Shane Warne and Steve Waugh disagree on 'abolishing coin toss'

01/07/2019

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Shane Warne has asserted that the ICC should abolish the practice of the ‘coin toss’ before matches and suggested that the visiting team should be given preference on whether to bat first or bowl first. Steve Waugh, though, disagreed with the opinion as he said that the toss is not that important.

Shane Warne has been batting for a change in age-old ICC tradition as he was extremely vocal about his opinion on the ‘coin toss’ that is held before every match in order to determine who bats/bowls first on a particular surface. The toss has been a matter of huge debate in recent times after the number of teams to win the toss ended up winning the match.

Warne said that the visiting teams should be allowed to decide on whether they wish to bat or bowl and the process of tossing the coin should be scrapped. This process has been followed in county cricket over the last three seasons as the visiting skipper takes a call on what his team would prefer to do first.

“The visiting team, in this instance it would be India, they choose what they want to do in every Test match. The same goes on in India, so if India want to prepare huge turning wickets, Australia say ‘we bat first’.

“If Australia want to produce green seaming wickets, they (India) decide we’re going to bowl first. Get rid of the toss, the away team chooses what they want to do,” Warne was quoted as saying by Fox Sports.

Legendary Australian batsman, Allan Border, had also gone public with a similar viewpoint. Much like Warne, Border also opined that the idea of letting the visiting team decide, on a trial-basis, could bring more balance and context into the game.

“I’m in the camp for no toss and letting the visiting side decide. Traditionally it shouldn’t play such an important role in the game but it has become that way.

“I don’t think we need to fiddle around with Test cricket too much but it has become an issue because all visiting sides feel like they get stitched up by pitch preparation. Of course, the only way to do these things is to trial them first,” Border had told Fox Sports in July.

However, another great Australian cricketer, Steve Waugh, is against this concept. Waugh mentioned that the toss is not always as significant to the outcome of the game as people think it is.

“Leave the toss as is. Sometimes the toss is not as important as you think. For example in Melbourne we were going to bowl first. We lost the toss, India batted. No, I think just leave the toss, that’s the way it is.

“If the pitches get too much in favour of the home team, you’ve got an ICC match referee there, they give marks for the pitch,” Waugh told Fox Cricket.

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Shane Warne and Steve Waugh disagree on 'abolishing coin toss'

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