Some cricket links

Two links of interest on Trove, and one on Google News, regarding cricket:

This one, from 1900, deals with a proposal in England to change the system of run-scoring for hits to the boundary. The M.C.C. wanted a three-foot high net around the playing area; hits over the net would be worth three runs, while a ball which hit the net would be worth two runs plus however many additional runs the batsmen could run. This is similar to the way scoring works in indoor cricket, and was being proposed because people were beginning to question why batsmen should be awarded runs for merely hitting the ball a certain distance without having to do any running. (Hits over the boundary were worth five runs at the time; this was increased to six runs in 1910.)

Here, legendary English spinner and inventor of the googly Bernard Bosanquet proposes some rule changes and also advocates limited-time (not limited-overs) matches. The heightening of the stumps and an altered l.b.w. law were introduced in the 1930s, and his idea of a more frequently-available new ball has been tried.

In 1929, the Glasgow Herald reported on the findings of an M.C.C. subcommittee, which had proposed five rule changes for the coming season: taller stumps and wider bails; the l.b.w. law to apply even if the ball hits the bat before the batsman’s pad; the new ball to be available after one hundred and fifty runs; uniform boundaries; and a maximum seven minutes’ rolling of the pitch between innings.