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First Post
27-06-2025
- Sport
- First Post
ICC implements minimum seven-day stand-down for concussed players amid sweeping changes to playing conditions
ICC also said that another rule set to be trialled in domestic First-Class cricket will allow teams to name a replacement for any player who sustains a 'serious injury' after being named in the playing XI. read more A minimum seven-day stand-down will be followed by any player diagnosed with concussion. Image: AFP The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday introduced new playing conditions across formats, including an increased stand-down period for players diagnosed with concussion, a trial of a new wide-ball rule in limited-overs cricket and revised regulations for boundary catches. Cricket's global governing body said on its website that the new playing conditions for Tests were implemented with the start of the new World Test Championship cycle for 2025-2027 with Sri Lanka taking on Bangladesh in first Test at Galle from June 17-21. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The upcoming limited-overs series between the two countries will mark the start dates for new playing conditions for ODIs and T20Is. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will play a three-match ODI series from July 2 and then move on to a three-match T20I rubber from July 10. Minimum seven-day stand-down for concussed players In context of concussion protocols, the ICC said there are two changes. Teams will now have to nominate designated concussion replacements for every match, which is being brought in to curb the home team's advantage of being able to select from a larger group of players. The ICC also announced a 'minimum seven-day stand-down' period for any player diagnosed with concussion. 'A player diagnosed with a concussion during a match must observe a minimum stand-down period of a minimum of seven days before returning to play. This change has been recommended by the ICC Medical Advisory Committee to support players' safety and well-being,' the ICC said. The ICC said two new rules will be trialled by full members for a period of six months starting from October 2025. It includes a new wide-ball rule for ODIs and T20Is, and is being brought in to offer a degree of leniency to a bowler who sees batter moving around 'prior or during' a delivery. 'The position of the batter's legs at the point of delivery will now be used as the reference point for a wide, even if the batter subsequently moves across to the off side,' the ICC said. 'The trial will see a ball that passes the popping crease between the leg stump and the protected area marker not being called a wide. To help with this, the protected area marker line will be extended to the popping crease and act as a guide for the umpires.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock, the media representative of ICC's cricket committee, had told PTI in January this year that the governing body is 'working on something' to give bowlers 'a bit more leeway on wides.' 'Any leg side delivery that passes behind the batter's legs and outside of the line at the time the ball reaches the popping crease may still be called a wide. Previously, a wide had been called for a delivery that would not have been called wide if the batter had retained their normal batting position,' the ICC said. Replacements players with 'serious injury' for Domestic teams Another rule to be trialled is for domestic First-Class cricket, in which teams can now name replacements for a player who suffers a 'serious injury' after being picked in the XI. 'A player who suffers a serious injury on the field of play at any time after the match has started (including any pre-match warm-up period) may be replaced for the remainder of the match by a fully participating like-for-like player,' the ICC said. For the DRS dismissals, the ICC said wicket zone will now be the actual outline of the stumps and bails. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The governing body has also announced other major changes like bringing in stop-clock in Test cricket, a change in rule for boundary catches, and a move back to having only one ball after the 34th-over mark in ODIs. With agency inputs
NDTV
27-06-2025
- Sport
- NDTV
Minimum 7-Day Stand-Down For Concussed Players: ICC Announces New Playing Conditions
The ICC on Friday announced new playing conditions across formats including a minimum seven-day stand-down period for players diagnosed with concussion, trialling a new wide-ball rule in limited-overs cricket, besides changes with regards to boundary catches. Cricket's global governing body said on its website that the new playing conditions for Tests were implemented with the start of the new World Test Championship cycle for 2025-2027 with Sri Lanka taking on Bangladesh in first Test at Galle from June 17-21. The upcoming limited-overs series between the two countries will mark the start dates for new playing conditions for ODIs and T20Is. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will play a three-match ODI series from July 2 and then move on to a three-match T20I rubber from July 10. In context of concussion protocols, the ICC said there are two changes. Teams will now have to nominate designated concussion replacements for every match, which is being brought in to curb the home team's advantage of being able to select from a larger group of players. The ICC also announced a "minimum seven-day stand-down" period for any player diagnosed with concussion. "A player diagnosed with a concussion during a match must observe a minimum stand-down period of a minimum of seven days before returning to play. This change has been recommended by the ICC Medical Advisory Committee to support players' safety and well-being," the ICC said. The ICC said two new rules will be trialled by full members for a period of six months starting from October 2025. It includes a new wide-ball rule for ODIs and T20Is, and is being brought in to offer a degree of leniency to a bowler who sees batter moving around "prior or during" a delivery. "The position of the batter's legs at the point of delivery will now be used as the reference point for a wide, even if the batter subsequently moves across to the off side," the ICC said. "The trial will see a ball that passes the popping crease between the leg stump and the protected area marker not being called a wide. To help with this, the protected area marker line will be extended to the popping crease and act as a guide for the umpires." Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock, the media representative of ICC's cricket committee, had told PTI in January this year that the governing body is "working on something" to give bowlers "a bit more leeway on wides." "Any leg side delivery that passes behind the batter's legs and outside of the line at the time the ball reaches the popping crease may still be called a wide. Previously, a wide had been called for a delivery that would not have been called wide if the batter had retained their normal batting position," the ICC said. Another rule to be trialled is for domestic First-Class cricket, in which teams can now name replacements for a player who suffers a "serious injury" after being picked in the XI. "A player who suffers a serious injury on the field of play at any time after the match has started (including any pre-match warm-up period) may be replaced for the remainder of the match by a fully participating like-for-like player," the ICC said. For the DRS dismissals, the ICC said wicket zone will now be the actual outline of the stumps and bails. The governing body has also announced other major changes like bringing in stop-clock in Test cricket, a change in rule for boundary catches, and a move back to having only one ball after the 34th-over mark in ODIs. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
The Hindu
27-06-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
ICC approves new playing conditions including stop clock for Tests, no ball change after use of saliva
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved several changes to playing conditions recently for men's international cricket, including the Boundary Law and one-ball rule in ODIs from the 35th over. While some of these rules have already come into force during the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27, the rules for white-ball formats will come into effect from July 2 onwards. ESPNCricinfo looks at the notable changes introduced across three formats, having reviewed the playing conditions shared by the world cricket governing body with its member bodies recently. - Introduction of Stop Clock in Tests A year after the introduction of the rule in limited-overs cricket, the ICC has decided to bring it in red-ball cricket, where slow-over-rates have been a massive problem for years. As per the rule, the fielding side is supposed to start an over within 60 seconds of the last one ending. Two warnings will be given on failure to do so, and another failure would result in a five-run penalty on the bowling team. The warnings will be reset to zero after each block worth 80 overs. The rule has come into effect during the ongoing 2025-27 WTC cycle. For concussion protocols In context of concussion protocols, the ICC said there are two changes. Teams will now have to nominate designated concussion replacements for every match, which is being brought in to curb the home team's advantage of being able to select from a larger group of players. The ICC also announced a 'minimum seven-day stand-down' period for any player diagnosed with concussion. 'A player diagnosed with a concussion during a match must observe a minimum stand-down period of a minimum of seven days before returning to play. This change has been recommended by the ICC Medical Advisory Committee to support players' safety and well-being,' the ICC said. New wide-ball rule The ICC said two new rules will be trialled by full members for a period of six months starting from October 2025. It includes a new wide-ball rule for ODIs and T20Is, and is being brought in to offer a degree of leniency to a bowler who sees batter moving around 'prior or during' a delivery. 'The position of the batter's legs at the point of delivery will now be used as the reference point for a wide, even if the batter subsequently moves across to the off side,' the ICC said. 'The trial will see a ball that passes the popping crease between the leg stump and the protected area marker not being called a wide. To help with this, the protected area marker line will be extended to the popping crease and act as a guide for the umpires.' Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock, the media representative of ICC's cricket committee, had told PTI in January this year that the governing body is 'working on something' to give bowlers 'a bit more leeway on wides.' 'Any leg side delivery that passes behind the batter's legs and outside of the line at the time the ball reaches the popping crease may still be called a wide. Previously, a wide had been called for a delivery that would not have been called wide if the batter had retained their normal batting position,' the ICC said. No mandatory ball change on deliberate usage of saliva While the saliva ban continues in international cricket since COVID-19, the mandatory ball change by umpires in case of saliva being found on the ball is no longer compulsory. This change is made to prevent teams from changing the balls by deliberately applying saliva to them. Going forward, the condition of the ball will help in deciding if the ball is to be changed or not. If it appears too wet or these is more shine. This decision has been completely left to the umpires. If the ball starts doing things after umpires saying that application of saliva has not changed its condition, it would not be replaced. The batting team would, however, be given five penalty runs. DRS protocol for secondary review after an out decision Imagine a situation when a batter has been given out caught behind, and he demands a review. The UltraEdge shows the ball brushing the pads without any contact with the bat. With the catch ruled out, the TV umpire checks for second dismissal mode via ball tracking, whether he is lbw or not. So far, the protocol was, once the batter was given 'not out caught', the default decision for the second mode of dismissal, lbw, would be not out. This means, if the ball tracking led to an "umpire's call" verdict, the batter would remain not out. But in now's updated rule, when the ball tracking is displayed, the original decision label on it would be reading "out" and if the review yields an umpire call, the batter would be ruled out. Combined reviews, decisions will be chronological If in case, there is a player review and an umpire review for separate modes of dismissal on the same ball, "the incidents shall be addressed in chronological order". Earlier, the TV umpire used to assess the umpire reviews before moving on to the review asked for by a player. Now, the revised playing condition reads, "If the conclusion from the first incident is that a batter is dismissed, then the ball would be deemed to have become dead at that point, rendering investigation of the second incident unnecessary". So now, if there is an appeal for lbw and run out, the TV umpire would first take up the lbw review since it occurred first. In case batter is out, then the ball would be declared dead and review for run out would not be done. -Fairness of catch to be reviewed for no-ball As per Wisden, the TV umpire will check for the fairness of a catch even after a no-ball from the bowler. Earlier, if no ball was signalled by the third umpire, the fairness of the catch was not checked. But now, it will be. If the catch is fair, the batting team will get one extra run for a no-ball, and if it is unfair, the batting team will get the runs taken by the batters. Deliberate short run In case a batter has been caught taking a short run, five runs are shaved off the batting team's total. Now, as per updated rules, if one of the batters does not make their ground deliberately for the sake of stealing an extra run, the umpires would ask the fielding team to decide which batter they want to be on strike. The five-run penalty will continue. "A deliberate short run is an attempt for batters to appear to run more than one run, while at least one batter deliberately does not make good their ground at one end," Rule 18.5.1 of the playing conditions says. "Batters may choose to abort a run, provided the umpire believes that there was no intention by the batter concerned to deceive the umpires or to score the run in which they did not make their ground," the rule added. Full-time playing replacement in domestic first-class cricket To compensate for the loss of a player who has suffered a serious external injury, the ICC has requested that cricket boards trial a full-time replacement player in their domestic first-class matches. This replacement player will be like-for-like, similar to a concussion substitute. The injury will have to be evident and visible for match officials before a decision is taken. It would not be applicable to hamstring pulls or niggles. (With inputs from PTI)
BBC News
14-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
South Africa ignore Aussie sledges to go from chokers to champions
"Surely, we can't mess this one up?" Shaun Pollock said as the lift at the Lord's media centre plummeted downwards shortly after stumps on day fact the former South Africa captain, here on commentary duties, felt even the slightest tinge of nervousness after a day of batting domination offers an insight into the cricket psyche of his there still was a chance the Proteas - who carried the moniker as professional sport's biggest chokers - could somehow contrive to make a dog's dinner of scoring 69 runs to win the World Test Championship (WTC).Aiden Markram resumed on an unbeaten century but like many of his team-mates, had a restless night at their London hotel pondering how things might pan the sleeping tablets he took could not help him switch hard to imagine their opponents, Australia, suffering from the same chronic lack of self conviction. From this position, they would have peacock-strutted to the players saw it as an opportunity, too. They picked at this particular South Africa scab with their verbal armoury of salty snipes when a tense chase began."Whilst we were batting, we could hear the Aussies using that dreaded word, choke," South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma told BBC Test Match Special."It's been years since we've overcome a final, we've been etched in history. Now we're part of something that has never been done."There's no doubt the weight of history before South Africa managed to wrap up this five-wicket win over Australia weighed heavily. In 18 previous one-day international and T20 World Cups, South Africa's men's team have reached a solitary final, having lost 10 of their 12 knockout matches across both speaking, South Africa's men have won global events before. Although it's debatable whether you can class them as 'major'.They lifted the inaugural 1998 ICC Knockout Trophy in Bangladesh - the tournament was later rebranded as the Champions Trophy by the International Cricket that same year, South Africa defeated Australia in the final of the Commonwealth Games played in having netted in underground car parks in Kuala Lumpur and been fascinated by the the size of Jonah Lomu's lunch, perhaps the tournament was approached in a more leisurely was just the third iteration of the WTC, but you only had to witness the number of Saffers who came through the gates at Lord's, and the tears from Keshav Maharaj afterwards, to sense what going from chokers to champions felt like. "It would be great to never hear that word [choke] again, that's for sure," said Markram, who went to the stands and downed a pint of beer with an old school friend to celebrate."To have got the job done and to get rid of that, it's a big thing for this team."Australia's sledging perhaps masked some of their own struggles as they build towards hosting an Ashes series against England, with captain Patrick Cummins hinting changes could be afoot for a forthcoming tour to West Indies."We've obviously got a team here that got us to the final so it's about when do we feel it's the right time to change," Cummins, 32, said."After this Test match, everyone is thrown back into the conversation so it's a bit of a reset. It's probably more for me and the selectors to sit down and map it out." Proteas' quiet pioneer leads from front When Bavuma walked into the post-match news conference and carefully placed the glittering mace - the prize awarded to the WTC winners - down on the table in front of him, the significance of the moment was not is more than three decades since South Africa's cricketers were readmitted to the international fold following the sporting boycotts established by the Gleneagles is South Africa's first black African batter, first black African to score a Test century, as well as the country's first black African is now the first South African to win a major ICC trophy, and follows in the footsteps of Siya Kolisi, South Africa's black double World Cup-winning rugby union captain, in breaking spoke in depth in an interview with BBC Sport before the WTC about South Africa's post-apartheid era of sporting is a humble and quietly spoken leader in the dressing room, dovetailing with the subtle acumen of head coach Shukri many ways Bavuma embodies a group of South African players who might lack some of the stardust of previous teams but showed here they have character, depth and unity. With a beaming smile in the aftermath of this victory at Lord's, the joy on Bavuma's face was clear."It's a chance for South Africa to be united. We've got a cause where we can put aside our differences and enjoy it," Bavuma added."We are unique in a lot of ways, our present and future is shaped by our past. It is a chance for us to rejoice in something, forget our issues and come together."South Africa may be World Test champions but have no home men's matches in the longer format scheduled for said its primacy in the country should never be questioned."It's always been my most important and most favourite format. Naturally, playing fewer games is not really on us, it's just sort of the cards you get dealt," he said."But it's really important, in my opinion, to keep Test cricket as the number one in South Africa."
Telegraph
14-06-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
South Africa banish ‘chokers' tag by beating Australia in World Test Championship final
South Africa banished the generational trauma of woe on the world stage and their reputation as cricket's 'chokers' by downing Australia in a thrilling World Test Championship final at Lords on Saturday. Shaun Pollock, the great South Africa all-rounder, said it was a win '34 years in the making', and they did it with a flourish, winning by five wickets. Led by Aiden Markram's stunning century, South Africa hauled down 282, equalling the second-highest Test chase at Lord's, on a pitch that had calmed considerably after 14 wickets fell on each of days one and two. Markram, who had started his innings on a pair, fell for 136 with six runs required, caught well at square leg off Josh Hazlewood. He left the field to a standing ovation and handshakes from Australia's players. The following three overs were painstaking, and included Kyle Verreynne gloving an attempted ramp behind with the scores level – but Australia did not have a review. Verreynne soon smashed Mitchell Starc through the covers to complete an almighty upset, to the delight of a rapturous crowd. Temba Bavuma, South Africa's first black captain, had his head in his hands on the balcony of the historic Lord's Pavilion. Remarkably, it is South Africa's first major global title, and it has been secured by one of their least-heralded teams. The Proteas have consistently been one of world cricket's best teams since their post-apartheid readmission to international sport in the early 1990s, but have an infamous history of 'choking' at the sharp ends of global tournaments. Across all ICC tournaments, South Africa have lost two quarter-finals, 12 semi-finals and a final. That includes losing calamitous World Cup semi-finals in 1992 and 1999, followed by knockout defeats in 2011, 2015 and 2023. Last year they lost the final of the T20 World Cup, despite needing just 30 from 30 balls. They lifted the mace as the top-ranked Test team at Lord's in 2012, but until Saturday the only ICC title they had won was the 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy. South Africa have faced criticism over their path to the final. They sent a severely weakened team to New Zealand for a series last year as they prioritised their shiny new Indian-backed T20 tournament, and have not played a series of more than two matches through the cycle. Only two of those matches were against India, and they did not play Australia or England, the other best-resourced teams. But they won seven matches on the spin to reach the final, then saw off Australia to win it. With the weight of history on their shoulders, the fourth morning was never going to be a cakewalk. This game has wriggled and writhed from the first morning, changing direction just as you thought it had settled on a consistent path. This Australian side, with so much experience and final know-how, were never going to give up. After a brilliant afternoon on Friday, South Africa resumed needing just 69 to win, with eight wickets in hand. With the target down to 65, Australia captain Pat Cummins found just enough movement to take the edge of his brave South African counterpart. Bavuma departed for 66, an innings that will go down in South African folklore as he battled a nasty hamstring injury, picked up when he had just six, for the vast majority of it. Tristan Stubbs, a dashing stroke maker, crawled to seven from 36 balls as the target was nibbled down to just 44 by drinks after an hour's play. Each of those 25 runs was cheered wildly by a crowd largely in South Africa's corner, but Stubbs fell soon after the break, bowled by a beauty from Starc, the ball after surviving a review for caught behind. The tension was palpable but at the other end, the centurion Markram was the calmest man at Lord's. In a period of six overs around the Stubbs dismissal, he faced just seven balls, but picked up a single from each of them. In David Bedingham, he found a busier partner than Stubbs and together they ticked the score down. For an ageing Australia team who won the last World Test Championship final, this was a bizarre was superb, but they batted without poise, and lost Steve Smith to a nasty finger dislocation trying to take a catch in South Africa's chase. As they head to the Caribbean for a three-match series, they have some serious questions to address before an epic Ashes down under this winter. — Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) June 14, 2025
