Well done ICC,cricket's back to XI

Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

ONCE UPON a time, a cricket team, like a football team, was made up of 11 players.

Although, while over the years football has changed to the extent that it still starts a match with 11 and 11 can be on the field at any given time, it can end up with 14.

Cricket never, ever did relax its rules - to the extent where some teams, in some matches, still end up playing, or rather batting and/or bowling one short.

Sometimes, some teams, in some matches, also are forced to play not with a good wicketkeeper but with a fielder in gloves - with what some in the game call a "back stop".

According to the rules of cricket, there are only two instances in which another player can be involved. One is when a batsman is injured and a member of the team, who cannot bat, is called upon to run for him, and the other is when a fielder has to leave the field due to injury, illness or an emergency and a substitute, who cannot bowl, is called in to field for him.

Test of skill

Sport, generally, is a test of skill and stamina and cricket is no different. A batsman who scored a century came out at the end of the innings and fielded. A bowler bowled and bowled and stayed in the field after his spell. A fielder remained in the field until the interval, that was how it was.

In recent times, however, since about 25 years ago when players, some of them so-called star players, took over the game, standards have fallen to the point where some players and mostly so West Indians, dress as if they are going to a dancehall session. And some players, mostly in first-class cricket and especially Jamaicans, have shown little respect for their national caps.

With cricket officials, including managers and coaches, umpires and match referees, being weak and turning a blind eye, hardly any batsman who scores a century takes the field for some time when his team goes into the field.

Almost every fast bowler leaves the field after bowling a spell of four or five overs and every so often, after simply waving to the umpire, a fielder leaves the field and a substitute comes on.

Some times it appears as if it does not matter if the substitute can field or if he can catch. Some times a bowler comes back just in time to ensure that he can bowl again if his captain needs him to do so. And some times it is so bad, and especially so in club cricket and in first-class cricket, that with members of the team in the pavilion putting their feet up or simply talking with their friends, there have been as many as three substitutes on the field.

Hopefully, however, things may change with the game becoming, once again and on top of everything else, a test of stamina.

Changes to rules

A few days ago, the ICC, the International Cricket Conference, made a few changes to its rules and apart from allowing the batting side to decide when the second or third powerplay in one-day cricket will be introduced, apart from allowing the umpires to consult the third umpire on whether or not a catch was taken cleanly, it also stated that "comfort breaks" during a match will no longer be tolerated.

According to the ruling by the ICC, in effect as of last Monday, substitute fielders will only be allowed "in cases of injury, illness or other wholly acceptable reasons, which should be limited to extreme circumstances".

In other words, if you leave the field without being injured, without being ill and without extreme circumstances, then you leave your team at a disadvantage as your team will be left with only 10 fielders.

Extreme circumstances

It is now left, not so much to the managers, the coaches and the match referees, but more so to the umpires. They are the ones who will decide what "extreme circumstances" are and the hope is that, in the interest of the game, they will be strong and firm.

"Extreme circumstances" should be emergencies, the call of nature and nothing else, and that should involve just a few minutes off the field.

"Extreme circumstances" should not include those who are unfit and who need a break after bowling a few overs or after chasing a few balls, those who, because of their fitness, should not have been selected, or those who, despite being professionals, are simply too big, too much of a star, to stay in the field for any length of time.