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Ricky Ponting Says There Should Be Limits To How Big Your Bat Is

First it was the colour of your balls, now it's the thickness of your bat.
Punter doesn't like big bats and he cannot lie.
Jason O'Brien / Reuters
Punter doesn't like big bats and he cannot lie.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting wants to see restrictions on the new breed of bigger, lighter cricket bats, and he's prepared to discuss it at an upcoming World Cricket Committee meeting.

How much bigger have bats become in the last few years? Well the following photo gives you some idea.

South African batting great Barry Richards comparing his old bat to the one used today by David Warner.
Cricket Australia
South African batting great Barry Richards comparing his old bat to the one used today by David Warner.

The ABC reported the thickness of bats increased by 22 millimetres and the edges by 300 percent in the past century with big bat advocates including Australia's David Warner.

Ponting, whose career briefly overlapped with Warner's, said there was a place for different models.

"I don't mind it for the shorter versions of the game," Ponting said at the Australian Cricket Society's annual dinner.

"I would actually say you've got a bat you can use in Test cricket and a certain type of bat you can use in one-day cricket and Twenty20 cricket.

"The short forms of the game survive on boundaries -- fours and sixes -- whereas the Test game is being dominated too much now by batters because the game is a bit easier for them than it was."

Ponting said big bats used by the likes of India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni were fine but things became a worry when they were also very light, making them easier to use.

India's MS Dhoni swings his bat.
Nigel Marple / Reuters
India's MS Dhoni swings his bat.

"If you are strong enough to use them that's fine, but you should not get a bat that's bigger in size than Dhoni's but a whole lot lighter," he said.

"Chris Gayle's the same. Everyone talks about Chris Gayle's bat size, but it's three and a half pounds. He's big enough and strong enough to use it. I only get worried when they are really big and really light."

The World Cricket Committee meeting is later this month.

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