IPL 2021: BCCI announces harsh fines for slow over rates

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is bringing in some rule changes for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The soft signal will no longer come into play, and the third umpire will make the final decision based on his discretion, with the help of technology.

The long-debated Umpire’s Call rule to here to stay. The short-run rule has also been altered. Now, the third umpire will have the right to overturn the original decision given by the on-field umpire regarding a short run.

And, yet another major change that is coming in is that each team will now be mandatorily required to finish an IPL inning by 90 minutes. This also includes the two strategic time-outs of two and half minutes each.

“As a measure to control the match timings, the 20th over in each innings is now included in 90 minutes, earlier the 20th over was to start on or before the 90th minute. The minimum over rate to be achieved in IPL Matches shall be 14.11 overs per hour (ignoring the time taken by time-outs),” stated a BCCI rule as quoted by Cricbuzz.

BCCI reveals penalty that will be imposed for slow over-rate in IPL 2021

Now, the BCCI has also released the penalty for slow over rates for the 14th edition of the IPL. For the first offense of slow over-rate, the captain of an IPL team will be fined INR 12 Lakhs. If the team repeats the offense for the second time, the captain will be fined a sum of INR 24 Lakhs. And, if the offense is repeated for the third time, not only will the captain be fined a sum of INR 30 Lakhs, he will also be banned for one IPL match.

Even the teams will be fined as well. For the second offence of slow over rate, each member of the IPL team will be fined a sum of INR 6 Lakhs or 25% of the match fee, whichever is lesser. This fine will not include the fine imposed on the captain. For any subsequent offense regarding slow over rate, each member of the team will be fined a sum of INR 12 Lakhs or 50% of the match fee, whichever is lesser. Again, this fine will exclude the fine imposed on the skipper.

The 14th edition of the IPL will commence on 9th April 2021.