Five games and four fines! The list might have grown by the time you read this piece. Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Gautam Gambhir and Kumar Sangakkara have been docked $20,000 for slow over-rates. It'll be even more for the second offence, for the entire team, while another repeat will attract a still bigger fine. A one-match ban on the captain is mandatory too in case of a third offence.
The logic is easy to understand. All the 59 games of IPL's second edition in South Africa went beyond the stipulated duration --- on occasions by as much as 45-50 minutes. It defeats the essence of the T20 format besides burning a huge hole in the organisers and broadcasters' pockets. When matches linger, the schedules of a TV network go for a toss. Extra hours are also a drain on energy --- floodlights --- and costs rise everywhere else too. So, the IPL doesn't see any reason for tardiness on the part of the skippers.
The fines will have a ripple effect. The captains are likely to haul up the bowlers who send down extra deliveries by way of no balls and wides. Ganguly's team bowled seven extras, Tendulkar and Sangakkara's team sent down five and Gambhir's boys erred twice. In contrast, the Rajasthan Royals bowled 13 extra deliveries and yet finished their overs in time! Interestingly, messages from the dugouts also might not be of much help.
The changeover time between overs, the presence of right and left-handers as well as positioning of fielders for key bowlers are also hurting the captains. For example, a fast bowler will have a completely different field as compared to a spinner. Captains will now be averse to running up and advising the bowler who has just been hit for a couple of sixes!
It also makes the match referees' task stiffer. Now they will have to keep an account of all those breaks for drinks, change of gear, besides plain messages, which the batters need in the middle. The time taken to shift sightscreens, third umpire's decisions would have to be deducted too. In short, a match referee will be breathless by the time the last ball is bowled.
And we thought T20 was child's play!