India batsman Sunil Gavaskar has urged former India captain Sourav Ganguly to push for a major rule change in cricket, urging the ICC to give fast bowlers more latitude in interpreting wide bouncers.
Ganguly, who currently chairs the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee, was specifically asked by Gavaskar to raise the matter during the panel’s next meeting as concerns continue to grow about the balance between bat and ball in modern cricket.
In his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar said that bowlers are increasingly “changed” in a batsman-dominated era, pointing to shorter boundaries, powerful batsmen and stricter fielding rules that have tilted the game heavily in favor of batting units, particularly in T20 cricket.
“There’s a ‘wide ball’ call for a bouncer that barely goes over the batsman’s head. It’s like asking a fast bowler to bowl with one arm tied behind his back. Come on, give him some room. After all, with the boundary lengths getting shorter, even if there’s enough room to push them back, bowlers are changing short where the ball is wide, and now the batsman is headed. in his normal stance, fast bowlers are further handicapped,” Gavaskar wrote.
The former Indian captain suggested that the ICC amend the existing rule to allow pacers a distance of around one foot above the batsman’s head before the delivery is considered wide.
“If this rule can be modified to allow the fast overhead in the batting stance a distance of one foot, about the length of the bat handle, it would give the fast bowler some relief and encouragement to fire more,” he added.
Gavaskar also recalled his tenure as chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee, when members agreed to reintroduce the bouncer in limited-overs cricket in an attempt to restore some balance to the competition.
“When I took over as chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee, the other members joined me in bringing bouncers back into the format, albeit one for each batsman. The pinchers disappeared. More importantly, the bowlers got one of their weapons back. You don’t stop the batsman from playing any shot, do you? So why restrict the bowlers from trying all kinds that have more speed? The freedom to define a wide bouncer,” Gavaskar wrote.
A batting legend said that quality batsmen should still be able to handle deliveries that are slightly above head height.
“A good batsman should be able to hit a bouncer that is about the height of the bat’s handle above his normal stance. That might improve the battle a bit in a format where even the best fast bowlers in the game tend to hide. So, come on, Sourav Ganguly, when you preside over the next meeting of the ICC Cricket Committee,” added the skipper, sparing himself a thought as well.
IPL 2026 | IPL Schedule | IPL Points Table | IPL Player Stats | Purple Cap | Orange Cap | IPL Videos | Cricket News | Live Score
– The end
Issued by:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
08 May 2026 14:51 IST
