From Newsgroup: uk.sport.cricket

I came across this on a boat blog (https://www.southernwoodenboatsailing.com/news/starting-afresh) :

If the dinner party is getting a little dull, and you are not feeling
enriched by drunken theories on how to fix American Politics, then throw
this question into the mixrCa

rCLWhat single rule change could you introduce to a mainstream sport to
make a radical improvement?rCY It turns out that even the most socially radical people, can be extreme in their conservatism, when it comes to
their favourite sport. Change is evil and only to be considered in
desperate times. So none of the suggestions below are ever likely to
happen. But its entertaining to consider the problems with a sport we
love and speculate on how a few strokes on the keyboard could change the
way we play.

The ProblemrCo In Test matches played this century, teams winning the
toss won roughly 40.9 % of matches, while toss losers won about 36.0 %
(the remainder were draws). This means that, in a game that prides
itself on fairness, you have a 5% better chance of winning if you happen
to pick the result of a 50/50 flip of the coin.

The SolutionrCo Instead of having a toss, at the start of each match
each captain wanders to the wicket clutching an envelope. Inside is a
piece of paper with a number written on it. This number is the score
that team is willing to start from if they bat first. (It might be a
negative or positive number). The captain who has the lowest number gets
to bat first.

Why this HelpsrCo This process removes the arbitrary process of the coin lottery and replaces it with a skilled judgement call based on the
assessment of the brains trust of each team. And you can't blame the
toss if you loose! Surely this is an improvement!

Discuss (if you wish).

Adrian
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From Newsgroup: uk.sport.cricket

On 03/02/2026 18:42, Adrian wrote:

I came across this on a boat blog (https:// www.southernwoodenboatsailing.com/news/starting-afresh) :

If the dinner party is getting a little dull, and you are not feeling enriched by drunken theories on how to fix American Politics, then throw this question into the mixrCa

rCLWhat single rule change could you introduce to a mainstream sport to
make a radical improvement?rCY It turns out that even the most socially radical people, can be extreme in their conservatism, when it comes to
their favourite sport. Change is evil and only to be considered in
desperate times.-a So none of the suggestions below are ever likely to happen. But its entertaining to consider the problems with a sport we
love and speculate on how a few strokes on the keyboard could change the
way we play.

The ProblemrCo In Test matches played this century, teams winning the toss won roughly 40.9 % of matches, while toss losers won about 36.0 % (the remainder were draws). This means that, in a game that prides itself on fairness, you have a 5% better chance of winning if you happen to pick
the result of a 50/50 flip of the coin.

That's a fairly small advantage.

The SolutionrCo Instead of having a toss, at the start of each match each captain wanders to the wicket clutching an envelope. Inside is a piece
of paper with a number written on it. This number is the score that team
is willing to start from if they bat first. (It might be a negative or positive number). The captain who has the lowest number gets to bat first.

Surely that should read "gets to decide whether to bat first".
--
David North
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From Newsgroup: uk.sport.cricket

On 04/02/2026 07:04, David North wrote:

On 03/02/2026 18:42, Adrian wrote:

I came across this on a boat blog (https://
www.southernwoodenboatsailing.com/news/starting-afresh) :

If the dinner party is getting a little dull, and you are not feeling
enriched by drunken theories on how to fix American Politics, then
throw this question into the mixrCa

rCLWhat single rule change could you introduce to a mainstream sport to
make a radical improvement?rCY It turns out that even the most socially
radical people, can be extreme in their conservatism, when it comes to
their favourite sport. Change is evil and only to be considered in
desperate times.-a So none of the suggestions below are ever likely to
happen. But its entertaining to consider the problems with a sport we
love and speculate on how a few strokes on the keyboard could change
the way we play.

The ProblemrCo In Test matches played this century, teams winning the
toss won roughly 40.9 % of matches, while toss losers won about 36.0 %
(the remainder were draws). This means that, in a game that prides
itself on fairness, you have a 5% better chance of winning if you
happen to pick the result of a 50/50 flip of the coin.

That's a fairly small advantage.

Yes, I thought that too. In fact I was surprised that it was that small.

The SolutionrCo Instead of having a toss, at the start of each match
each captain wanders to the wicket clutching an envelope. Inside is a
piece of paper with a number written on it. This number is the score
that team is willing to start from if they bat first. (It might be a
negative or positive number). The captain who has the lowest number
gets to bat first.

Surely that should read "gets to decide whether to bat first".

Given that the advantage is so small, this seems like an unnecessary complication.
--
John Hall

You can divide people into two categories:
those who divide people into two categories and those who don't
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