Restoring bat-ball balance in ODIs Michael Holding, Ian Chappell, Rahul Dravid and Martin Crowe, participating as experts in
#ESPNcricinfo
discussion on the future of ODI game.
"Once you get a piece of bat on the ball, it disappears. There are a lot of slow-motion replays where you see a batsman hitting the ball, you can see the bat actually twisting in their hands. Obviously not hitting the ball well, and the ball disappears.' Holding said.
Chappell said thick bats have tilted the balance heavily in favour of the batsmen.
"Sooner or later, a bowler or an umpire is going to getting
seriously hurt. Because the ball is getting back so quickly they have got no time to react."
Coming back to the size of bats, Holding said, "I don't know if the ICC is afraid of the people who manufacture the bat to say exactly what has to go into a bat.
"They have limited the width of the bat, but they have never limited the depth.
There used to be a sweet spot on the bat years ago. Actually 1 company. I don't want to name it - used to have a spot on the back of the bat, which was pretty much parallel to the one on the front of the bat. Now that would have to cover the entire bat because there is no sweet spot, there is a sweet bat."