ICC introduces timer in Test cricket and does away with mandatory ball change for saliva use

‌The International Cricket Council has decided to introduce timers between overs in Test cricket to improve the continuously deteriorating over-rates in the five-day game. Stop clocks have been currently used in limited-overs cricket for a year now and have been extended to Tests to prevent the fielding side from slowing the game deliberately or otherwise during the match.

As per the current rule, the fielding team should get ready to start an over within 60 seconds from the end of the previous one. The umpires will issue two warnings to the side before imposing a five-run penalty on them. The warnings will be reset to zero after every block of 80 overs with the clock running upwards from 0 to 60 after every over.

With the ban on the use of saliva continuing in international cricket, the governing body has done away with the rule of a ball change for any deliberate use by the fielding team. Currently, there is a five-run penalty along with a ball change for the use of saliva which will now be only five runs with the umpires taking a call on whether the ball has to be changed or not. This has been amended to prevent the fielding side from applying saliva purposefully to get the ball changed and the same ball will be used if umpires feel the condition of the ball has not drastically changed.

Other changes include umpires consulting with the fielding team on which batter has to be on strike in case the batters attempt a deliberate short run along with the already existing five-run penalty. If a batter gets caught off a no-ball and if there are doubts that the catch was not completed cleanly, the umpires will still review the fairness of the catch with the batting side getting only the extra run off the no-ball if the catch has been taken cleanly. The runs that the batters take by running will only add to the tally if the catch is not fair.

For the Decision Review System taken for a secondary review after the batter has been given out, the umpire’s decision will continue to be out even for the secondary dismissal. In other words, if a batter has been given out caught behind and during review it becomes clear that he doesn't edge it but the ball deviates off his pads. Then, for the secondary review of LBW also, the on-field umpire’s call of out will remain while checking for ball tracking.

And in the case of multiple reviews by fielder and umpire the decision will be taken chronologically based on the occurrence of the events. In case there is an appeal for both LBW and run out, the LBW dismissal will first be reviewed and the ball will be considered dead if it is out making the run out review inconsequential.

The revised playing conditions are already in place in Tests from the start of this World Test Championship Cycle while for ODIs, it will come into vogue from July 2.