Bilateral ODI series meaningless, says Dean Jones

Chennai: Though Dean Jones excelled at Tests and ODIs, he was cut-out for the shorter format. He exhibited flamboyance, faced the fiery pacers of the West Indies head on by dancing down the track and mastered the art of running between the wickets as the former Australia top-order batsman changed the way players approached one-dayers. In a chat with this newspaper, Jones who is in the city spoke about various issues and put forth suggestions to make ODIs more meaningful.

Bring tri-series back
People don’t just look for cricket to be fillers; it got to have something on it. What I would like to see more is some significance attached to a bilateral series. Otherwise, the mediocrity of these stupid and meaningless one-day bilateral series is not going to help the sport. We need more triangular series. Isn’t fun to have India, Australia and South Africa featuring in a tri-series? 

ODI Cup is ultimate 
Numbers from TV viewership prove that 50-over World Cup is holding its own in ratings even though T20 is fast catching up. However, we have to make the tournament more compact. I liked it when it was a nine-team affair (in 1992) with everyone playing against each other before the knockout. I personally don’t like to have two divisions, but there is no harm in splitting the teams to improve competition. Sri Lanka haven’t yet qualified for the next edition of the World Cup. If they don’t, they don’t deserve to be there. It’s as simple as that. 

Meaningless series
I’m glad the India-Australia series is going to happen because at one stage it never looked possible with Cricket Australia and players embroiled in pay dispute. However, I feel it’s yet another meaningless ODI series. I just hope their rivalry and some interesting characters involved will spice it up. What I admire about the likes of Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane is the element of classic technique associated with their side-on batting. Some of our guys are front-on and their back-lift is bad. They are getting away with all these as they play on flat tracks in Australia these days. 

World Test championship
I was telling one of the broadcasters about a plan for the World Test championship. Ten teams have to be divided into two divisions and they play four matches each. If it’s a four-day match with 100 overs a day, the tournament can be done and dusted in 50 days. If a team scores more than 300, you get four batting points. If you get all 10 wickets before 100 overs, you get your bowling points. So teams will be aggressive in their approach. In the mid 90s, county cricket in England had this format when I was playing there. I think the current Futures Tour Programme gets over in June 2019. If ICC works out a plan for a World Test championship, three out of every four years we will have a major tournament. That will be good for the sport.

‘Handle’ with care
With the new rules banning big bats, the focus will now shift on handles which remain an uncharted territory. The most important aspect in golf clubs is the shaft. Have you ever wondered how a little guy hits a golf ball effortlessly for 300 metres. Shafts are tailor-made to suit golfers’ hand speed. Some of the big hitters in cricket — Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russel — already use bats with longer handles. As a result of gripping them high, they get right flexes on the handle. Manufacturers need to use technology and find ways to avoid the handle twisting in your hand under impact. 

Hypocrisy overwhelming
I’m a firm believer that there is no such thing called no. 1 side in cricket. India became the ‘no. 1 Test’ side without facing Pakistan. I would love to see the two teams play in a Test series. In last two-three years, there is so much improvement in Pakistan cricket. The Pakistan Super League has transformed them into a professional unit. The Champions Trophy success can also be attributed to the players who emerged through PSL. Pakistan just have to get their first-class structure right. In recent times, there were quite a few terrorist attacks in Europe including London and sporting events are going on as usual. But teams refuse to travel to Pakistan. The hypocrisy is overwhelming!

Dhoni the best runner
The art of running between the wickets hasn’t improved a bit. I look with keen interest whenever they show replays to check no-ball. Generally, batsmen at the non-striker end look down the pitch, but ideally they should be looking at the bowler side-ways. They also don’t know how to run in straight lines. M.S. Dhoni is the only exception. He not only runs fast, but is also smart in judgment. In the 80s, we felt running between the wickets was very important because the team that scores more singles and twos wins the game. The grounds were bigger and you could even start your third when the fielder prepares to throw. While batting we concentrated on hitting flat. The current generation of cricketers really needs to work on this while playing on bigger grounds.

Get third umpire on ground
They have started checking no-ball after every dismissal. I hate it. It kills the moment and the natural flow of the game. Instead of using the TV replay every time, they can bring in one more umpire into the ground just to check whether the bowler is stepping over the line. These days umpires are missing too many. They can’t see the crease properly as the bowler’s hip comes in the way.

Bowlers not intimidating
Having faced the likes of Patterson, Ambrose, Marshal and Holding, I can confidently say that not many bowlers in current era are intimidating. The standard of bowling has diminished. I don’t see many clocking 150kmph.