Ganguly's new approach may cost him sixer record

Sourav Ganguly's new found approach to batting might fetch him tonnes of runs in the Caribbean but it may cost him his record of hitting more sixes than anyone in the history of ICC CWC.

Ganguly has slammed 23 sixes in 18 matches, one more than West Indies batting great Viv Richards, but don't expect him to sizzle up similarly in this edition of ICC CWC.

Ganguly is four sixes clear of Ricky Ponting (19) and the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Brian Lara would probably never displace him from the top. Tendulkar has 15 sixes to Jayasuriya's 13 and Lara languishes far down in the list with 12 sixes of his own. India's own Kapil Dev slammed 14 sixes in the four ICC CWCs he played.

According to Ganguly's own admission, he likes to build his innings before shifting gears but on tardy Caribbean pitches it might just not be possible.

By the evidence of eight practice games on two days, admittedly on pitches which would not be used for the World Cup, batsmen have to grind rather than blaze their way to big scores.

Notwithstanding the minnows, no one but only Marlon Samuels has scored a century and even India barely tipped the 300-run scale against Netherlands on Tuesday.

Ganguly's best chance of hitting maximum shots is in the middle overs and it is in this stretch where teams are packing the off-side field and letting their up-and-down medium-pacers and slow bowlers bowl well outside the off-stump.

It is difficult to pick such deliveries on half volley and hoist them over the line and increasingly batsmen are employing slog-sweep to somehow clear the onside field. In Tuesday's match, Rahul Dravid twice slog-swept effortlessly against the Netherlands for sixes though he was caught attempting it once too often. Similar attempt at a six proved to be Mahendra Singh Dhoni's undoing as well.

Experts predict that knowing conditions would be unfavourable for six-hitting in the Caribbean, batsmen are unlikely to put themselves to risk and hence lofted shots, an essential charm of one-day cricket, wouldn't be all too visible.

It no longer holds true that grounds in the West Indies are smaller. New stadiums are state-of-the-art stuff. Sir Viv Richards reportedly put his foot down when the ground bearing his name in Antigua was initially planned for 60-metre boundaries. Bigger fields to clear is a further road-block to soaring hits.

This when the likes of Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pieterson, Mark Boucher and Shaun Pollock, Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni, Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi will all be adorning the latest edition of World Cup.