Ricky Ponting said that measures including shot clocks are needed to expedite matches.GETTY IMAGES
Run penalties and clocks measuring dead time in a match could be introduced "in a clampdown on slow over rates" if recommendations by the Marylebone Cricket Club World Cricket Committee are accepted, according to Elizabeth Ammon of the LONDON TIMES. With test over rates at their slowest for 11 years and T20 over rates at their slowest ever, there is "mounting concern." Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who sits on the committee, believes new measures are needed to "reverse the trend." Ponting said, "It probably seems a little extreme, the idea of the shot clock. But anyone who has sat on committees around the world for the past 20 years has talked about the declining over rates, and once again this year in all three formats of the game the over rates have been in decline." Exactly how the shot-clock concept would work has not been finalized, but it "could involve" the fourth or fifth umpire measuring the time that the fielding side takes between balls and overs, moving fielders, having on-field conversations or taking up their positions for the start of a new over (LONDON TIMES, 8/8). The BBC reported Ponting said that the panel of former and current players and umpires also discussed "different penalties for slow over rates," adding that there was a "sense that the current system of fining teams had not necessarily worked, nor been used regularly" (BBC, 8/7).
'SHOCK' TO THE SYSTEM: In Sydney, Peter Lalor reported the Int'l Cricket Council will be "urged to foster better relations" between teams and "encourage the preparation of better pitches" in the wake of the "ugly incidents," including the ball tampering scandal that "marred" Australia’s tour of South Africa. Cricket Australia is investigating "cultural failings" which led to the team's use of sandpaper to cheat in the third test in March. Ponting said that CA's stance had been a "shock" to world cricket. He said, "(The bans) probably got the desired outcome. But at the end of the day we believe a holistic approach has to be taken not only with ball tampering but with the culture of the game, country by country" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/9).
