New Delhi, May 5: It may be acrobatics, or even gymnastics, but for the Marylebone Cricket Club, it is certainly not cricket.
Spurred by athletic dismissals from the likes of David Hussey and Dougie Bollinger in Indian Premier League-3, the venerable
Marylebone Cricket Club — guardian of the Laws of Cricket — will put the legality of such catches, where the fielder steps off the field of play and comes back to complete the dismissal, to the vote later on Wednesday among other changes.
The MCC’s laws sub-committee has come up with a set of amendments that will be put to the vote at its AGM.
If passed, the new laws will come into effect on October 1 this year.
Among the other issues taken up by the sub-committee is the practice of “offering light” to batsmen by umpires, the presence of at least one umpire at the toss, changes to the law relating to run-outs, restrictions on practice time for bowling sides on the actual field of play and penalties on batsmen damaging pitches.
Yet, the most attention will be focused on the law on catches where a fielder oversteps the boundary rope but manages to complete the dismissal by keeping the ball inside the field.
Also on the cards is a change to the law relating to run-outs when a batsman has to be in contact with the ground when the stumps are broken.
The amendment suggests that “a batsman ... will be considered to be in his ground if, having grounded some part of his foot behind the popping crease, and still with continuing forward momentum, he loses contact with the ground.”
Rahul Banerji
