It's an age-old debate: should bouncers be outlawed as too dangerous, or are they an integral and thrilling part of the game? And have helmets improved matters or made things worse? In today's feature a number of famous names have their say, speaking exclusively to Wisden.com. Sir Garry Sobers, for one, is adamant that he wouldn't have worn a helmet. "I would never wear one. But Imran Khan once told me that `We today are making money, and we want to be around to make it,' which is fair enough."

Charlie Griffith, the former West Indies fast bowler, thinks the quicker bowlers have a hard time of it now. "I've seen people make all sorts of changes in cricket – and I've never seen any changes come around for batsmen. They're all for bowlers, especially fast bowlers – bouncers, the [no-ball] change from the back foot to the front foot, the change to the numbers of leg-side fielders. It's a batsman's game, not a bowler's game."

Desmond Haynes, another West Indian legend, has strong views on the legislation restricting the number of short-pitched deliveries in an over. "I think that was designed to hamper West Indian cricket, and it was unsuccessful. Now we are not at the pinnacle of the cricketing world ... you don't have to tell someone how many bouncers he can bowl."

Haynes disagrees with the restrictions for another very good reason: "Short-pitched deliveries to Sir Viv [Richards] used to be bad balls – they used to get hit out of the ground. But against these guys now at present they're damned good deliveries."

Seymour Nurse, one of Sobers's contemporaries in the strong West Indian side of the 1960s, thinks the introduction of helmets has led to poorer technique. "The helmet is false protection – you can turn your head now and butt the ball, it doesn't matter. Before the good players would keep their eyes on the ball ... I remember Nari Contractor of India got struck [by Griffith in 1961-62, when he fractured his skull] because he did not keep his eyes on the ball."

And we hear from one of the pioneers of helmets, the former England opener Dennis Amiss, who sported a motor-cycle helmet against the fast men signed up for World Series Cricket in Australia in the late 1970s. "It was amazing," Amiss chuckles, "when you went out with a helmet on I'm sure people used to bowl faster at you!"

Interviews (C) Wisden Online. Archive footage (C) Australian Broadcasting Commission. Recent footage (C) Sky Sports.

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