I'm surprised the boffins at ICL found that big edges mean the ball always goes further.
that is precisely the point - the boffins at the ICC / MCC haven't and have relied on ex players shoe horning this in. There was one paper commissioned, that to be honest my 8 year old could have written and was never published in any scientific journal, I am guessing for its lack of scientific justification.
The leaked paper in this thread looks very amateurish - and my guess a fake. I still believe that the ICC/MCC will come to their senses and see that there are more effective ways to re address the balance, many of which have been mentioned on here.
Ball manufacture would be the main one that I would look at, in conjunction with fielding restrictions and boundary distance.
The only reason this has gone so far is the progression of TV and super slow mo's showing where the ball actually hits the blade. Who's to say that all of Botham's big hits where from the middle..... Oh because we cant.
If I were a modern day professional player, that trains in the gym 5 - 6 times a week, practices/develops an array of shots in the nets to given themselves an advantage - I would be utterly p1ssed with the likes of Pontin et al justifying the bats mens dominance by the size of his bat.
This gets me mad - hopefully the governing bodies will look to justify any new law with science rather than hearsay from ill informed ex pro's.
Rant over