The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), custodians of the laws of cricket, has expressed concerns over the slow over rates plaguing the game, asking the International Cricket Council (ICC) to cut down on time-wasting tactics and streamline the Decision Review System (DRS) process.
The MCC’s 12-member World Cricket Committee, which is led by Mike Gatting and also featuring BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, come to a conclusion after research into how much time was lost on each day’s play during New Zealand’s three Tests in England in June.
“In general, ICC playing regulations be reviewed to tighten the parameters around when substitutes are permitted onto the field of play i.e. with gloves, drinks, etc,” MCC said in a statement on Friday (September 2).
“The fielding team should immediately return to their positions, ready to bowl the next delivery when a decision is reviewed,” it added.
“Batters should also remain in the proximity and prepare to recommence play. No drinks should be brought onto the field. If the decision is overturned to ‘out’, the fielding side will still have time to celebrate,” it further said.
MCC also urged the umpires and match referees to be “more proactive at speeding up play and enforcing Laws 41.9 and 41.10, which provide a warning for the first offence, followed by the award of Penalty runs for deliberate slow play.”
One of the “key findings” of the research during the England-New Zealand Test series was almost “64 minutes” were lost to the DRS.
Going into details, MCC said: “Player discussions where no review was taken – six minutes; Player reviews – 47 minutes; and Umpire reviews – 11 minutes.”
“It took an average of 25 seconds for the fielding side to be ready to bowl the next ball after the DRS had confirmed an umpire’s ‘not out’ decision.”
“On average, four minutes were lost on each day’s play for DRS reviews. Ball checks and changes averaged between two and four minutes per day of lost time. Batters changing gloves or 12th Men bringing on helmets resulted in lots of delays. Such changes caused delays of around two and a half minutes each day in Tests, which was 90 seconds more than in County Championship cricket.”
Mike Gatting, chairman of the MCC World Cricket committee, also said they are worried about slow over rates for some years.
“We note that the ICC has enacted quite strong penalties for captains and teams, but it does not appear to have had the desired impact as over rates are consistently slow and decreasing,” he said.
“We have little doubt that there are a number of areas where time can be saved, without adversely affecting the quality of play…
“We hope that by eradicating some of the reasons as to why over rates are slow, we will encourage audiences, improve the look of the game and increase the profile of Test cricket on a global basis,” Gatting said.
(With PTI inputs)
