A simple solution to slow over-rates in Tests

From Daniel Cotton, Australia

Over-rates in Test cricket are too slow. Everybody knows it, from the spectator at the ground who gives up on their slow hand clap from fatigue to the ICC who have tried imposing fines and bans for slow captains and teams. The ICC’s efforts have had little effect though. The problem is that taking your time setting the field is an advantage, and there needs to be an in-game disadvantage that offsets it. Facility already exists in the laws to warn players and award penalty runs for slow play but umpires are reluctant to act. When everybody is slow, who do you penalise? In any case penalty runs are unpalatable to many -- a last resort, to be applied only for unsporting play.

Fortunately there is another solution, and it’s so simple you’ll wonder why no one has thought of it before. It’s this: delay the option to take the new ball by one over for every over the captain is behind the minimum over-rate. This should be easy to implement. Over-rates are already displayed on scoreboards around the world. All that is required is that after the 80th over, the number of extra overs that is to be bowled is displayed FIFA-injury-time style to the players and umpires in the middle.

In Test cricket the minimum over-rate works out at four minutes per over. So for every four minutes behind that the fielding team is upon finishing their 80th over, they have to bowl one more before they can get their hands on a new cherry. As soon as the 80th over is finished, the clock starts for the second new ball; time behind when the batting side is dismissed to end their first innings can be added to the clock for the second innings - the third umpire can keep an eye on it all.

There is no doubt that the second (and third, etc.) new ball is a major advantage for a fielding captain. Most fielding captains, in most situations, like to take the new ball quickly. Extra overs with the old ball usually means more overs for the spinners, just when a captain is looking to get his quicks back into the action - this in itself is likely to speed up the over-rate. Particularly on the first day this is a nuisance for the fielding captain, they have to bowl 90 overs in a day, so usually that would mean 10 overs in fading light at tired batsmen with the new ball, but if they’ve gone too slowly earlier, then they’ve got fewer overs with the new ball in those conditions.

With this playing condition, the advantage of going slow to make small changes to the field is off-set by the disadvantage of not having the new ball available as soon as possible. The spinners are more effective with the old ball than the quicks, and so, if their captain is slow, they’ll end up bowling more overs, which will help the over rate.

It’s a fair penalty and not one people are going to feel greatly wronged over. This is not something that requires a year-long feasibility study, it’s a small tweak to playing conditions. There may be some minor details to work out, but this is a fairly simple idea that will improve over-rates. I hope the ICC considers its implementation.