Barry Richards holds the bat with which he made 325 in a day at the WACA in 1970 in his right hand, and David Warner’s modern-day weapon in his left © Cricket Australia
Giving umpires the power to send players off the field for grievous disciplinary violations, limiting the maximum width of the edge and depth of a bat and allowing catches off a fielder’s helmet were among the significant outcomes of the MCC world cricket committee meeting in Mumbai on December 6 and 7.
The committee also said it wouldn’t recommend a change to the existing ball-tampering law, which was brought under scrutiny after South Africa captain Faf du Plessis was found guilty of tampering – he was caught on camera allegedly shining the ball with saliva while having a lozenge in his mouth. Du Plessis has since appealed the verdict.
All the recommendations will need to be approved by the main MCC committee.
Send-off law
The MCC world cricket committee recommended that umpires be empowered “to eject cricketers from a game for serious disciplinary breaches” such as threatening an umpire, physically assaulting another player, umpire, official or spectator, and any other act of violence on the field.
“If approved, the ability to send a player off would therefore come into effect at all levels of the game from October 1, 2017,” the committee said. “Cricket is one of the only sports in which there is no ‘in-match’ punishment for poor behaviour. A captain may ask his player to leave the field but the umpires have no such jurisdiction. Taking an extreme example, a batsman could wilfully hit a member of the fielding side with their bat, before carrying on to score a century to win the match for their team. Cricket therefore needs a punishment which will have an impact on the perpetrator and his or her team during that particular match.”
More to follow …
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo