Appeals against umpire decisons on the cards

The ICC decision means that crowds will see even more of this © Martin Williamson

The ability of players to appeal against decisons made by on-field umpires were the main recommendations made by the ICC's cricket committee during its two-day meeting in Dubai. All changes will need to be approved by the full ICC board when it meets in London in July.

The main trials involving umpiring will take place at the Champions Trophy in India later this year, although the committee did express reservations about the impact such moves could have on the Spirit of Cricket.

The headline-grabber was the recommendation that both teams be allowed three appeals per innings to the third umpire if they believe the on-field official is wrong, but such appeals would not be allowed to include technology such as Hawk-Eye or the Snickometer. What was interesting was the admission that this was only approved by six votes to five, so the move has considerable opposition even within the committee, with the major concerns being about the undermining of the on-field umpires.

What will be welcome among crowds across the world was the news that umpires would be asked to adopt a play-whenever-possible approach to bad light. The use of floodlights during Test matches, long regarded as being effectively useless, would also be scrapped. There was also a common-sense decision about early last-day finishes to dead Test matches.

The committee's surviving experiment from last summer, the Powerplay, was given another reprieve, a decision arrived at because, as Allan Border explained, "our hope is that, as time goes on, those captains start to show more initiative and innovation in the way they use them."