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Time umpires cracked the whip, over rate penalties not enough
England were docked two WTC points for slow over rate in the Lord’s Test, but it’s unlikely to hurt them enough to speed up play
Mumbai: England have slipped from second to third on the World Test Championships (WTC) points table after the ICC made it known on Wednesday that they were guilty of slow over rate in the Lord’s Test against India. Although England have accepted the two points they have been docked, the ruling may intensify England’s disregard for WTC’s over rate penalty rules.
For England, the WTC mace has never been the No.1 priority, having finished fourth, fourth and fifth over the last three cycles. Never has skipper Ben Stokes altered his bowling plans to escape over rate penalties. His marathon spells on Day 5 at Lord’s, spellbinding as they were, was another example. If points docked on the WTC table are a surcharge, so be it.
“Good on you ICC. Finished the game with 10 hours of play still left,” was one of Stokes’ Instagram responses last year when England were penalised for poor over rate.
If the ICC handle was empowered by smart AI, it might have responded with a sarcastic “Cheers Ben”. The point is that ICC recently overruled England managing director Rob Key’s plea to fine tune over rate penalty regulations based on playing conditions. England argued that teams that play on seam-friendly pitches and use more fast bowling take more time to bowl overs than spin-dependent sides.
In the Lord’s Test, played under the hot London sun, both teams were guilty of taking extra time to complete their overs. Some sessions finished 7-8 overs short. But England utilised 10 fewer overs of spin than India, which may have majorly contributed to the penalty.
Bowling sides are not always the only culprits in slack over rates. The Lord’s Test for example saw numerous other stoppages, from Zak Crawley’s theatrics to avoid facing the extra over on the third evening, Shubman Gill’s lengthy on-field treatment by the physio, Rishabh Pant repeatedly having to tend to his injured finger while batting, Stokes’ groin treatment, Ravindra Jadeja’s toilet break (although this came after tea was delayed as India were nine down). Even flying insects made an appearance. But the playing conditions do provide time allowances before a team is penalised one point each for every over short.
The ICC has strengthened the regulations, introducing a limited-overs styled stop watch visible at the ground, mandating every fielding side to be ready to start the new over within a minute of the previous one. But for teams like England, for whom the commercial and emotional appeal of winning the Ashes and beating India take precedence over the WTC, they may need to do more.
Players are fined five percent of their match fees for every over short, but that means little for well-paid athletes. After two warnings, batting sides can be awarded five penalty runs for the third infraction. We haven’t seen that in play yet, and it may help. But in high-scoring Tests, runs equivalent to an additional boundary may mean little.
They could think of a higher runs penalty, but that would have to be quantified, based on runs scored quotient in the said Test, adding to the complexities of the already complex WTC. Think of yellow cards to leave fielding sides a fielder short for a certain duration like hockey and that might make it exciting. Let’s not forget though that subjectivity involved in adjudicating for lost time has already left cricket open to greater scrutiny.
Perhaps, the onus is on the on-field umpires to save spectators from being short-changed by pushing the players more to speed up the pace of play. Technology has already reduced officials to robots on many counts. This is one area where enforcers of the rules can crack the whip.
