New Delhi: Cricket's law making body of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has recommended the introduction of 'red-cards' to sent off player like in football to punish disciplinary breaches. It also recommended to limit the size of the bat to a certain limit.
Headed by Mike Brealy, former England player and chairman of MCC, the committee has met in Mumbai for two days, ending Wednesday. The committee also includes former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, former Pakistani batsmen Rameez Raja and MCC's head of cricket – John Stephenson.
The two-day meeting was attended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Anurag Thakur and International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive David Richardson.
"The World Cricket committee believes that the game must now include a mechanism to deal with the worst disciplinary offenses during the match, and not subsequent to it as is presently the case. If approved, the ability to send a player off would therefore come into effect at all levels of the game from 1st October 2017," an MCC release said in Mumbai.
MCC believes that balance of the game has tilted too far in batsman's favor, for which bat's size limitations have to be made to both the edges and depth of a bat.
"The main committee of MCC will now be asked to approve a limit to bat edges of 40 millimeter and bat depths of 67mm (60mm for the depth plus an allowance of 7mm for a possible curve on the face of the bat).
Citing the reason for the limiting the size of the bat MCC said "Many of the top players' bats have edges of between 38mm and 42mm, but there are some which have edges of up to 50mm, which was felt to be excessive and in need of restriction."
Earlier, the committee also declined Sachin Tendulkar's idea to use two pitches in Ranji Trophy matches to enable Indian players get used to differing playing surfaces. The committee felt it devalued the competitiveness of game.
“First class cricket is about playing competitive (cricket), challenging yourself. It (playing on two pitches) will be like lessening the importance of first class cricket. That is what the committee felt,” Rameez Raja, who is MCC's World Cricket Committee member, argued.
