Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar is known for not mincing his words and being straightforward. Same was the case when Akhtar recently lashed out at International Cricket Council (ICC) for the current rules in international cricket which have given batters around the world too much leverage.
During the chat session with former India coach Ravi Shastri, Akhtar talked about how the current rules are in favour of batters and are making cricket a one-sided game. The former speedster also stated that legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar would have scored one lakh runs with the current rules in place.
"You have two new balls. You have made the rules stricter. You give so much leverage to batsmen nowadays. You now allow three reviews. If we had three reviews during the time of Sachin, he would have made 1 lakh runs," Akhtar said during a chat with Shastri on his YouTube channel.
“I really pity him. The reason I pity Sachin is he initially played against Wasim (Akram) and Waqar (Younis), he played against Shane Warne, then he faced (Brett) Lee and Shoaib (Akhtar), and later he played the next generation of fast bowlers. That's why I call him a very tough batsman,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shastri said that bowling more than 2 bouncers in an over should be allowed in order to restore the balance a bit in the favour of bowlers.
"If you've to balance, you shouldn't restrict an over to 2 bouncers. Increase them. The reason why I say this is because it's exciting," said Shastri.
“The volume (is also a factor). There was no T20 cricket at our time. There were 12-13-14 Test matches a year. Bowlers used to be fitter. If the same bowler is playing all three formats this time, what you expect out of him in actual red-ball format will not be the same. He will perform for one or two or three years, but then he will be out of petrol,” the former India coach added.
Notably, Akhtar is currently playing for the Asia Lions in the Legends League Cricket tournament in Oman while Shastri is the commissioner of the same tournament.
