Ponting concerned about short boundaries in grounds

MELBOURNE: Australia Test captain Ricky Ponting believes short boundaries are robbing cricket grounds such as Adelaide Oval and the MCG of their character and turning them into a graveyard for bowlers.
   
"I know there is a minimum safety standard and the rope has to be a certain way away from the fence," Ponting said.
   
"But somewhere like Adelaide.. the straight boundary there is roped in 30m and I don't think anyone is going to slide that far into the fence. At the MCG sometimes the square boundaries are roped in 30m or 40m as well and I don't think that needs to happen," Ponting said.
    
Ponting expressed his concerns shortly after scoring an unbeaten 111 on the small confines of North Sydney Oval to help guide Tasmania to an easy victory in its Ford Ranger Cup game against NSW.
   
"A ground like this.. it does create a nice little carnival atmosphere but to tell the truth I'd like to see our playing arenas a bit bigger," Ponting was quoted as saying in 'The Australian' on Sunday.
   
"If you look at a ground like here it's obviously a very, very flat wicket anyway and the ground is very small, so everything is in the batsman's favour. It wouldn't be much fun being a bowlers out here."
   
"I've been a bit worried the last couple of years how much we have roped off a lot of our grounds in Australia. It takes away the character of the grounds," he said.
   
"I think you should be trying to make the playing surface almost as big as you can if the wicket is somewhere near the centre of the ground" he said.