In an interesting turn of events, BCCI announced that they will abolish the toss as a trial in the CK Nayudu Trophy. And if this experiment turns out to be successful, the same will be applied for Ranji Trophy and all other domestic tournaments. With the abolishment of toss, the visiting team will get the privilege to choose whatever they want to. In an official statement given by the richest board, Jay Shah stated that the decision comes in consideration of the fact that home teams doctor the pitches to their advantage, and that this change in the rule would potentially decrease the risk of the same unfair doctored pitches by home teams.

But the question stills remains, on whether this rule is a great decision, or a foolish one? The answer to it is slightly complicated. For the same one has to compare cricket with other sports where toss doesn't play that big role. For instance in hockey or football, the toss determines which side of the ground the winning team can chose to start the proceedings from. The outcome of the toss doesn't much affect the outcome of the game as anyways both the teams are going to access every side of the turf, and also that there is no special part of the turf which plays a significant role.

However, the things change drastically in cricket. The outfield remains same for all the places, but the 22 yard wicket made of sand and local soil creates huge difference in the outcome of the game. It also depends heavily on the conditions, which can brutally affect the game. For instance, overcast conditions can massively aid bowlers, and hence when one team wins the toss and chooses to bowl under the overcast sky, they get a chance to excel greatly. Similarly the dew factor massively helps the team batting second in day night match, as the bowlers find it difficult to hold the ball with dew present on the outfield. Therefore, a team winning a toss can clearly harness the conditions towards their favour.

The same was witnessed in the 2021 T20 World Cup which happened in UAE, where the teams winning toss won most of the matches. And there are numerous other instances of the same happening earlier. By looking at all these, it seems to be a great decision to see the toss being abolished from the game. But on the other hand, the liberty given completely to visiting team on choosing what to do could also not be great as it may then give an unfair advantage to them and might go against home team. The same was observed in County championship 2016, when toss was abolished and the outcomes weren't much pleasing, due to which the toss was once again brought back in use from 2020.

After looking at all the pros and cons of the toss, there seems to be a need of having a better way to decide on what can be done if toss is not supposed to be taken into consideration. The best alternative was infact suggested by Sachin Tendulkar few years back. The God of cricket stated that a one over game between two teams before the actual match, similar to super over can decide the fate of toss. The team which scores more gets a chance to decide what to do. Sachin elaborated it by saying that pitch doens't change much in just 1 over, unlike an entire innings, therefore the 1 over contest would be fair, and would also be more entertaining for the fans to watch.

And that seems to be the best alternative suggested so far. A fair chance to get an opportunity to choose on what a team has to do will thereby be chosen purely on skills, rather than luck. And therefore, instead of giving the touring team a chance to choose, if what Sachin stated starts to happen, that would be the ideal way to do it. And hence, BCCI should look into the same, and possibly try to implement the same in CK Nayudu Trophy. The BCCI has already taken a much welcoming step by abolishing toss, and if they decide to do what Sachin said, it will surely be a rather successful experiment. Hopefully the same happens. What are your views on this entire toss issue?