Most people will have heard of the term “overstepping one’s boundaries.” Trying to find where the phrase originates is not easy.
The phrase means to do something that is not acceptable or allowed. For example he/she has overstepped the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.
There are some who believe that the origin comes from the world of sport. In most sports there are edges to the playing area which if the player or the ball goes outside of that area, they are out of bounds or out of play. Even a game like Golf has areas that are “out of bounds.” Outside the area of fairplay.
When it came to the sport of cricket the boundary was a long time the perimeter of the playing area. Prior to that when there were no boundaries all runs had to be exactly that, run. When the ball touches the boundary, or is grounded beyond the boundary, or touched by a fielder who is himself either touching the boundary or grounded beyond it, the ball is dead.The batting side has then scored “a boundary” and four or six runs are awarded depending on whether the ball crossed the boundary in the air without bouncing (six) or along the ground (four). In other instants where overthrows come into play they may be rewarded with a different total when the ball crosses the boundary.
For decades the boundary was the fence that ran around many of the grounds, especially in the professional game. Then as fielders started to chase balls headed for the boundary a little harder injuries started to occur. Some slid into the fence feet first to try and flick the ball back, and we saw knee, ankle and rib injuries. Others struggled to slow up and injured their wrists or hand on the fence as they used them as a buffer to try and slow their momentum.
Some would say that as the competitive spirit in the game intensified, every run became crucial. So whereas for many years fielders had accepted that a ball racing across the grass towards the boundary was always going to beat them, many modern day players turned and chased in hot pursuit, determined to prevent a boundary being scored.
Despite claims that the boundary was brought in from the advertising hoardings to protect the players from injury it is hard to find any proof to back up this claim. Another reason given as to why in the last 20 years we have witnessed the boundary coming in from the line of the fence was that it was also to protect the players from being manhandled and abused by those who may have over-imbibed of the amber fluid on a hot Summer’s day. While both of these reasons make perfect sense it is hard to find any proof that either reason is backed by any truth.
It appears that once again that bastard relation of the great game of cricket, T20 is responsible. With the abbreviated format of the game, which was never to be taken too seriously, it was decided to bring the boundary in so that it would increase the possibility of more boundaries being scored in the 20 over limit. For some reason the change has crept into the other formats of the game. This has been a case of the sport overstepping its boundaries, this is not acceptable behaviour.
Once the boundary came in from the fence someone had the idea of putting advertising on the boundary rope and now the chances of it ever being pushed back out has became even more unlikely. Money is involved and the sport would lose that ability to generate revenue.
The problem is this change which has seen in many cases the boundary come in five to 10 metres around the perimeter of grounds that have witnessed first class cricket for decades or even centuries. It has meant that statistics, on which cricket prides itself have been grossly distorted.
Add to this the fact that the technology behind the manufacture of cricket bats has improved out of sight, we now see batsmen no longer having to rely on timing. They can hit the ball further with little extra effort. Now it comes down to the sheer power they can exert.
Professional T20 cricket is credited as having commenced in 2003 when the England and Wales Cricket Board introduced the format.
It is therefore interesting to look at the players who have scored the most sixes in Test Cricket and how many of them played out their career before T20 commenced.
New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum tops the list with 107 sixes in Test cricket. HIs career ran from 2004-2016. Second in the pecking order is Australia’s Adam Gilchrist with 100 sixes. His career commenced just prior to the dawn of T20 in 1999 and went through to 2008.
Out of the players who hit the most sixes in Test Cricket only two in the top twenty completed their careers before the change in the positioning of the boundary rope. West Indian Sir Viv Richards comes in at eighth spot with 84 sixes and fellow countryman Sir Clive Lloyd is 17th on the list with 70.
Brian Lara (90-06) Chris Cairns (89-04), Jacques Kallis (95-13) Matthew Hayden (94-09), Ricky Ponting (95-12) and Sachin Tendulkar (89-13) are the only other players in the top 20 to have started their test careers more than five years before the boundaries shifted. It would be interesting to know whether the amount of sixes they scored increased on average once the boundary was shifted.
If we look at the number of sixes scored per Test Innings it may surprise many that McCullum averaged only 0.6 per Test Innings and Gilchrist 0.7 per innings. Chris Gayle only 0.5 while Virender Sehwag was up to 0.8 per innings. Out of the top twenty players Chris Cairns was the highest averaging 1.4 per innings, followed by Misbah Ul Haq with 1.08 and Andrew Flintoff at 1.03.
If you were looking for proof that the feat is achieved more often today than previously Clive Lloyd averaged 0.6 per innings and Viv Richards 0.4.
The feat of six sixes in an over was first achieved by Sir Garfield Sobers for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in 1968. The next person to achieve the feat was Indian Ravi Shastri for Bombay against Baroda in the Ranji Trophy 1985. In over 100 years of cricket around the world when the year 2000 clicked around these were the only two men to have achieved the feat in first class cricket. Since that time a further four players have equalled the feat since 2017 in the first class game.
In One Day Internationals four more players have matched them since 2007, Herschelle Gibbs, Yuvraj Singh, Kieron Pollard and little known American player Jaskaran Malhotra against Papua New Guinea in 2021. All of those who have matched Sobers and Shastri have done so since the boundaries were reduced.
In 2014 the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that it would push back the boundary to the maximum distance for all international matches. The improvements in bat technology and the creeping in of the boundary was distorting match scores and fans were becoming frustrated that every time a batsman miss-hit a good delivery it would fly away for six.
At the time the ICC’s general manager of cricket, Geoff Allardice stated: “For all formats we want grounds set up to their maximum size. It’s a maximum of 90 yards but with the way that bats are performing these days, and the way the batsmen are hitting the ball, sometimes mis-hits are carrying for six and there is concern that that balance is a bit skewed at the moment.” What happened?
Eight years down the track and we are still having to endure the same situation.
A situation that could not be further away from the situation at the turn of the last century when in more than 60 Tests in England and Australia before 1902, only two shots had been recorded as going out-of-the-ground. Both were by Joe Darling, one in Adelaide in 1898 – over the short square boundary – and one, according to the Melbourne Argus, at Trent Bridge in 1899.
Over the years there has been a vast amount of speculation as to the size of some of the hits executed by players, based on how far the ball has travelled. Many have not taken into account the ball rolling once it has bounced outside the venue.
One man whose claim to have hit the ball into the next county, that was verified was India’s Captian CK Nayudu. At Edgbaston in 1932, his shot soared out of the ground clearing the River Rea which runs alongside the ground. The other side of the river being the county of Shropshire. Nayudu was an exception among his compatriots when it came to six-hitting as from 1947-1990 there were remarkably only four sixes by Indian batsmen in Tests in large Australian grounds in 20 Tests.
Talking of big hits in Australia the longest known hit at the MCG was in a Sheffield Shield match long before the boundaries came in and the new bat technology was invented. It happened in a match between Victoria and New South Wales in 1993. Victorian Simon O’Donnell smashed Greg Matthews, to the third level (out of four) of the Great Southern Stand. The location has since been marked by a yellow-coloured seat
Albert Trott, another who played long before the changes is still the only man to hit a ball over the roof of the pavilion at Lord’s in 1899. Two Australian’s came close to emulating Trott, but failed to clear the famous building’s roof, Keith Miller and Kim Hughes’ famous six off Chris Old at Lord’s in 1980.
So big hitting has been around for a long time. It is just that the frequency of such shots was much more rare, and as stated not often did a mishit sail over the boundary for six.
The ICC said that they would address this issue, but for some reason they have opted not to move the boundaries back to their traditional positions, so should they do something to address the balance?
Maybe they need to revert to a rule that many fans will be unaware of which was in place prior to 1910. At that point in the game’s history six runs was only awarded for hits out of the ground, with five runs awarded for clearing the boundary.
Such a move may be the only one to satisfy traditionalists. They would obviously love to see the boundaries back where they have been for decades, and in some cases over a century. However the Health and Safety people may not want this for reasons previously stated. So would the best alternative be to return to a rule that was in place over 100 years ago and reinstate it?
