Shaun Pollock: ICC working on something to give bowlers more leeway on wides

A total of 25 wides have been bowled in the first two matches of the 2025 SA20.

More than half of these were recorded during Friday’s fixture between Durban’s Super Giants and Pretoria Capitals at Kingsmead in Durban. The T20 fixture yielded 416 runs and 10 wickets.

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“If a batter jumps across at the last minute, it doesn’t really work out for me, I think a bowler, at the start of his run-up, needs to know where he can bowl it,” Pollock, who is a media representative for the International Cricket Council’s cricket committee, told PTI.

“The current rule tends to suggest that if he the batter moves and it’s that point of delivery where the batter is, and that’s according to where the wide will be called, I want a little bit of a change.

“I want them to know exactly when they’re running up why or how – how can a bowler be expected to change his gameplan at the last second when he’s bowling? He needs to have a clear idea where he can go.

“We are working on something to give bowlers a bit more leeway on wides. So it’s in the pipeline, we’re all discussing. We need to give a little bit back to the bowlers.”

After this year’s SA20, several Proteas cricketers will travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. Later this year, South Africa will contest the World Test Championship final against Australia in England.

“We’ve got a lot of Indian Premier League stars who play for South Africa. In those situations, everything looks good. The amount of IPL players, people like Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, all those guys who spend so much time over there, getting an understanding for conditions, that can only help South Africa,” added Pollock.

“They have got the ICC World Test Championship final now as well, so it’s been some good stuff and, hopefully, some younger individuals come up. We’ve seen it starting to develop in the Test arena.”

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