Why the ball is not swinging?

Since 2010 cricket has witnessed a constant decline in the swing of ball.  In this passing decade batting has become the dominanat  force and bowling has become just a service provider to batsmen.  The top bolwlers in the world currently are neither super tall and fast like Garner, Holding, Dennis Lilly , Akhter and Lee  nor they are supreme swing masters like Wasim ,Waqar, Mcgrath, Bond and Pollock. They are in the middle with no full strength in a single aspect like sheer Swing or raw pace. 

          Cummins, Starc, Boult , Bumrah ,  are bowlers who can swing a cricket ball with good speed , but their good speed is something which Shoaib or Lee would bowl at when not on top of their rhythm.  They bowl in the window of 140...147kmph which can be called good speed but not fast bowling, similarly they can swing the ball which is, almost, entirely  dependent upon the conditions. They can swing if the conditions allow them otherwise they can just make the ball hold their line. They  CAN'T MAKE THE BALL TALK which is the major issue.
         Few years ago Sanjy Manjrekar wrote an article  in ESPN cricinfo titled 'The ball is swinging again', it was a precise account of how the thesis and antithesis between ball and bat has changed the course of batting and bowling over the times and that now-in the article- the time had come where ball will reign cricket again like in the 80s, but that optimism  failed to manifest itself in reality. Bowlers like Southee, Amir,and Buneshwar Kumar   failed to display the swing they were laced with. 

            The reasons are manyfold, ranging from Batting friendly laws to bulitin pitches and from regressive and passive mindsets to TV sponsers who want  full matches. 
          The laws have enabled the batsmen to make more runs through attacking batting by having just four fielders on the boundary. The two new balls have killed the chances of ball reversing in the later quater of an odi Innings.  Australia use, mostly, ready made pitches that are brought in from out side and are fitted in the ground, which lacks the nature of Australianism in it ; that is hard, bouncy, fast and not slowing down throught the Five days of a test match.

 TV sponsers want full games , so that they can make the most of it. Not only they want full matches they also demand for highscoring games which compells the curators to make the wicket batting friendly. 
The popularity and increase of T20 cricket has affected the mindset of bowlers in a very harmful way. The lengths have become shorter and the lines have shifted from within wickets to outside of off stump. Slow bouncers and slow deliveries  are often the go to deliveries. Bowlers  don't back thereselves to bowl hard and fast yorkers at death. Opening bowlers don't fancy bowling full length , they fear of being hit for boundaries.   
           Young crickters don't want to imitate  Steyn, Anderson and Malinga, instead, most of them want to be  De villiars, Kholi, Sharma , Ghyle and Warner.  Batting has replace the main flavour of cricket which was Bowling- from 1975 to 2005.  Batting has become the favourite thing in a match, people favour watching the highlights once the game is finished because what they want to see can be watched in a 10 to 15 mint clip on Youtube -Batting. 
           The world needs to consider this issue  and if they want to see the real flavour of cricket, then, one day cricket must be  played with a single white ball. T20 wickets must be bowlers friendly.   Test cricket should be given utmost importance. One day cricket laws must be  revised back and it should be 15 powerplay overs and 35 normal field overs with 5 fielders allowed out side the circle. Also No imported or ready made pitches. Sponsers must not become the dictators, they should been seen as sponsers not as patronage institutions.  Primier Fast bowlers must get more pay per match and they should only be allowed to play one t20 league per year.
           If ICC lingers its oblivious behaviour toward the absence of balance between bowling and batting and if they fail to make the cricket  more suitable for fast bowling we will soon see test cricket dying as many have predicted. Cricket needs young Andersons, Steyns, waqars , and more Shoiabs. Cricket needs to provide Bumrah and Rabada a stage which they can own, they are the best in the business  with Rabada having the capacity of a complete fast bowler; swing from Bond, yorker from waqar, Bouncer from  Thomson if not Andy roberts, rhythm from Michael Holding and eyes of his own.  There is nothing that can stop Rabada from becoming as great as the others but ICC and its oblivious response toward Fast bowling in cricket.

Shah Faisal 

Shehshenta@gmail.com