ICC Cricket Committee looking to give leeway to bowlers on wides: Shaun Pollock

ICC Cricket Committee looking to give leeway to bowlers on wides: Shaun Pollock

South African legend Shaun Pollock said the ICC Cricket Committee was working towards giving bowlers “more leeway on wides” as the current rule is “very strict on them”, particularly when batters make last minute movement.

Across One-Day Internationals and T20Is, batters make late movements across the crease to disturb bowlers’ line and lengths who end up giving wides.

“I’m working on something. I’m obviously part of the ICC Cricket Committee and we’re looking to come up with a bit more leeway for the bowlers on wides. I think it’s very strict on them,” Pollock told PTI on the sidelines of SA20.

The 51-year-old said bowlers must know where they have to bowl while on top of their run-up.

“If a batter jumps across (at the) last minute, it doesn’t really work out for me. I think a bowler, at the start of his run-up, needs to know where he can bowl it,” added Pollock.

“I want them to know exactly when they’re running up why or how. How can a bowler be expected to change his game plan at the last second when he’s bowling? He needs to have a clear idea where he can go,” he said.

“So it’s in the pipeline, we’re all discussing. We need to give a little bit back to the bowlers,” he added.

The former all-rounder said South Africa should look to leverage on its players’ experience in the subcontinent conditions during the upcoming Champions Trophy.

“You’ve got basically the similar players that were at that (ODI) World Cup (2023) where we got to the semifinal and lost to Australia,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of IPL stars who play for South Africa. In those situations, everything looks good. The amount of IPL players, people like Klaasens, Millers, even de Kocks, all those guys who spend so much time over there, getting an understanding for conditions, that can only help South Africa.

“They (have) got the ICC Test Championship now as well so it’s been some good stuff and, hopefully, some younger individuals come up. We’ve seen it starting to develop in the Test arena,” he added.