The International Cricket Council (ICC) has brought in multiple changes in regulations including the ‘stop clock’ to curb slow over rates in Tests, short run rule and more. As per the ICC’s new rules — which have been implemented from the 2025-2027 World Test Championship cycle that got underway with the first of the two Tests between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Galle — the fielding team will now be allowed to decide which batter should be on strike in case of a ‘deliberate’ short-run.
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How will the stop clock work?
The stop clock has been implemented to eradicate the issue of slow over-rate. The ICC’s Test Match Playing Conditions, listed on the governing body’s website, state that “the fielding side shall be ready to start each over within 60 seconds of the previous over being completed. An electronic clock will be displayed at the ground that counts up seconds from zero to 60.”
The fielding side will thus be given two warnings and in case of a third infraction, the batting side will be awarded with five penalty runs. These warnings will be reset to zero after the completion of 80 overs, the ICC said.
A report in ESPNcricinfo also noted that while the ban on the use of saliva remains in force, the ICC no longer mandates the umpires to change the ball once they discover saliva on it.
How will the short run rule work?
In case of a “deliberate short run”, the ICC rulebook now says, “A deliberate short run is an attempt for batters to appear to run more than one run, while at least one batter deliberately does not make good their ground at one end.” “Batters may choose to abort a run, provided the umpire believes that there was no intention by the batter concerned to deceive the umpires or to score the run in which they didn’t make their ground.”
In such scenarios, the umpire at the bowler’s end will disallow all runs to the batting side, return any not out batter to his original end, signal a no-ball or a wide-ball if applicable, make a short-run signal to the scorers, award five penalty runs to the fielding side and “request their captain to identify which of the two batters will be on strike for the next delivery”.
(With inputs from PTI)
