MCC moves to limit bat dimensions

The MCC World Cricket Committee has responded to growing concerns about the size of bats by proposing new limits on their dimensions, in a bid to reduce the number of mis-hits off the edge or the toe of the bat flying over the boundary for sixes.

The size of bats has been a constant matter of debate at MCC meetings. In July 2014, the cricket committee had discussed the issue at length, debating the benefit of a greater number of boundaries for television viewers against the fairness of the balance between bat and ball. At that point, the members couldn’t reach consensus, and the law was left as it was.

Now, however, the committee believes that enough is enough, and has recommended a new limit of 40 millimetres for the edge of the bat, and 67 millimetres to the spine.

“We have talked for the last couple of years about concerns that the committee has had about the size of bats and where the size of bat is going to go in the next five-ten years,” Ricky Ponting, a member of the committee, said. “So we have actually come up with some dimensions that we are comfortable with as a committee.”

“The time has come to restrict the size of bat edges and the overall width [depth] of bats,” Mike Brearley, chairman of the committee, said. “It was pointed out to us that, in 1905, the width of bats was 16mm and that, by 1980, it had increased to 18mm. It is now an average, in professional cricket, of 35-40mm and sometimes up to 60mm. That shows how fast the change has been.”

…

continue reading in source www.espncricinfo.com