Whose idea was the powerplay anyway?

power play
n.

1. Sports.
   
   1. An offensive maneuver in a team game, especially in football, in which a massive concentration of players is applied in a certain area.
   2. A situation in ice hockey in which one team has a temporary numerical advantage because the other team has one or more players in the penalty box.

   (Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition via Dictionary.com)

Looking at the annotated scorecards from the current VB Series, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the three captains (actually five including Gilly and Chaminda) were staging an organised boycott of the ICC's trial playing condition known officially as the Fielding Restriction Overs.

In nearly every game the captains have used all their powerplays (which from now on I shall call FROs) as quickly as possible, ie, by the end of the 20th over. Could it be that our poor overworked captains, even those who go on a rest break mid-series, simply have too much on their plates to be burdened with the nuances of Standard One Day International Match Playing Conditions 41.2.5-41.2.13 ?

Or could it just be a stupid rule that nobody really wanted anyway?

How many captains will have the courage to keep their third set of FROs up their sleeve till overs 46-50, and then win a game because they did? At least, between now and the time this trial is scrapped?