- Part of current ICC Trial
- Also in India, Australia and South Africa
- ECB rules to be reviewed in May
The ECB are having to consider changes to the replacement rule after there was an issue in the Gloucestershire v Lancashire game on day one of the County Championship match. My thoughts on the ruling itself can be read here.
What was the issue?
Ajeet Singh Dale was selected for the game for Lancashire. As he ran into bowl his second over of the day, he suffered a hamstring problem. Lancashire asked for a replacement and wanted Tom Bailey to replace him.
However, ECB match referee Peter Such objected to Bailey’s inclusion as he wasn’t a ‘like-for-like’ replacement, as the rule states. Bailey was allowed to field as a ’12th man’ but could not bowl. The only other replacement was Mitchell Stanley, who was in the squad, but unavailable due to a back spasm.
Eventually, Lancashire managed to get Ollie Sutton, who was playing for the 2nd XI in Leicestershire, but he can only bowl from day two. It took Sutton three hours in a taxi to get to Bristol, so was unable to take the field.
Lancashire head coach Steven Croft had this to say:
“We’ve seen across the country, it’s not been an easy process. I don’t think it’s ever going to be perfect when it’s not laid out. Yes it’s a bit of a pilot, but I think the whole reason for bringing this regulation in was for that sort of scenario today.
“It was Ajeet’s second over of the game. Obviously there was nothing sinister going on. We’re not bringing a fresh pair of legs in on day four. It’s not someone coming in bowling 10mph quicker, so we asked for Bails, which got denied.
“We then had to turn to a left-arm seaming allrounder, which did get granted to replace Ajeet. It doesn’t fit right and sit well with us, really, from the point of view he’s a different skillset. We had a literal like-for-like in Tom Bailey who is a right-arm seam bowler who opens the bowling.”
This complaint come off of the back of last week’s Championship games when a total of seven replacements across the nine games last round.
These complaints will be heard and taken on board when the Professional Game Committee, chaired by Mark McCafferty, get together during the T20 Blast break in May. This is deemed to be the fairest point as all 18 counties would have played six matches and had their bye week.
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