MCC recommends football-style sending-offs

MUMBAI: Umpires would be allowed to send off players for serious disciplinary breaches as part of a set of recommendations made by the World Cricket committee of MCC, the guardians of the game.

The committee said action would be taken if a cricketer threatened an umpire, physically assaulted another player or committed any other act of violence on the field of play.

The recommendations were made during a two-day meeting of the committee in Mumbai, which hosts the fourth Test between India and England from Thursday.

The proposals must be approved by the main MCC committee before being implemented at all levels of the game from October next year.

The World Cricket committee has no power itself but makes recommendations to the main committee of MCC — the owners of London’s Lord’s Cricket Ground and an organisation that still retains worldwide responsibility for the sport’s Laws or rules.

“The World Cricket committee believes that the game must now include a mechanism to deal with the worst disciplinary offences during the match, and not subsequent to it as is presently the case,” the MCC said in a statement on its website.

The committee has also recommended specific bat size limitations to be put in place for both the edges and depth of a bat. Bat edges will have a maximum allowance of 40mm and bat depths must not exceed 67mm.