Put captains on firing line for slow over-rate: Wisden

‘The Wisden´, considered the bible of the game, wants cricket boards to put captains on the firing line if they fail to maintain over-rates in Test matches.

‘The Wisden´, considered the bible of the game, wants cricket boards to put captains on the firing line if they fail to maintain over-rates in Test matches.

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“It needs to start with each board sitting their captain down and telling them ‘Your job is going to be in jeopardy if you don’t maintain the over rate´,” said ‘The Wisden Cricketers´ Almanac.

The widely respected publication said on-field umpires should also be taken to task by the ICC for slow over rates.

“And the ICC needs to sit the umpires down and say, ‘It’s your job to maintain the tempo. This faffing around, talking between overs, has got to stop´,” editor Scyld Berry wrote.

Berry cited instances of umpires contributing to the “funereal pace” of Test cricket like the case of play being disrupted when England played India in Chennai so that a banana could be brought out for umpire Billy Bowden.

He said fielding players should not be allowed to come out to fill their stomach without finishing 30 overs in a session and to ensure that boundaries should be sealed, with no one entering or leaving the field in anything other than exceptional circumstances.