Something exciting is happening in County Cricket this season, and that isn’t something that gets said often.

Teams are playing in result matches.

That isn’t exactly something County Cricket is known for.  Cucumber sandwiches, Pimm’s, eccentric fans, the odd fox sighting and dull draws is what County Cricket generally means.  This year that has changed and teams are often playing in results.  There are many factors, good weather, many games earlier in the year, one less point for draws this year and perhaps even the scoring rates have started to go up since T20 became such a dominating force.

There is one more factor.  For me this is the major reason in why there have been results in County Cricket this year, and that is the ban of the heavy roller.

Before this year the heavy roller has been used during County games like it is used in first class cricket and International cricket around the world as per the laws of the game.  7 minutes of rolling between innings and at the start of each days play.  It isn’t a lot, but the heavy roller does two things, it makes it easier to bat for an hour or so after it has been applied and it compacts the pitch making it less likely to break up.

In the last ten years pitches have become flatter and flatter, and they no longer break up at the end of matches.  In the last ten years opening batsmen have also taken over cricket.  Hayden, Watson, Sehwag, Iqbal and Dilshan are all not typical openers, they are dashers, but with pitches as they are there is no reason not to send guys like these out and let them run amok.  Opening batsmen are the new rockstars of cricket, and the pitches are certainly helping them.

Something else has changed in cricket.  Pitches no longer break up.  There was a time when batting on a fifth day pitch was a nightmare.  That doesn’t happen very often any more.  Now record chases and fourth innings chases are completed with ease.  Making a second innings hundred for a batsman is now no longer a badge of honour, but just another hundred.  For spinners the ball no longer spins sideways on the last day, in some cases in spins a lot more on the first or second day.  Fast bowlers no longer run through teams on the last day with the help of inconsistent bounce.

This year in the County season there have been 62 results in little more than half the season.  Last year there were 70 for the entire season.  Very few of these results have been because of generous captain’s declarations, so the change in the allocation of points hasn’t had much effect.  Rain has not played a big part in the season, but last year was not a rainy season either. And T20 has been going on for some time and the run rates don’t seem to be affecting the results.

The other good sign about the absence of the roller is that County opening batsmen are grumbling.  Grumbling opening batsmen means that the ball is finally winning some contests against the bat.  According to the last two MCC World Committee meetings, it’s the imbalance between bat and ball that is one of the main concerns.  From the very little sample we have so far, it appears like banning the heavy rollers could make test cricket just that little bit more interesting. 

This is what Alex Gidman – captain of Gloucestshire - said after his team was rolled (sorry) earlier this year,

“We’re really struggling with the lack of heavy roller here and it’s making a big difference in the wicket. Although we can still prepare a pitch as usual, we cannot use the heavy roller once the toss has taken place. It’s given rise to conditions we have never experienced before and it’s something we’re going to have to come to terms with.”

Now, everyone is different, but what would you prefer, five day batting strips, or five days of more balanced test cricket.  Perhaps a ban in test cricket could be a step in the right direction.

Five days is a long time without a heavy roller.