Red Card rule from soccer to be part of cricket according to new ICC laws

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved the New Laws of Cricket code of 2017 by the Marylebone Cricket Club and has considered the adoption of some major laws of the game. Amongst them, ICC has given power to the umpire to send players off the field for any serious case of misconduct.

The implementation of such rules came into limelight after the bitterly fought Border-Gavaskar Trophy where players were engaged in feuds and inappropriate sendoffs. Among other rules, there exist some limitations on the dimensions of the bat. Therefore, the daddy bats of the likes of Gayle and Warner would appear leaner from here on.

Following the annual meeting held in London on May 23 and 24, the decision to back the umpires to prohibit the players from taking further part in the field the most serious incidents of player misconduct was taken place. ICC came out in support of the move. All other offences would continue to be dealt with under the ICC Code of Conduct.

Not only the that, the bats to be used should have an edge limit of 40mm and bat depth of 67mm which means that a bat is allowed to have 60mm for the depth plus an allowance of 7mm for a possible curve on the face of the bat. The new laws will be placed into effect from 1 October 2017.

After looking at Rohit Sharma’s dismissal yesterday against Pakistan, there have been voices regarding a rule change which would mark a batsman safe after making into the crease while taking a run, irrespective of bat bouncing on impact. ICC has taken care of that aspect as well. According to the law change, a batsman will have made his or her ground when a bat bounces after being grounded behind the crease by a running or diving batsman.

The new laws would bring back balance in the game: Kumble

Anil Kumble, who is the Chair of the Cricket Committee, believes that the rule change will bring back the balance into the game, with reduction of the size of the bat. “We have adopted the majority of the new Laws of the game introduced by the MCC including the size of bats and this will help the balance between bat and ball.” Other members of the committee include legends such as Andrew Strauss, Shaun Pollock, Kevin O’Brien, Darren Lehman, Mahela Jayawardene, and Rahul Dravid.