Time to declare?

All sports seem to have some established patterns that have become part of the fabric of the game and yet, when viewed objectively, make little sense. In football any free kick within about fifteen yards of the penalty area is blasted hopefully goalwards, in rugby union teams insist on dropping at goal when they have an attacking penalty advantage and in cricket we have the declaration in order to get a few overs at the openers before the close. 

This isn’t specifically a criticism of Michael Clarke, for the Australian first innings at Hyderabad was going nowhere when he declared. The value of having three overs to bowl is dubious at best, even when one of the openers is a barely mobile Virender Sehwag, but it was hard to see Xavier Doherty, who was batting as though someone had blindfolded him and tied his legs together, providing any significant boost to Australia’s meagre total, so it wasn’t an unreasonable action. What annoys me, however, is the accepted wisdom that you sacrifice runs in order to have a, usually vain, attempt at taking a wicket. 

The rationale is that opening batsmen don’t want to go out to bat at the end of a long day in the field in a situation where all they can hope for is survival, and there is a certain logic to that. However, this ignores the fact that this is basically their job – opening batsmen are generally selected for their ability to bat successfully against the new ball and to bat time. With a few exceptions it is hard to imagine an opener being particularly fazed by being asked to bat for a while and then come back and carry on batting again in the morning. Allan Border certainly saw it differently: his view was that the last thing any batsman wanted to do was to stay in the field for any longer than he had to (which is where the phrase 'mental disintegration' first came into currency). By not declaring the evening before he gained the advantage firstly of the opposition openers spending part of the final session worrying about when they were going to bat and then of the batsmen not only tiring themselves further in the field but of making them really fed up when they eventually did get to bat. 

The Adelaide test of 2006 still sends shivers down the spines of many England supporters, but even without Ashley Giles’ dropped catch and the spineless fifth day capitulation England had, and wasted, the opportunity to put the game out of sight in the first innings. On the second evening, with Andrew Flintoff and Ashley Giles going well, they sacrificed the possibility of making 650 and putting real pressure on the Australians so that they could have nine overs before the close. These nine overs were even reasonably successful, Andrew Flintoff taking the wicket of Justin Langer, but it didn’t stop Australia from piling up over five hundred themselves. On a flat wicket it made no sense to turn down a really huge score in return for a fairly small reward. 

The next time, therefore, you hear someone suggesting that the captain declares so that they can get a few overs at the openers before the end, stop and ask yourself if it is really worth it. The answer will almost always be no.