At the International Cricket Council (ICC) conference in Durban last week, its Chief Executive Committee approved changes to over-rate sanctions in Test cricket. The CEC agreed to the amendment and it was decided that it would be “applied from the start of the current World Test Championship cycle”.
Five days after the official announcement, Australia cricketer Usman Khawaja claimed he played an active role in reduction of the penalty and gave a lot of credit to Wasim Khan, ICC’s general manager of cricket. As per the ICC announcement, the rule comes into play in the middle of the ongoing five-Test Ashes series where three Tests were played with the old penalty in place.
“I’ve known Wasim Khan, he was part of Pakistan (Pakistan Cricket Board) and I played in PSL (Pakistan Super League) so got to know him,” Khawaja said ahead of the fourth Ashes Test in Manchester. “Just kept in touch and he’s now GM at the ICC. I’m an ACA (Australian Cricketers’ Association) board member so I do look at what’s around cricket. I just thought someone has to find a way to speak to the ICC about it. We had played three games and they’d been three really good games with results, entertainment, the WTC (final) was the highest-watched Test match ever or something like that. Just really good stuff. And we were getting fined 80% of our match fee. It’s a lot of money.”
Khawaja had the support of skipper Pat Cummins and Australia head coach Andrew McDonald. Like Khawaja, McDonald too enjoys personal rapport with ICC GM Khan as he has worked extensively with him when he was chief executive at Leicestershire, where the Aussie had a coaching role back in 2014.
“Just really frustrating as a player, you are giving it your all out there, providing entertainment then you are getting stung for it. Just felt like I needed to speak and Wasim was really good, got him on text, called him, and we talked. He took the feedback. Patty (Pat Cummins) talked to him, Andrew McDonald talked to him and to his credit it wasn’t just listening and no action. Actions happened within one or two weeks,” said the southpaw.
CricketNext reached out to both ICC and its Men’s Cricket Committee Chairman Sourav Ganguly for a comment but didn’t get a response yet.
The changes to over-rate sanctions is a step in the right direction as the players were losing out on a lot of money but the timing of the change and the way it has been carried out is raising eyebrows. There were deliberations anyway but the timing and the manner in which Australian players “lobbied” is unprecedented.
“This is one of a kind. We haven’t seen anything like this before – the way players and support staff lobbied. Players of a team were facing the heat of these penalties so they decided to approach their friend in the ICC who gave their voice the needed direction. I need to know whether voices of players from West Indies, Zimbabwe or even Bangladesh would be heard with this seriousness,” said a source close to developments.
The source added if a similar act would have been carried out by Indian players, the entire cricketing community would have got their swords out and tags like “entitled brats”, “favoured players” would have hogged the headlines.
“Will there be changes to the runner rule in hot and humid conditions where players tend to cramp more? Will you change that rule during a series or a tournament? Imagine the reactions to this if Indian players would have done the same. They would have been termed ‘entitled brats’, ‘favoured players’ and what not. But now, not a word is being uttered. This is baffling to say the least,” the source added.
The Wasim Khan role
This is not the first time Wasim Khan is at the centre of a major cricketing talking point. But has he, as ICC GM, exceeded his brief by siding with the Australian cricketers for over-rate penalties? It is not the first time. Something of a similar nature happened in March when Khan, who has served as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) CEO in the past, went on record and said Pakistan will not play their World Cup matches in India.
“I don’t know if it would take place here on in a different country but a neutral venue is highly likely. I don’t think that Pakistan will play their matches in India. I think their matches will also be held at a neutral venue just like India’s Asia Cup matches,” Wasim had told ARY News.
No word on Khawaja
There has been no word by the ICC on Khawaja openly criticising the previous over-rate penalty and how it left him “frustrated”. In June, ICC imposed a 15% fine on Shubman Gill when he took a dig at the TV umpire’s decision during the WTC final against Australia. That sanction meant Gill was fined 115% of his match fees as India were also slapped with a 100% penalty for maintaining slow over-rate.
“Are we trying to suggest here that players can come, talk, criticise, lobby for a change and get away with it? Why the double standards here where you penalise a player 15% of his match fee for questioning a decision and then laud someone else for being a hero in the whole over-rate penalty cause,” says a senior cricket administrator.
What ICC press release on over-rate sanctions said
The CEC approved changes to over-rate sanctions in Test cricket to balance the need for over-rates to be maintained and ensure players are appropriately remunerated. As such, players will be fined 5% of their match fee for each over short up to a maximum of 50%. If a team is bowled out before the new ball is due at 80 overs, there will be no over-rate penalty applied even if there is a slow over rate. This replaces the current 60 over threshold.
ICC Men’s Cricket Committee Sourav Ganguly said: “The ICC World Test Championship has injected renewed energy into Test cricket giving it compelling context. In the last edition we only had 12 draws in 69 matches, and we want to ensure that trend continues whilst we’re giving fans the best value for money and keeping over-rates up.
“The Men’s Cricket Committee felt strongly that over-rate penalties in the form of WTC points deductions should remain but recommended that players should not have 100% of their match fee at risk. We believe this provides a balance between maintaining over-rates and ensuring we are not deterring players from playing Test cricket.
The CEC agreed this amendment would be retrospective and applied from the start of the current World Test Championship cycle.