Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 20: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced several changes to its playing conditions.
The updated third edition of the 2017 Code of the Laws of Cricket, which was discussed by the Sourav Ganguly-led Men’s Cricket Committee and shared with the Women’s Cricket Committee, was approved by the Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC), which then forwarded the recommendations to the CEC.
On October 1, 2022, the major modifications to the Playing Conditions will take effect.
“It was an honour chairing my first meeting of the ICC Cricket Committee. I was pleased with the productive contribution of the Committee members which resulted in key recommendations being made. I thank all members for their valuable input and suggestions,” Ganguly stated in an official release.
The changes are:
- Use of saliva to polish the ball: This prohibition has been in place for over two years in international cricket as a Covid-related temporary measure and it is considered appropriate for the ban to be made permanent.
- Incoming batter prepared to face the ball: In Tests and ODIs, an incoming batter must now be prepared to take a strike within two minutes; in T20 Internationals, the current time limit of 90 seconds applies.
- Striker’s right to play the ball: This is limited to make it necessary for their person or a portion of their bat to stay on the playing surface. If they go past there, the umpire will indicate and call Dead ball. Any ball that forces the hitter off the field is sometimes referred to as a no ball.
- Unfair movement by the fielding side: The umpire can now penalise the batting side five penalty runs in addition to calling dead ball for any unfair and intentional movement made when the bowler is running in to the bowl.
- Bowler throwing towards striker’s end before delivery: Previously, a bowler who saw the batter advancing down the wicket before entering their delivery stride, could throw the ball to attempt to Run out the striker. This practice will now be called a Dead ball.
- Others: After the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League concludes in 2023, the in-game penalty that was first implemented in T20Is in January 2022 (wherein the failure of a fielding team to bowl their overs by the scheduled cessation time results in an additional fielder having to be brought inside the fielding circle for the remaining overs of the innings) will also be used in ODI matches.
The Playing Conditions for all Men’s and Women’s ODI and T20I games will be changed to permit the usage of hybrid pitches, if both teams agree. Only women’s T20I matches can currently use hybrid pitches.
