Prohibiting toss might lead to playing Tests on good standard pitches, says Javed Miandad
Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad has backed the proposal to eradicate the toss from Test cricket and pointed out that in recent years, home sides have resorted to preparing one-sided pitches to gain the advantage. However, Salim Malik has stated that the toss made the game more interesting.
Javed Miandad feels that a step taken to abolish the toss from Tests would push the home team to prepare better pitches instead of preparing tracks that
"I don't see any harm in trying out this experiment of abolishing the toss. It might ultimately lead to matches particularly Test cricket being played on good standard pitches," Miandad said as the ICC's cricket committee meets in Mumbai this month to debate on whether the toss should be abolished from the game.
"The committee can, however, only make recommendations which will be put forward to the ICC chief executives committee."
Ever since the cricket committee considered the proposal to recommend abolishing the toss from cricket there has been varied speculations on the need for this change. Miandad feels there is no harm in experimenting if it would yield better results. He pointed out that in recent years, home sides have devised a means of preparing sub-standard and one-sided pitches to gain advantage and win matches against touring sides, which brings down the morale of the game.
"Toss has always been an integral part of cricket but times are changing and one needs to try out new things to make the sport more attractive and better. In recent times we have seen Pakistan win in UAE conditions where pitches are low bounced and slow and then go and struggle in Australia or New Zealand. The answer is to ensure they are good quality pitches wherever cricket is played," he added.
Salim Malik, who was banned for life for his part in the infamous 2000 match-fixing scandal, has a different outlook to such a move as he feels the toss made the game more interesting.
"It allows one to judge the wisdom and worth of a captain. Decisions made at the toss eventually shape the result of a match. Why abolish the toss why not make it mandatory to have international curators like elite panel of umpires and referees," he said.
Malik felt that the ICC should take it as a challenge to ensure all pitches are friendly to batsmen and bowlers alike and they should not tinker with the traditional spirit of the game.
"Doing away with the toss or reducing Test matches to four days is not the answer. One should not tinker with the traditional spirit of cricket," he said.
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