ICC bows to Gautam Gambhir’s criticism, rolls back ‘worst thing that ever happened to cricket’

New Delhi: One Day Internationals (ODI) have previously been criticized by retired cricketers especially the fact that both ends use two new balls. It has been touted by many that this alteration has almost snuffed out reverse swing thereby upsetting the balance between bat and ball. During a conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s current head coach Gautam Gambhir said that the use of two new balls is the worst thing that could have been done to cricket. It seems like the International Cricket Council (ICC) has now adopted his grievances.

The ICC has declared another set of rules that would change in all three formats of the game. One difference in the ODIs would be that the team would use only one ball after the 35th over, instead of the current way of making both ends use two balls each. This action to balance the bat and the ball shall be implemented after July 2 (Wednesday).

Penalty on use of saliva

The prohibition against saliva usage still exists. The ICC has however clarified that umpires do not necessarily have to switch balls after noticing saliva on the ball now. This is done so that teams will be discouraged to deliberately use saliva in an effort to tamper with a ball change. The batting team will also be awarded five runs as a penalty to the bowling team if such a violation is found.

Introduction of stop-clocks

In an effort to address this issue of low over-rates in Test cricket, ICC has come up with the adoption of stop-clocks. Now teams will be obliged to start a fresh over within 60 seconds to finish the preceding one. Captains will get a maximum of two warnings on delays and the batting team will be given five penalty runs in the third offense.

Another major change that the ICC has introduced in the DRS system is when the umpire appeals to overturn the caught out. In the event that after replays, the ball can be seen splashing into the pad and yet away from the bat then the third umpire will check the LBW decision. In case there is an umpire call, then the batter will be declared out.

Where there is more than one appeal following a delivery the third umpire will review the incidents as they actually happened. The other prominent rule change is the ability of the umpire to render a catch as fair even in a case where the delivery has been ruled a no-ball. When there is a clean catch, then there will not be any additional runs to the dismissed batter but the extra in no-ball will be added to the score of the batting team.

News