- ICC trial with similar pilots in Australia, India and South Africa
- ECB ruling could be “changed in May”
- Seven replacements in nine games last round.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)’s decision to allow substitutes for injury, illness and significant life events has come under scrutiny. The implementation of “replacements”, as they are being called, is being trialled this season. I’m going to say it now and will explain why later on in the piece – I do not agree with the principle.
What is the rule?
The trial allows players to be replaced with a fully participating player for the first time, rather than just a substitute fielder. It is following similar experiments in domestic cricket in India, Australia and South Africa.
The ECB took it a step further by allowing replacements for significant life events, such as bereavements or the birth of a child. Replacements can come into the game at any point from the first ball to the last.
So what are the issues?
Most of the issues are surrounding how strict the rules are, rather than the principle itself or specific cases. Replacements have been used eight times so far, but only in five of the 18 matches played.
The Australian rules only allow one substitute per match. It has also ruled that any change had to made before the end of the second day. This would reduce the advantage of having a fresh player coming into a four-day match.
In their last game, Somerset replaced Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Thumb) with Will Smeed, and Lewis Goldsworthy (Hamstring) with Archie Vaughan.
Yorkshire also replaced two players. Jhye Richardson and Jack White (both with illness) were replaced with Logan van Beek and Ben Cliff.
The ECB has implemented more relaxed restrictions than other nations. They want to keep the quality of cricket high by not having players with serious injury struggling through matches.
There is a ‘stand-down’ period, where a player replaced is unavailable for selection, of 8 days in this country. The stand-down period in Australia, during its most recent season, was 12 days.
However, there is no stand down period for players whose team doesn’t play in the next round of fixtures, so Nottinghamshire, Glamorgan and Yorkshire will be able to pick their replaced players, should they be fit.
So how can it be tweaked?
The ECB have said the rules could be changed at the end of the first block of fixtures. Each of the 18 counties will have played 6 games and have had a bye week by the middle of May, when the competition breaks for the T20 Blast.
Players and coaches alike have had their say regarding the replacements used so far. Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson said:
“Obviously, with the injury replacement, bringing someone in later on has made a bit of a difference. This is no slight on Notts whatsoever, because we would have done the exact same thing if we were in that position. But to bring a guy who hadn’t played cricket for three days to then come in and bowl, obviously that’s an advantage.
Glamorgan lost by 192 runs to Nottinghamshire, with Lyndon James, who replaced the injured Fergus O’Neill on the fourth morning. James took two wickets on that final day. Glamorgan also made a change in the game, as Ben Kellaway (Hip) was replaced by Sean Dickson on the opening day.
Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores said:
“There will need to be some tweaks to make sure it is tight. To have two in this game, we want to make sure that it doesn’t become a focus for the season when we want it to be on the cricket. There is a case for a tightening what point in the game can it be done.”
Somerset’s coach Jason Kerr said that Tom Kohler-Cadmore was unable to hold a bat, and Lewis Goldsworthy had a severe hamstring tear after their injuries last weekend. He went on to say:
“If someone is genuinely injured and they can’t do the job they are selected to do, it is a good thing. You could find ways to manipulate the system and use it to your advantage, and that does concern me. I won’t be doing that.”
So what do I think?
Well I mentioned at the top that I didn’t agree with the principle of an injury replacement. But that may be because when I played cricket, that never happened. Ok it wasn’t at a professional level, and turning up with a hangover on a Saturday was your fault!
I can see the logic for replacements being allowed for bereavements or a birth of a child. But I feel that the system can, and will be manipulated so that a player who has played for three days, who might have a slight issue, could lay it on a bit thicker so he can be replaced with a fresher player. That also could mean the replaced player gets an extra day to ‘recover’ from said injury and play in the next fixture.
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