According to an ESPNCricinfo report, the ICC has announced several changes to its playing conditions, including the early phases of allowing full substitutions in cricket.
Full-time replacements even without concussions
According to an ESPNcricinfo report, the ICC has asked various boards to trial with full-time substitutions for “serious external injuries”. Normally, full substitutions are allowed only in case of concussions, while in case of other injuries, the substitute could only field or keep wicket.
The replacement player will, however, have to be “like for like”, just like the concussion substitute. However, these cannot be implemented for cricketers suffering “hamstring pulls or niggles”.
Read: It is time to allow injury replacements in cricket
“Stop clock” method to handle slow over rates in Test cricket
In 2024, the ICC had introduced the “stop clock” method, a stringent restriction to boost over rates. They have now extended the same to Test cricket.
Clause 41.9.4 states that “the fielding side shall be ready to start each over within 60 seconds of the previous over being completed”. An electronic clock will “count up seconds from zero to 60,” but will be stopped for, among other events, a drinks interval or an umpire-approved treatment to an injury.
Read: Explained – the ICC’s “stop clock” method
If the fielding side cannot proceed within 60 seconds, the umpire at the bowler’s end will issue a warning to the fielding captain. The fielding side will be penalised five runs for the third and every subsequent violation. The count will be reset after every 80 overs in each innings.
The change (as with every other change to Test cricket) has already been incorporated since the start of the 2025-2027 World Test Championship. Every change to limited-overs cricket will be effective from July 2.
Saliva ban continues but ball will not be changed for deliberate use
Teams were allowed to use the saliva for the 2025 IPL, but that change did not impact the ICC’s Playing Conditions.
Teams will still be penalised five runs for using saliva on the ball – a change that was necessitated by Covid-19. However, there has been a minor tweak: as per Clause 41.3.7, the ball will now be replaced unless the umpires “believe the fielding team has deliberately applied saliva to try to get the ball changed to their advantage”.
Read: Return of saliva sees reverses swing spike by nearly 30 per cent
DRS change for “out” decisions
An “out” decision will now stay put irrespective of the outcome of the primary review.
When an umpire used to rule out caught, the batter reviewed, and the replays showed the ball had hit the pad but not the bat, the TV umpire checked for lbw. In these circumstances, the “umpire’s call” for the “secondary review” used to be not out.
As per the new change, the “umpire’s call” will now be out.
Chronological order for combined reviews
If there is a player review and an umpire review for separate methods of dismissal off the same ball, “the incidents shall be addressed in chronological order,” as per Clause 3.9. “If the conclusion from the first incident is that a batter is dismissed, then the ball would be deemed to have become dead at that point, rendering investigation of the second incident unnecessary”.
Earlier, the TV umpire used to assess the umpire’s review before moving on to the player’s review. Now, they will do them in the sequence of the reviews. If the batter is ruled out as per that review, the other review will be considered unnecessary.
No-ball? Doesn’t matter – the umpire will still check
The TV umpire will now check for fairness of a catch even after the bowler has bowled a no-ball. The batting side will be rewarded the runs if and only if the catch had not been fair. Earlier, they used to get the runs in case of a no-ball irrespective of the fairness of the catch.
One short: the fielding side’s opinion would matter
If one or both batters deliberately run short, the batting side will be penalised five runs. As per Clause 18.5.2, the umpires will allow “the captain of the fielding side to identify which of the two batters will take strike for the next delivery.” While the penalty used to be there, the fielding side’s opinion is a change.
