The Problem With Home Ground Advantage

By Adrian Meredith

MELBOURNE, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) November 18, 2012: As we all know, in any sport, the home team has some kind of home ground advantage.

Some teams play better at home than others, and some teams play worse away than others; but all teams would rather play at home. This is fine. The rankings really should reflect that it is harder to win away than at home - rankings that allowed England to climb up the rankings based on playing 75% of their matches, in all 3 formats, in the past 3 years, at home, much more than any other team! But the greater problem is that sometimes the advantage of playing at home is so great that it makes it pointless to play.

Consider India, where they have slow and dusty pitches, in heat and humidity that suits people from the subcontinent. Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh can handle it, and it is really no huge disadvantage for them; but teams from outside of the subcontinent have no hope. They deliberately make pitches that suit their spinners - knowing that they can play spin a lot better than other teams. It makes it just about impossible for teams from outside of the subcontinent to win. Sri Lanka will win occasionally and Pakistan can win too; but of course Bangladesh isn't as good a team. But even the all-conquering Australia side couldn't win in India. They won once, that few even remember; but otherwise they couldn't. Such is the unfair advantage that India have at home.

England, until recently, had no clear home advantage. Conditions were similar to that in New Zealand, South Africa or Australia, and those teams found it quite easy to play. But when they modified their "home" ball, the Duke ball, to have greatly different properties, reverse swinging much earlier, bouncing a lot more, and doing all sorts of things that other balls simply don't do, all of a sudden it was verging on impossible to beat England. Of course, Pakistan managed it, because they are masters of reverse swing, and South Africa recently managed it too, by virtue of having 3 of the best fast bowlers in the world.

These two teams, India and England, with the biggest, and most unfair, dare I say "cheating" home advantages, are currently opposing each other. They did it recently, as a "battle for top spot". But the problem is that India lost every match, in every format, by huge margins, in England, while England lost every match, in every format, by huge margins, in India. They were all incredibly boring, very one sided matches. It was, essentially, a matter of "home team wins".

Home ground advantage is one thing but there has to be a limit. When a team is able to manufacture a ball to suit their bowlers, and another is able to manufacture pitches and conditions to suit theirs, it has to be considered to be cheating.

I am all for variety in conditions; but there has to be a limit. We have neutral umpires; so why not have neutral groundsmen too? Or at least have a neutral groundsman observing conditions for international matches, to make sure that they are fair. And as for a Duke ball that is very different to every other kind of ball - in my opinion it should be banned. I see no reason why there is a need to have different balls in different countries. It is clear that the Duke ball, at least the current variation of it, is not a fair ball. Other teams shouldn't have to all practice with different balls in their domestic competitions to undo this unfair advantage.

Alternatively, of course, we can just have neutral venues for ALL INTERNATIONAL MATCHES. That would make it fair; but the problem is that then spectators would lose interest - all but the most die hard supporters, of course.

So India and England in particular, you guys are on notice. You guys are effectively cheating, ensuring that you win all matches at home, and it is unfair, and it is not good for spectators. So stop it!

As for other teams with home ground advantage, New Zealand has a cold and windy climate that suits extra slow bowlers - who they happen to have a lot of. Australia have at least a couple of extra bouncy pitches - though South Africa, New Zealand, England and Pakistan do too. Sri Lanka have some kind of advantage too, though it is nowhere near as much as India has. Bangladesh have an advantage too, they just don't take advantage of it. Pakistan don't play at home at the moment; but it wouldn't really matter if they did, as they have one of the smallest home ground advantages of any team. West Indies used to have a home ground advantage, with pitches and conditions that suit fast bowlers - but not because they bounce - rather because they slide into the batsmen, hurrying them up a bit - though nowadays that advantage is limited as their players aren't so great.

There are two teams that clearly stand out as cheating in terms of home ground advantage. In my opinion the worst is England but India aren't far behind. These two teams should be forced to stop their cheating home ground advantage and, to be blunt, play fair.