and bowlers patted on the buttocks for reassurance - there is less opportunity for test cricket these days. The fans suffer.

If the New Zealand/Bangladesh, South Africa/India and Australia/England series are a gauge, the International Cricket Council needs to consider the management of over rates.

Bowling the required 90 overs a day within the allotted six hours seems next to impossible - it never happened during the New Zealand/Pakistan series. The 90-over requirement could be scrapped but some of the delays can be resolved.

Teams rarely managed the required 15 overs an hour in any of the series cited. The problem is any number of peripheral reasons can be put forward for the lack of play; so it is hard to pinpoint exactly why play is disrupted.

Match referees are therefore reluctant to impose fines on players - and specifically captains - for being sluggish in completing their contracts with fans.

A starting point is the official and spontaneous drinks breaks. On the fourth day in Wellington, the test radio coverage noted one of these drinks breaks took six minutes, with nine extra people on the field. There was another five minute break 29 minutes later in a physical environment which was hardly high tempo.

Moments like these indicate players and umpires are applying too liberal an approach. Nutrition and hydration are important but in this day of slurry drinks and kilojoule-packed food bars loaded up pre-session, there can be no excuse for taking extra time on the field.

Yes, it is hard work keeping muscles supple and minds concentrated in 30-degree heat, sometimes with a helmet on, but cricketers are not exactly slogging it out as competitors in endurance sports over similar two hour periods do - marathon runners and road cyclists spring to mind.

There can be some sympathy with last week's test at the Basin Reserve. It is a difficult task fielding when blustery winds regularly put bowlers off stride during run-ups and running into the wind around the field - despite largely sunny days - must be sapping.

Match referees, who have discretion over fines, take that into account. The trouble is they take into account so much else as well.

The ICC asks referees to consider time lost for injury treatment, referrals and consultations with the third umpire and time-wasting by the batting side (think Jonathan Trott on his way to 168 for England in Melbourne). Allowances are also made for wickets (two minutes) and drinks breaks (four minutes).

Teams have learned to work the system and, after fields are tinkered with, bowlers mentally massaged, the pitch gardened, sightscreen adjusted and field perused; match referees can be deceived into giving the benefit of the doubt to teams who could knuckle down quicker.

Fortunately the odd referee has taken a stand, notably Zimbabwean Andy Pycroft during India's third test with South Africa in Cape Town this month.

India was ruled to be three overs short of its target when time allowances were taken into consideration during the Proteas second innings.

In accordance with ICC regulations, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was fined 60 per cent of his match fee; his players received 30 per cent fines. If Dhoni is found guilty of two further minor over-rate offences in tests in the next 12 months, he gets a one-match suspension.

Yet a percentage of match fee is hardly a big hit in the pocket for someone making millions of dollars a year. Perhaps a more relevant disincentive might be on the scoreboard with penalty runs added.

"Extras" might have a strong case for batting up the order if, say, 10 runs per missed over were added.

But players could eventually counter that with a spring in their step and less of an appetite or a thirst when it comes to extended breaks during a session.