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The MCC World Cricket Committee met in Mumbai on December 6 and 7 and came out with some game-changing recommendations. These recommendations will be put forth to the main committee of the MCC for approval before they become Laws of the game. Some of the key points discussed during the meeting, which was also attended by BCCI Chief, Anurag Thakur, were:
Regulating bat-thickness and edge-thickness
This is a direct result of the need to strike a balance between bat and ball. The need to regulate bat-sizes has become an increasing cause of debate over the years. What the proposal puts forth is to fix an upper limit to the thickness of the edge (40mm) and the depth or spine of the bat (67mm).
"Bat manufacturers will tell you now, even with edges of 40mm maximum and 60mm on the back that players won't notice a huge difference. Some of the mishits won't quite go as far but if you are good enough to hit the ball consistently somewhere near the middle of the bat, with the bats we have got, you are going to clear the rope easily. Players like Dhoni, Pollard, naturally born strong, big hitters, they have got nothing to worry about. It is going to guys that are not naturally that strong, that have got away with excessively sized bats if you like. Those players will notice the difference more than anybody else," said former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who is a part of the MCC world cricket committee.
Many of the top players' bats have edges of between 38 and 42mm but there are some which have edges up to 50 mm," said the MCC statement.
Sending off (red card system like in football) in cricket
This is done with an intention to make the lower-grades of cricket a lot more disciplined. The law isn't necessarily a way of change that will affect the international game. The red card is recommended only in cases of physical violence, that include threatening an umpire, physical assault of umpire, player or spectator or any other case of physical violence. The international games rarely sees incidents of such extreme physical violence, but the members of the committee insisted that it happens regularly in the lower levels.
"There was a survey done of the umpires and 40 percent said they are considering giving up the game or giving up umpiring because of verbal abuse. Anecdotal evidence from people who are familiar with leagues in parts of England say that the behaviour has gone worse. The umpires have to be respected and given the best possible chance and I think cricket is the only game in which there isn't this possibility of an in-match punishment or deterrent," said Mike Brearley.
"There is difference between the behaviour at the higher level and further down the food chain. There has been a lot of evidence to suggest a lot of violence on the pitch in lower grade cricket. We had an extensive player behaviour trials over the last year or so, three leagues adopted these different codes of conduct, the red and yellow cards.
"We felt that we would go for the red card option. It is very difficult with that in between option to officiate, so we are going in with the red card option and see how it works," said John Stephenson.
The committee also made it clear that once the red card was given, the player would take no further part in the entire game, whether it is a multi-day game or single-day. The committee members felt that this law wouldn't change the international game too much.
"The reason we are talking about making significant changes to lower level cricket is because it has gone completely out of hand there. To be fair, with what we have seen with the amount of cameras and microphones that are there on a modern player, even the characters in international cricket these days have toned things down to a certain degree. That is just the way the modern game is, I think the modern players now understand their role in society as well, of being role models and of trying playing the game the right way first," said Ricky Ponting.
Ball-tampering law not to be changed:
One of the hottest points of debates in recent times has been the ball-tampering charge laid against South Africa's then Test captain Faf du Plessis, after he was caught on video rubbing sweet-laden saliva on the ball. The incident escalated rapidly with South Africa feeling wronged, and fingers being pointed towards the host broadcaster's role in bringing the incident to light. Du Plessis has since challenged the fine with the ICC.
He has also gained a lot of support from players across the world admitting to having used similar techniques to help with reverse swing. The grey area about what sort of natural substances can be used to shine the ball hasn't been clarified. Although the members were clear enough about how they wanted this to be interpreted.
"Frankly, I was a little surprised, I wanted to know if you could lick the mint, then apply saliva on the ball and make the ball reverse. It was a first for me because we were brought up on just scratching the ball," laughed Ramiz Raja.
"I think, to not forget with all this ball-tampering thing is it has only ever been the most extreme case that has been dealt with. A lot of other players have come out and said we've done similar things but not nearly as blatant as what Faf did in this latest episode. And they are the only ones the ICC has acted on. When there has been completely, blatantly obvious (proof) that there has been a breach, then the ICC has stepped in," said Ricky Ponting.
"If you speed you'd probably get away with it. But not everyone does. Sometimes you are caught. And when you are caught flagrantly doing something, you deserve to face the penalty... whatever the penalty is. Which seems to me, as far as I know, is what happened to Faf du Plessis. The fact that other people do it doesn't mean that you shouldn't catch the odd person who does it flagrantly," said Mike Brearley, who also addressed the issue of host broadcasters.
"We were slightly concerned about host broadcasters. That would happen whatever we were to say about the matter or whatever the matter were to be. There will be a lot of focus now on people, especially on him (du Plessis) and the South African team I daresay at the moment, and it could be used by home broadcasters. That could happen anyway. After a while, it will lose its prominence. Anyway people have to behave. They have to do things according to regulations and laws," he added.
Four-day or five-day Tests?
There was thought given about the chances of reducing Tests to four days instead of five. The move would pave way for better scheduling, which will help broadcasters. It was also thought that having a fixed cycle of playing a Test between Thursday and Sunday will please all the stakeholders involved, with the final days of the match coming on a weekend. It would also speed up the players' shifting to an attacking mode of play and reduce wasted costs.
On the other hand, it could also result in more doctored pitches, change in dynamics of a game with a lot of history, increase the chances of more draws resulting or result in manufactured declarations that would cheapen the quality of Test cricket. With both sides having points worth pondering over, the aforementioned members along with Jimmy Adams, Charlotte Edwards, Sourav Ganguly, Rod Marsh, Tim May, Brendon McCullum, Kumar Sangakkara and Vince der Bijl couldn't come to a conclusion and were evenly split on the discussion.
"Look personally, I am very much in favour of five-day Test match cricket and we only have to look back at the last 12-18 months and see how many great five-day Test matches there have been. But other guys in the committee would also like to see a trial of four-day Test cricket," said Ponting.
"It is a difficult debating point. One big advantage with a four-day Test match is that it improves the pace of Test cricket and there will be exciting declarations and something out of the ordinary, which may give new lease of life to Test cricket. But my biggest grief was that the lesser teams would get away with murder, they would be able to draw a game and in Test matches the best teams should win all the time, so that limited that possibility. Four-day cricket is exciting, it gives ample opportunity to broadcasters to get the peak days end it on Saturday or Sunday which could be great watching. But I was also in favour of five-day cricket because it has a lot of history, it is traditional and we should not tamper with a format which has been delivering goods, in the last year and half we have seen some exciting cricket," said Ramiz Raja.
On a similar note, the committee also decided to pursue a World Test championship with the ICC. "The committee heard an update from David Richardson on the developing proposal to introduce a conference-style competition to the longest form of the game. The committee encourages ICC to continues this work, and ultimately, to persuade its Members to introduce such a system," read a statement.
Cricket in Olympics:
The committee was fervently in favour of taking cricket to the Olympics. John Stephenson, the MCC Head of cricket, argued that it was the best way of globalising the sport. He also mentioned that the likes of ECB and Cricket Australia are in favour of the move. "It was pointed out to us that there is, on the other side of the balance, the possibility of having a second T20 WC every two years. There would be a loss of revenue if instead of that there were the Olympics. So you have to weigh out the spread of the game, with China etc, the amount of money that will come through Olympics and from governments and sponsors against that possible loss. It is not that clear-cut thing but we are consistently in favour of the ICC doing as much as they can," said Brearley.
Stephenson also pointed out that it was imperative that all the members of the ICC, including the powerful BCCI, will have to come on board quickly to make the move possibly by the 2024 Olympics. For now though, Stephenson had only a small 'BCCI have an open mind' from Thakur to live with.
The other recommendations included removing the rule that deems a catch illegal if the ball strikes the helmet of a fielder before it is taken. The committee though has decided that striking the helmet will be no different from striking the pad of a wicket-keeper and has decided to make a change in the law to allow it.
Sending-off, bat thickness limitations among new MCC recommendations - Cricbuzz
Regulating bat-thickness and edge-thickness
This is a direct result of the need to strike a balance between bat and ball. The need to regulate bat-sizes has become an increasing cause of debate over the years. What the proposal puts forth is to fix an upper limit to the thickness of the edge (40mm) and the depth or spine of the bat (67mm).
"Bat manufacturers will tell you now, even with edges of 40mm maximum and 60mm on the back that players won't notice a huge difference. Some of the mishits won't quite go as far but if you are good enough to hit the ball consistently somewhere near the middle of the bat, with the bats we have got, you are going to clear the rope easily. Players like Dhoni, Pollard, naturally born strong, big hitters, they have got nothing to worry about. It is going to guys that are not naturally that strong, that have got away with excessively sized bats if you like. Those players will notice the difference more than anybody else," said former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who is a part of the MCC world cricket committee.
Many of the top players' bats have edges of between 38 and 42mm but there are some which have edges up to 50 mm," said the MCC statement.
Sending off (red card system like in football) in cricket
This is done with an intention to make the lower-grades of cricket a lot more disciplined. The law isn't necessarily a way of change that will affect the international game. The red card is recommended only in cases of physical violence, that include threatening an umpire, physical assault of umpire, player or spectator or any other case of physical violence. The international games rarely sees incidents of such extreme physical violence, but the members of the committee insisted that it happens regularly in the lower levels.
"There was a survey done of the umpires and 40 percent said they are considering giving up the game or giving up umpiring because of verbal abuse. Anecdotal evidence from people who are familiar with leagues in parts of England say that the behaviour has gone worse. The umpires have to be respected and given the best possible chance and I think cricket is the only game in which there isn't this possibility of an in-match punishment or deterrent," said Mike Brearley.
"There is difference between the behaviour at the higher level and further down the food chain. There has been a lot of evidence to suggest a lot of violence on the pitch in lower grade cricket. We had an extensive player behaviour trials over the last year or so, three leagues adopted these different codes of conduct, the red and yellow cards.
"We felt that we would go for the red card option. It is very difficult with that in between option to officiate, so we are going in with the red card option and see how it works," said John Stephenson.
The committee also made it clear that once the red card was given, the player would take no further part in the entire game, whether it is a multi-day game or single-day. The committee members felt that this law wouldn't change the international game too much.
"The reason we are talking about making significant changes to lower level cricket is because it has gone completely out of hand there. To be fair, with what we have seen with the amount of cameras and microphones that are there on a modern player, even the characters in international cricket these days have toned things down to a certain degree. That is just the way the modern game is, I think the modern players now understand their role in society as well, of being role models and of trying playing the game the right way first," said Ricky Ponting.
Ball-tampering law not to be changed:
One of the hottest points of debates in recent times has been the ball-tampering charge laid against South Africa's then Test captain Faf du Plessis, after he was caught on video rubbing sweet-laden saliva on the ball. The incident escalated rapidly with South Africa feeling wronged, and fingers being pointed towards the host broadcaster's role in bringing the incident to light. Du Plessis has since challenged the fine with the ICC.
He has also gained a lot of support from players across the world admitting to having used similar techniques to help with reverse swing. The grey area about what sort of natural substances can be used to shine the ball hasn't been clarified. Although the members were clear enough about how they wanted this to be interpreted.
"Frankly, I was a little surprised, I wanted to know if you could lick the mint, then apply saliva on the ball and make the ball reverse. It was a first for me because we were brought up on just scratching the ball," laughed Ramiz Raja.
"I think, to not forget with all this ball-tampering thing is it has only ever been the most extreme case that has been dealt with. A lot of other players have come out and said we've done similar things but not nearly as blatant as what Faf did in this latest episode. And they are the only ones the ICC has acted on. When there has been completely, blatantly obvious (proof) that there has been a breach, then the ICC has stepped in," said Ricky Ponting.
"If you speed you'd probably get away with it. But not everyone does. Sometimes you are caught. And when you are caught flagrantly doing something, you deserve to face the penalty... whatever the penalty is. Which seems to me, as far as I know, is what happened to Faf du Plessis. The fact that other people do it doesn't mean that you shouldn't catch the odd person who does it flagrantly," said Mike Brearley, who also addressed the issue of host broadcasters.
"We were slightly concerned about host broadcasters. That would happen whatever we were to say about the matter or whatever the matter were to be. There will be a lot of focus now on people, especially on him (du Plessis) and the South African team I daresay at the moment, and it could be used by home broadcasters. That could happen anyway. After a while, it will lose its prominence. Anyway people have to behave. They have to do things according to regulations and laws," he added.
Four-day or five-day Tests?
There was thought given about the chances of reducing Tests to four days instead of five. The move would pave way for better scheduling, which will help broadcasters. It was also thought that having a fixed cycle of playing a Test between Thursday and Sunday will please all the stakeholders involved, with the final days of the match coming on a weekend. It would also speed up the players' shifting to an attacking mode of play and reduce wasted costs.
On the other hand, it could also result in more doctored pitches, change in dynamics of a game with a lot of history, increase the chances of more draws resulting or result in manufactured declarations that would cheapen the quality of Test cricket. With both sides having points worth pondering over, the aforementioned members along with Jimmy Adams, Charlotte Edwards, Sourav Ganguly, Rod Marsh, Tim May, Brendon McCullum, Kumar Sangakkara and Vince der Bijl couldn't come to a conclusion and were evenly split on the discussion.
"Look personally, I am very much in favour of five-day Test match cricket and we only have to look back at the last 12-18 months and see how many great five-day Test matches there have been. But other guys in the committee would also like to see a trial of four-day Test cricket," said Ponting.
"It is a difficult debating point. One big advantage with a four-day Test match is that it improves the pace of Test cricket and there will be exciting declarations and something out of the ordinary, which may give new lease of life to Test cricket. But my biggest grief was that the lesser teams would get away with murder, they would be able to draw a game and in Test matches the best teams should win all the time, so that limited that possibility. Four-day cricket is exciting, it gives ample opportunity to broadcasters to get the peak days end it on Saturday or Sunday which could be great watching. But I was also in favour of five-day cricket because it has a lot of history, it is traditional and we should not tamper with a format which has been delivering goods, in the last year and half we have seen some exciting cricket," said Ramiz Raja.
On a similar note, the committee also decided to pursue a World Test championship with the ICC. "The committee heard an update from David Richardson on the developing proposal to introduce a conference-style competition to the longest form of the game. The committee encourages ICC to continues this work, and ultimately, to persuade its Members to introduce such a system," read a statement.
Cricket in Olympics:
The committee was fervently in favour of taking cricket to the Olympics. John Stephenson, the MCC Head of cricket, argued that it was the best way of globalising the sport. He also mentioned that the likes of ECB and Cricket Australia are in favour of the move. "It was pointed out to us that there is, on the other side of the balance, the possibility of having a second T20 WC every two years. There would be a loss of revenue if instead of that there were the Olympics. So you have to weigh out the spread of the game, with China etc, the amount of money that will come through Olympics and from governments and sponsors against that possible loss. It is not that clear-cut thing but we are consistently in favour of the ICC doing as much as they can," said Brearley.
Stephenson also pointed out that it was imperative that all the members of the ICC, including the powerful BCCI, will have to come on board quickly to make the move possibly by the 2024 Olympics. For now though, Stephenson had only a small 'BCCI have an open mind' from Thakur to live with.
The other recommendations included removing the rule that deems a catch illegal if the ball strikes the helmet of a fielder before it is taken. The committee though has decided that striking the helmet will be no different from striking the pad of a wicket-keeper and has decided to make a change in the law to allow it.
Sending-off, bat thickness limitations among new MCC recommendations - Cricbuzz
