Cricket: A bowler's game

1. A batsman is allowed no mistakes. One mistake and he is out. And it is the end of the story for him. A bowler can commit quite a few mistakes. A bowler can have an opening spell of 3-0-40-0 and come back with a second spell of 4-2-3-4 and be the Man-of-the-Match.

2. The ‘Loo’ factor: A bowler can leave the field and go to the loo in the middle of the game. What about the batsmen who open the innings and stick?

3. Bowlers generally do not get hammered on a slow and assisting pitch. It takes a really special effort from a batsman to score a big hundred on a track other than a flat one. If a bowler gets hammered on a flat track, the track is to blame. If the batsmen totter on a flat track, they are to blame.

4. Bowlers can use variety of sweats and spits on the ball to make it swing, seam and spin. Batsmen have no such privilege. The surface of the bat becomes perhaps a bit red in Test matches and remains intact in ODIs.

5. A fielder can get a substitute. The batsman are not allowed runners anymore.

6. Bowlers keep finding new varieties. There is a doosra, then a teesra. There are slow balls and then slower balls. Now we have a carrom ball too. Batsmen need to keep updating their technique to tailor to the new types of balls. A bowler however is indifferent to a cover drive and a switch-hit. If it has to go to the fence, even eleven Jonty Rhodes can’t stop it.

7. A bowler can play while wearing shades.

8. A bowler can show off his new hairstyle. A batsman wearing a helmet goes bald faster than a World Cup cycle.

9. If the bowler is upset, he can hit you with a ball. Technically, such balls are called beamers. A batsman cannot throw his bat at the bowler when he is frustrated.

10. A bowler never faces the wrath of fresh, energetic fast bowlers. Either the bowling team runs out of overs or out of steam when the tail arrives.

And you say it a batsman’s game.