Sourav Ganguly hails rule to send players off the field for misconduct

Following the official announcement of the new rules laid down by ICC, former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday backed the new “red card” rule in cricket, saying tweaking of the rules was necessary since players’ conduct was becoming an issue at the lower level of the game.

‘Law necessary for misconduct instances’

Ganguly is one of the 11 members of the world cricket committee, chaired by Mike Brearley of MCC, which announced the new Laws of Cricket, to be incorporated in the ICC Playing Conditions. The new rules will be implemented September 28 onwards.

“The changes in the law was necessary. It’s a good thing. It may not be prevalent in India but there have been many incidents at lower level cricket in countries like South Africa and England. You won’t know the importance unless you see the video footage,” Ganguly said.

He was referring to the Level 4 offences like threatening to assault an umpire, making inappropriate and deliberate physical contact with an umpire, physically assaulting a player or any other person, making remarks based on race or religion and committing any other act of violence which can result in a player being sent off for rest of the match.

“It’s passed by our committee at the MCC for such incidents,” said Sourav Ganguly.

Brief insight into who is affected by the rules

There are several players that will be directly affected following the rule change. For example, England all-rounder Ben Stokes is one of those players who has often been pulled up for misconduct on-the-field. With the rule of sending players off the field for bad behavior, now a major power in the hands of the umpires, Stokes will have to be wary of his actions. In fact, he is just one on-field offense away from incurring a potential two-Test ban under the International Cricket Council’s code of conduct.

Players like David Warner, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Steve Smith will be among those affected due to the rule that defines the acceptable bat size. The above-mentioned batsmen are among those prominent ones that use “monster bats,” that is, ones with super thick edges. The ICC has decided to limit the size of bats. The thickness of the edge has now been capped at 40 mm, while the entire bat can’t be more than 67mm thick.