Association of Cricket Officials Issue 30 | Page 15

New Laws of Cricket in Action
Down Under
First example of ‘mock fielding’
Within just a day of the new Laws of Cricket coming into
effect in Australia, Queensland Bulls player Marnus
Labuschagne became the first victim of the changes. In a
one-day match against Cricket Australia XI, Labuschagne
dived for the ball and, after failing to stop the ball, jumped
up to his feet shaping to throw. There was hesitation
between the Cricket Australia XI batsmen, who later
completed the run after realising it had gone past
Labuschagne to long-off. On-field umpires Paul Wilson and
Donovan Koch conferred before signalling five penalty runs
to the scorers Gail Cartwright and Cliff Howard. Under Law
41.5, ‘it is unfair for any fielder wilfully to attempt, by word or
action, to distract, deceive or obstruct either batsman’.
Fraser Stewart, MCC Laws of Cricket Manager, explained the
reasons why the ‘fake fielding’ law was introduced to
ESPNcricinfo. ‘Fielders were deliberately pretending to have
the ball as a means of fooling the batsmen, thereby
preventing them from taking further runs. The batsmen
would see a slide and a feigned throw and would decline, for
example, a second run. By the time they realised the ball had
not been thrown, it would then be too late to take the
second run. This was felt to be unfair. It was becoming an
increasingly used practice at various levels of the game. It
formed one of the questions in MCC's global consultation
and the response was overwhelmingly in favour of
introducing a law to ban the practice.’
Mock fielding: Queensland’s Marnus Labuschagne
is the first to fall foul to the new Law changes.
First Class Debuts for Afghan Umpires
Sheffield Shield to Trial
Concussion Substitutes
After achieving Test status earlier this year, a number of
Afghan umpires have already made their debut in the
inaugural domestic First Class series, named the Alokozay
Ahmad Shah Abali tournament. A total of 24 First Class
matches were scheduled October to December 2017 across
Jalalabad, Kabul and Khost.
With head injuries and concussion a major focus in other
sports, such as rugby, Cricket Australia has taken a big
step by approving the use of substitutes for suspected
concussions. It is hoped that over the next 12 months, other
countries will follow suit.
Exclusion for High-flying Perry
The home side found themselves a bowler down in just her
third over, in a rain-affected match in Coffs Harbour, which
saw the Southern Stars take a 4-0 lead over England.
Umpire Claire Polosak was seen to clearly signal to both the
bowler and captain after Perry fired the first one over the
England captain’s head, apologising immediately. The next
ball, a free hit, was also delivered above Heather Knight’s
waist and straight away Polosak called over Perry and her
captain to explain the bowler’s removal.
Ellyse Perry found herself banished from the Australian
bowling attack in the second ODI in the 2017 Ashes, after
two consecutive above waist-high deliveries.
Australia opener Ellyse Perry was excluded
from her country’s bowling attack after
two above waist-high No balls.
Australian captain, Rachel Haynes, felt the wet and slippery
conditions had not helped: ‘It was a pretty tough call given
the conditions. I did question that…that they had to be
dangerous deliveries at the batter. I certainly don’t think it
was intentional, how those deliveries came out. I was told if
it’s over waist height, the bowler was off.’
England ended up 75 runs short of the DLS a