Changes to county championship coin toss take effect today

Today is the opening day of the new county championship season and with that comes the introduction of the new coin toss rules put in place by the ECB. Visiting teams now have the option to bowl first. If declined, the toss will take place as normal.

Warwikshire's Ian Bell accepted the option to bowl first against Hampshire, foregoing the toss. A good decision, as Hampshire are in all kinds of trouble at 189/8 though at one stage they were 87/8.

The momentum to give visiting captains the choice of batting or bowling first in Test matches continues to gather steam. Though personally, I would still prefer to keep the toss. What can I say, I am a fan of tradition.

Let see how it progresses !  8)

Ben Duckett made a sparkling fifth County Championship century as Northamptonshire dominated the opening day against Sussex at Wantage Road, making 296 for 2 having been asked to bat first.
Duckett signed off 2015 with a century at The Oval and picked up where he left off with a 139-ball hundred. His unbeaten 178 was a first-class best. It allowed Northamptonshire to enjoy a fine opening to the new season against the favourites for the Division Two title.
Duckett was his dominant best in the morning session, using any inch of width to slash behind square on the off side. He took two boundaries over extra cover too. There were moments of fortune - two wild drives flew over the slips before he raised a half-century off 60 balls, and an under-edged cut brought him within touching distance of century, which he reached with an ease through extra cover.
He also swept the spinners with precision. Two of them operated in tandem for periods which was a most unexpected sight for an April Championship match, but such was the unresponsive nature of the pitch that stand-in Sussex captain Ben Brown had little choice but to use Danny Briggs and Luke Wells for 31 of the 82 overs. Duckett responded by lifting Briggs over long-on for his only six. Wells sent down too many loose deliveries to be a threat.
The only period where Sussex sustained any pressure was shortly after lunch where 15 runs came in 10 overs and Steve Magoffin slid a delivery into Jake Libby to win an lbw. Libby joined on-loan from Nottinghamshire on Friday as injury cover and showed a competent technique for his 42 - but he should have been taken by Ross Taylor at first slip when just 12.
Duckett and Libby shared an opening stand of 130 then Northants captain Alex Wakely arrived to build another big stand. He and Duckett weathered the brief period of Sussex pressure to add 123 for the second wicket.
Wakely opened his campaign with a smart half-century and some pleasant straight driving, but would have cursed his dismissal - playing round a Briggs delivery to be lbw for 51.
Duckett said: "I'm pretty chuffed. The job isn't done, I've still got to try and go past 200 tomorrow. There were games last year when I was frustrated, getting out when set to go and make a huge score so it's a great chance to do it on day two.
"There was a bit of nip early on and Steve Magoffin bowled really well. But the plan was to play as straight as possible and stay patient and we managed to do that."

It has only been two days, but so far, a vast majority of commentators and journalists are not a fan of giving the opposing teams the opportunity to bowl first.

The commentators spoke about this at some length during the Hampshire match. They felt this was giving the visiting side too much of an advantage, especially in this early stage of the year when pitches are damp. Captains without hesitation would opt to put the opposition in on these types of pitches. This was clearly evident by the fact that all but one match featured an uncontested toss with the visiting captain choosing to exercise his right to bowl first.

So while there may be some merit to this later in the year, mostly when there is some urgency to seek results, home sides are being penalised rather than the balance being restored.

I cannot see this method ever working. There is just to much advantage given to the visiting team. I think they should abolish this practice as soon as possible.


The coin toss has always been one of the most important events in the match and it should remain as such and not become a sideshow.

The ESPNCricinfo guys put together this fantastic piece of analysis regarding the effects of winning and losing the toss. I know that we ran the numbers here last year when the discussion of eliminating the toss was brought up back then, though I only had the opportunity to go through tosses in Test matches. This great piece takes it one step further and includes T20, ODIs and List-A matches. Well worth a read.

Quote:After analysing data from more than 44,000 cricket matches across formats, however, we find that there is generally just a small - though material - advantage of winning the toss. The benefit varies widely, across formats, conditions, and depending on how closely matched the teams are.

We find that over all those matches, the team that wins the toss has won the match 2.8% more often. That small advantage increases for one-day matches and decreases for T20 contests. For day-night ODI and List A matches, the advantage is greater still, with the side winning the toss winning nearly 6% more games.

Winning the toss convey an advantage of 2.6% in first-class and Test matches, where pitches can deteriorate, giving the team that bats last a tougher challenge. But the largest boost appears to be in one-day matches, where teams that win the toss win the match 3.3% more often.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/conten...97931.html

So the stats dont bear out any formidable advantage .

Is it all in our mind ?  :-[

Indeed. While you want to get every advantage possible, winning the toss provides such a small advantage that there is no way I believe it should be eliminated.

The biggest effect on the outcome of the majority of matches today is having home-field advantage. Visiting teams are really struggling to win matches.

Over the last 5 years, South Africa is the only team with a winning record in overseas Tests (albeit in a very small sample size of 9 matches). While Pakistan is the only visiting team with a winning ODI record. As one might expect, there are more teams with winning records in overseas T20s, simply due to the statistical variations that come with such a short format.

Lets get radical.

Lets keep the Toss BUT : eliminate Home advantage


ALL squads have to play in neutral territory except the Ashes.

OR Ashes played in the Caribbean ( neutral venue)

OR India ..

OR play the Ashes in the UAE ~


howwwzzzz daaattt  ??

West Indies versus India series.

Play it in Sri Lanka .

No home field advantage !!

heck Pakistan, by force ,  does it well !