ICC’s major decisions: Concussion substitutes introduced; huge relief for captains committing over rate offences

London: Following a two-year trial of concussion replacements in domestic cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday (July 18) approved concussion player replacements in all formats of men’s and women’s international cricket and for First-Class cricket worldwide.

“This will be included in ICC playing conditions from August 1, 2019. 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,” ICC said in a statement after its annual conference meeting in London.

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Also, the ICC took a decision not to penalise captains for repeated or serious over rate offences in international cricket.

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Following recommendations from the Cricket Committee regarding the pace of play and slow over rates in international cricket, the ICC agreed to the following:

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.

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 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.

The ICC approved a revised set of Medical Standards for ICC global and regional events and all other international cricket. The standards are aimed at driving greater consistency in medical care of players around the world.

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