“If a batter jumps across [at the] last minute, it doesn’t really work out for me,” Pollock told PTI on the sidelines of the SA20. “I think a bowler, at the start of his run-up, needs to know where he can bowl it.
“The current rule tends to suggest that if he [the batter] moves and it’s that point of delivery where the batter is, and that’s according to where the wide will be called, I want a little bit of a change. I want them to know exactly when they’re running up why or how – how can a bowler be expected to change his game plan at the last second when he’s bowling? He needs to have a clear idea where he can go.
“So it’s in the pipeline, we’re all discussing. We need to give a little bit back to the bowlers.”
As things stand, though, the ICC’s playing conditions specify that a ball should be called a wide if it “passes wide of where the striker is standing and which also would have passed wide of the striker standing in a normal batting position”, and also, it is not a wide “if the striker, by moving, either causes the ball to pass wide of him, or brings the ball sufficiently within reach to be able to hit it by means of a normal cricket stroke”.
Pollock hopes SA’s ‘IPL stars’ make a difference at Champions Trophy
“You’ve got basically the similar players that were at that [2023 ODI] World Cup, where we got to the semi-final and lost to Australia,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of IPL stars who play for South Africa. In those situations, everything looks good. The amount of IPL players, people like [Heinrich] Klaasen, [David] Miller, even [Quinton] de Kock, all those guys who spend so much time over there, getting an understanding for conditions, that can only help South Africa.
“They [have] got the ICC Test Championship [final] now as well, so it’s been some good stuff and, hopefully, some younger individuals come up. We’ve seen it starting to develop in the Test arena.”
‘South African cricket needed SA20 injection’
“Some of the activities at the ground as well, the Catch 2 Million competition this year has been added,” he said. “I know the young kids are taught ‘you’ve got to get to the ground’, because we need some money these days with the economy the way it is. But it’s definitely gone from strength to strength.
“South African cricket needed this injection – there’s no doubt about it. They needed something to create a bit of unbelievable interest in the game.”
