England captain Eoin Morgan has dismissed claims that modern bats are too big and favour batsmen.International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Dave Richardson suggested this week that lawmakers could look to reduce the depth of bats.His comments came after South Africa’s AB de Villiers hit the fastest one-day century from 31 balls last month.”The bat-size debate is ridiculous,” said Morgan, 28, who believes rule changes in ODIs have boosted scoring.”I haven’t come across a bat yet where I’ve said ‘this is ridiculous, this should be outlawed’.”The fact that you can concentrate on the bat size when the rule change has been made so that you bowl with two new balls… The ball is never any older than 25 overs and you have an extra man in the circle.”
Richardson said modern bats had “shifted the balance in favour of batsmen” as more poor shots or mis-hits shots were going for six.
The length and width of bats is regulated but there are no rules concerning depth.At a meeting of the MCC’s World Cricket Committee last July it was decided not to change the rules regarding bat sizes.The MCC says it will be monitoring the performance of bats during the upcoming World Cup, where boundary ropes are to be pulled as far back as 90 yards.
