London: In major setback for Zimbabwe, the country’s cricket board has been suspended with immediate effect as the decision was has been taken during the annual conference of International Cricket Council (ICC) which concluded Thursday.
The ICC believes that Zimbabwe Cricket is in breach of Article 2.4 (c) and (d) of the ICC constitution which imposes an obligation on members (teams) to provide a process for free and democratic elections and to ensure that there is no government interference in its governance and/or administration for cricket respectively.
The result of the suspension is that ICC’s funding to Zimbabwe Cricket will be frozen and its teams will not participate in any ICC events. The ICC further said that the elected Zimbabwe Cricket Board be reinstated to office within three months, and progress in this respect will be considered again at the October board meeting.
In the annual conference, as expected, the international body approved concussion player replacements in all formats of men’s and women’s international cricket and for first-class cricket worldwide.
The ICC in a statement said that the regulation will be included in ICC playing conditions from August 1. It said that decisions on replacements will continue to be made by the team medical representative and the player should be a like-for-like replacement who will need to be approved by the match referee.
The ICC endorsed the Cricket Committee recommendation that there should be further exploration of the use of replays to call no-balls and trials will be conducted over the coming months.
‘Captains won’t be suspended for slow over-rates anymore’
London: International cricket captains will no longer run the risk of being suspended for slow over-rates with the ICC deciding to instead dock points and fine the entire side for any such violations, starting with the upcoming World Test Championship.
The recommendations of the ICC Cricket Committee were approved by its board in order to curb the menace of slow over-rates. The world Test championship, which runs from 2019 to 2021, gets underway with the Ashes, starting August 1.
“In World Test Championship matches a team that is behind the required over-rate at the end of a match will have two competition points deducted for each over it is behind,” the ICC said in statement here.
The big development is, however, abolition of suspension of captains for slow over-rates. “Captains will no longer be suspended for repeated or serious over rate breaches. All players should be held equally responsible for slow over-rates, and as such will be fined at the same level as the captain,” it stated.
As per the previous rule, two instances of slow over-rate in one year would lead to a suspension on the side’s captain.