should 'switch hitting' be banned ?

while it looks great (when it comes off) i think batsmen should not be able to do it, the reason is firstly the field is set for say a right hand batsmen & he 'switches' the field is off beam, more important than that is the umpire tells the batsman eg 'right arm over' & he knows what the bowler is bowling, to my knowledge a bowler can't then 'switch arms' (yes very difficult but it has been done Ian Harvey) can he ?


what do you think ?

As a cricket 'traditionalist', my answer might surprise you, baman.

I wouldn't ban it, because I think it would take a great deal of skill to do it well and the chances of getting out are much higher. For every time it succeeds, I think there are more times it doesn't or that it leads to an embarrassing dismissal.

Bowlers aren't allowed to bowl with the other arm or on the other side of the wicket without informing the umpire, so why is a batsman allowed to suddenly switch mid-delivery? Don't really care because I don't watch limited over cricket.

AH, I'd like to see a bowler change delivery arms in mid-delivery.

I'm with you, though, in that I'd rather watch a sweetly timed cover drive.

I went to the pub with a couple of mates over Christmas and they were showing a replay of a T20 game at Adelaide Oval. Cooper was batting, Rana bowling. He put one just short of a length and Cooper belted the ball into the Chappell stands with a legitimate cricket stroke. Next ball was around the same spot. Rather than repeat the stroke, Cooper decided to turn himself inside out and played a kind of rolling reverse sweep for 1. I thought "what was THAT??" I just can't see why the shot is necessary.

I was at that game, AH.

I thought exactly the same and just inwardly groaned.

That's why I said playing those shots is fine with me, it's more in favour of the bowler, IMO.

Total waste of time.

The batsman has to expose his wicket to do the "switch" and therefore taking a huge risk, only done occasionaly in limited over cricket, just wonder what the captain thinks when he sees a player doing it.

i dont think it should be banned but i do question the whole point of it??........why play the switch shot when in most case a "traditional" much safer shot can be played and often with a similiar result....sure it looks impressive but seems to be too high risk for its own good...