The use of red cards is part of a number of sports, including football, used to bar indisciplined players from further taking part in a contest. A red card often also means that the player gets suspended for future matches as well.
Now, such punishments could be handed out in cricket as law custodians, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) have recommended the use of red cards in the sport. The new law is all set to be enforced from October 2017.
Such thoughts have been put forward before, but the idea was never implemented.
Although sledging has been an area of concern in international cricket over the last few years, the main reason behind the new law is to eliminate acts of violence and physical assaults on the field, which are more common in the lower levels of cricket.
In this new system, there will be no yellow cards and the red card will be handed out only in the cases of extreme behaviour. This new rule will be put into practice across all forms of professional cricket.
The MCC have also suggested that bat sizes should be regulated to reduce the advantage possessed by batsmen in the modern game.
Committee member and former Australian captain Ricky Pointing mentioned that this is a move to stop top-edges and leading edges from the bat flying over the fence almost all the time.
“We want to limit the edges to 38-42 mm. Some of the players have edges in excess of 50mm. We are happy with what we have come up which will restore the balance between the bat and the ball. We have seen top-edges and leading edges going for sixes. Even with the limit in bat size big hitters can still clear the ropes,” said Ponting.
