Short Balls Shouldn't Be Outlawed At All: Steve Smith Hits Back At Ian Chappell

Australian batting spearhead and the current No.1 ranked Test batsmen in the world Steve Smith has lambasted former cricketer-turned pundit Ian Chappell regarding his comments on the usage of short-pitch stuff against lower-order batsmen.

The use of short-pitch stuff against lower-order batsmen and especially tailenders have come under the spotlight in the past few days after Australia A bowler Harry Conway and Indian pacer Mohammed Shami suffered a concussion and fracture respectively courtesy of brutal bumpers by the Indian and Australia pacers in the practice game and the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Chappell. who was recently in the news regarding his views on ‘Switch Hit’, called for limited use of shin-music against tail-enders. While Chappell did not call for completely ‘outlawing’ the ploy, he reckoned that the umpires should step-in of a bowler go overboard in exploiting the weakness and in the process injure him.

“If a guy looks like he’s pretty hopeless against them you’ve got to give him some protection After that the umpires have got to say, ‘Just bowl the guy out, don’t try to kill him,” Ian Chappell had told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Steve Smith, however, does not agree with Ian Chappell. In fact, Smith thinks that Chappell, recently, has made up a bit of habit to post ‘outlandish’ statements after every match.

Smith added that short-pitch bowling is an integral part of the game and it should not be outlawed at all.

“It seems like Ian Chappell has an outlandish statement after every match at the moment. From my point of view, short balls are part of the game. We’ve seen over the years there’s been some really good battles and I don’t think it should be outlawed at all,” Smith told SEN. Yep, no dramas from me.”

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