Sending players off is ridiculous in a game of cricket: Ian Chappell

Since the first official Test match in 1877, cricket has evolved and come a long way. The rules are tinkered with over the years to make the game more entertaining. The playing conditions were again updated by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) that takes care of the Laws of the game and will come into effect in October this year.

Former Australian cricketer Ian Chappell has been vocal about doing something about the persistent on-field altercations which people term as sledging. He once said that cricket will start witnessing “fisticuffs” if nothing is done about the constant chatting. One of the amendments introduced by the MCC is that they have given the umpires power to send players off temporarily or permanently in the event of a poor player behavior.

They can also award penalty runs to the opposite team in a similar event. The former Australian captain, though, is of the opinion that the ICC has gone too far and sending players off the field is “ridiculous”. “Sending players off might work in some of the football codes, but it’s ridiculous in a game of cricket,” Chappell told foxsports.com.au.

“There’s always two solutions to a problem — there’s a simple one and there’s a complicated one. Cricket administrators have a history of taking the complicated one, and in my opinion that’s another example of it. That’s ridiculous,” he said.

Chappell feels that the best way to go about it was to set guidelines about player behavior and let umpires know about it while backing them to implement it on the field.

“The ICC have done very little to help the situation when it comes to on-field behaviour. What they’ve got to do is spell out to umpires what sort of behaviour they want on the field and then tell them they’ll back them to the hilt.

“I think we could sort things out pretty quickly that way but I wouldn’t be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.”

Another imminent change that will be implemented from October will be the bat size. The thickness of the willow will now be restricted in a bid to restore the balance between bat and ball. Player’s like David Warner have been using big bats but will now need to prune down or else they will be reprimanded.

Chappell, though, welcomed the rule but is concerned about the safety of the bowlers and the umpires. “Something had to be done to redress the balance between bat and ball, but just as important is the danger side of things.

“Bowlers in particular, and umpires as well, are in serious danger of getting hurt.

“They’ve got to come up with a bat that doesn’t hit the ball so quickly that the bowler has no chance of protecting himself. This business of limiting the size of the bats, that probably isn’t going to solve the problem, because the problem is the bowler can’t protect himself.

There have been a few instances of the bowler not being able to pull away from the ball which is hurled towards him by the batsman. Getting hit from that distance has also resulted into serious injuries. Recently, umpires have started using protective gears at least in T20 cricket in a bid to protect themselves from the big shots. Chappell believes that a method needs to be adopted to make sure the batsman can’t hit it too hard towards the bowler and the umpire.

“You’ve got to work out how you can stop the ball getting back to the other end so quickly that the bowler can’t protect himself,” he said.