Former India batsman-turned-commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar, bemoaned a couple of cricket’s longstanding rules, asking for the removal of the free-hit from the white-ball versions of the game and calling leg-byes extremely unfair.
Manjrekar feels both – the free-hit imposed after instances of no-balls and leg-byes added to the batting team’s kitty – don’t do justice to the bowlers, who are already having to deal with mostly batting-friendly conditions in limited-overs cricket.
Manjrekar wrote against the two rules in an article for the Hindustan Times and expressed why he wants the ‘free-hit’ and ‘leg-byes’ removed from the laws of cricket.
“Free hit is a thing I want gone, again terribly unfair on the bowlers. Today with the TV umpire monitoring no balls, a bowler has to be a centimeter over, and immediately a string of punishments are meted out,”
Manjrekar mentioned.
“The bowler has to bowl an extra ball, the batter cannot be out to that no ball already bowled and there is also a penalty of one run. To add to that, there is a free hit offered to the batter next ball in which he cannot be out. The penalty is just not commensurate to the ‘wrongful’ act. It’s as if the rule was introduced by a sadist who hated bowlers,”
he added.
For ‘leg-byes’, Manjrekar wrote, since the bowler has deceived the batter, how fair it is for the bowler to be “penalised” by runs down the leg-side? For Manjrekar, it doesn’t “make sense from any angle”.
While Manjrekar has been vocal about his issue with the ‘leg-byes’ from the commentary box as well, this is the first time he has come out with a strong view against the use of ‘free-hit’ after instances of no-balls.
The ‘free-hit’ is indeed unfair on the bowlers since no-balls occur rarely and most no-balls are marginal. The bowler and fielding team are already penalised, with the ball being deemed illegal and an extra run added to the batting side.
