Red Card and much more introduced in cricket

Red Card and much more introduced in cricket

LAHORE:  Marylebone Cricket Club, an authority over the rules and regulations has approved legislation on Tuesday to allow sendings-off by showing a red card like that in soccer.

The authority has permitted umpires to ask any player to leave the pitch in case of objectionable behaviour.

A 12-member committee of MCC comprising of former and current international players filed their recommendations in December 2016.

MCC has approved following restrictions in the game of cricket that will be enacted starting from October 1, 2017:

  • Players can now be penalised by conceding five runs

  • Players can either be temporarily or permanently dismissed

  • Batsmen can now survive a run-out even if their bats lose contact with the ground

  • Bowlers can now perform a run-out at the very instant when they are expected to release the ball

Following are the offences and four levels of penalties:

Level 1:

  1. Showing dissent over umpires’ decision

  2. Excessive appealing

Penalty: Warning at first; in case of repetition, five runs to be conceded

Level 2:

  1. Deliberate physical contact with player of the other side

  2. To deliberately throw a ball at a player

Penalty: Five runs to be conceded

Level 3:

  1. Intimidating the umpire

  2. Assault threats to a player, official or spectator

Penalty: Five runs to be conceded and suspension of the player for a set of overs

Level 4:

  1. Any act of violence in the ground

  2. To threaten an umpire

Penalty: Suspending the player for the rest of the match

The authority has approved restrictions over size, depth and width of the bat as well. International Cricket Council had also called for such laws in June.

The MCC has restricted the players to use bats with depths of 67mm or less, width can be up to 108mm while bat edges are to have allowance of 40mm at maximum