No matter which format of Cricket is being played or where it is being played, the singular starting point of every match is the toss. Two captains joined by Match Referee with a coin decide to take the very important decision. Visiting captain calls the side of the coin while home captain tosses the coin with the winner getting to choose whether he wants to bowl or bat. The tradition has continued from 1877 but now it may find its end next year.
A new international coaches representative on the committee, which features Anil Kumble, Andrew Strauss, Mahela Jayawardene, Rahul Dravid, Tim May, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White, the umpire Richard Kettleborough, ICC match referees chief Ranjan Madugalle, Shaun Pollock and Clare Connor, will be taking many crucial decision in the meeting to be held on May 28-29.
This would be an extension of the playing conditions now used in the English County Championship since the start of the 2016 season, where the visiting team can choose to bowl first, with a coin toss to follow if the captain is not fussed. According to briefing notes circulated ahead of the ICC cricket committee meeting at the end of May in Mumbai and seen by ESPNcricinfo:
“There is serious concern about the current level of home team interference in Test pitch preparation, and more than one committee member believes that the toss should be automatically awarded to the visiting team in each match, although there are some others on the committee who do not share that view.”
With the skewed figures of the team winning on home pitches and losing poorly in away conditions has compelled ICC to find a solution to this problem. The home boards manipulating pitch conditions to suit their team makes the toss very important and more often then not its the team batting last that has to face the worst of it. The proposed remedy is to abandon the coin toss for matches played as part of the Test Championship. The process is set to begin with Australia’s Ashes tour of England in 2019, leaving the visiting side to choose whether to bat or bowl first.
