Citing times extended for player code breaches

Players guilty of possible transgressions against the Code of Conduct will now have to wait longer than two hours after a day's play to know if they have been cited.

Under new laws to eliminate code breaches from the game, the hours in which a citing can be made have been extended to 18 hours after play.

While the International Cricket Council's chief executive will have the right to lay a charge for five days after the event instead of the 24 hours allowed previously.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed explained the changes yesterday.

It was a power that would be used sparingly and was what he described as "a failsafe" system.

"It is to ensure that where an offence has escaped detection it does not avoid prosecution because of a technicality," he said.

Often one of the main causes for transgressions in behaviour was poor umpiring performances and Speed acknowledged that while the introduction of the elite system had led to some improvements, they were not coming as quickly as he would like.

However, the new system was still in its early days and a lot of work was going into working with the umpires to improve standards. Improved methods of assessing umpires were being employed, Speed said.

But he did make the point that if umpires didn't improve they would not remain on the panel.