Not just after the game with salary deduction, teams will have to pay big during in-game scenarios as well now in case they err as per the newly introduced playing conditions for slow over-rate in T20Is, the ICC announced on January 7.
As per the new rule, teams will be allowed one fewer fielder outside the 30-yard circle for the remainder of their innings if they don’t start the final over by the stipulated time. This way, the ICC intends to hurt the notorious over-rate offenders where it would hurt them the most.
For a while now, the section of experts and the media have been calling for proper in-game penalties to be imposed on teams if they don’t comply with the over-rate regulations. A wider consensus is that financial penalties don’t suffice.
Thus, the ICC has come up with a formula that would not only lead to salary deductions but also dent a team’s chances of winning if they fall behind the expected over-rate. The rule, applicable in both the men’s and women’s T20Is, makes it necessary that a team must start their 20th over by the scheduled time for it to start. Failing to abide by this, a team risks being forced to place one less fielder outside the 30-yard circle for whatever balls that remain in their innings.
In a format where even a run here and there makes a massive difference in the end outcome, the new rule is expected to be a game-changer. With one less fielder outside the circle, batters gain a tactical advantage over the bowlers. It makes it easier to correctly preempt the fielding side’s plans and, subsequently, make it easier to get the ball through the boundary ropes.
The 2015 ODI World Cup is the most telling example of the same. Back then, the ICC allowed bowling teams only four fielders outside the circle from overs 41st to 50th, and that led to a rapid surge in totals throughout the tournament.
In their release, the ICC stated:
Aa fielding side must be in position to bowl the first ball of the final over of the innings by the scheduled or rescheduled time for the end of the innings.
If they are not in such a position, one fewer fielder will be permitted outside of the 30-yard circle for the remaining overs of the innings.”
The stipulated time to complete the innings being 85 minutes makes it mandatory that a side bowl the first ball of the 20th over by the 85th minute. The rule will be applicable from the West Indies-Ireland men’s T20I to be played in Jamaica on January 16.
The stipulated end time, however, can be reworked at the third umpire’s discretion if he feels the time lost is because of understandable delays like DRS, injuries, loss of the cricket ball and other unexpected forms and means of interruptions.
“In delayed or interrupted matches where there has been a reduction of 3 or more overs the fielding side shall be in position to bowl the first ball of the penultimate over of the innings by the scheduled (or re-scheduled) cessation time for the innings,”
the ICC clarified.
The officials are also expected to take care of the instances where a batting team may deliberately employ time-wasting tactics so as to ensure a bowling side falls behind the over-rate and gets only four fielders outside the circle for the final over.
The rule, as ICC has said, has been adopted after the England and Wales Cricket Board’s successful implementation of the same in The Hundred last summer.
