New Delhi: ICC Men’s Cricket Committee led by former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has made three major changes to the ‘Playing Conditions’. Discussing various issues, the committee has announced three changes with respect to the safety of players, soft signals, and free hits. The Chief Executives’ Committee approved the recommendations made by the Men’s and Women’s Cricket Committees.
The big change came in the soft signal rule as the rule has been scrapped. On-field umpires are not required to give a soft signal when referring decisions to the TV umpire. The committee saw soft signals as unnecessary and confusing when TV umpires have to deal with inconclusive replays. Earlier, in case of no conclusive evidence, TV umpires tend to go with the soft signal made by the on-field umpires.
Three new changes announced to the Playing Conditions ahead of the #ENGvIRE Test and #WTC23 final ?https://t.co/N0PNSVGC5q
— ICC (@ICC) May 15, 2023
Looking into the safety of players, the helmet has been made mandatory in certain positions. The committee has directed a compulsion of a helmet when batters are facing pacers, when wicketkeepers are standing up to the stumps, and when fielders are fielding close to the batter.
There have been cases of severe injuries and deaths including the famous case of Phil Hughes. ICC emphasized safety in vulnerable positions and took the call.
The committee made a minor change to the Free Hit rule as from now on if the ball hits the stumps, the runs will be counted as ‘runs scored’. This means when the ball will hit the stumps on a Free Hit, the runs scored will be counted in the account of the batter.
The changes will come into effect on June 1 and will be first applied to the Lord’s Test between England and Ireland, which is a four-day one-off Test match. The Playing Conditions have been changed looking forward to the World Test Championship Final between India and Australia and World Cup 2023.
