England Test captain Ben Stokes voiced his concerns regarding the International Cricket Council‘s communication with players about over-rate penalties. He believes the ICC should review its over-rate regulations for the World Test Championship.
This follows penalties imposed on both England and New Zealand after the first Test match between the two sides. The match concluded within four days, yet both teams faced sanctions for slow over-rates.
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Each team lost three World Test Championship points. Players from both sides also received fines equivalent to 15% of their match fees.
New Zealand’s penalty dropped them from fourth to fifth place in the WTC standings. England’s cumulative over-rate penalties in the current WTC cycle now total 22 points. Nineteen of those penalty points were incurred during the 2023 Ashes series.
‘Good on you ICC’: Ben Stokes lashes out at global body for penalties, fines
“The most frustrating thing, from both teams’ points of view, is that the game finished early, there was a result. But I think the frustration actually stems back to last year in the Ashes where it was the first time I really brought it up to the match referee and the umpires,” said Stokes. “I guess the most frustrating thing is that it’s always an issue depending on where you are in the world and the style of cricket that’s played. There’s never an over-rate issue in Asia because of how much spin is played.
“There’s so many tactical decisions that you need to make, whether that be chatting with the bowler or field changes. As a captain, I like to change things quite a lot and the field could be completely different six balls in an over. But that’s not taken into consideration. And getting told to just ‘hurry up’ isn’t going to fix it, because we’re out there playing a game. The times and the rules are the same wherever you go in the world. From a player’s point of view – and I’m not the only one who shares this opinion – we would like to have a lot more communication with the ICC around this,” opined Stokes.
Stokes was particularly upset by the non-response from the ICC. He clarified he hadn’t signed the over-rate chargesheet since the Lord’s Test during the Ashes as a form of protest until he heard from the ICC, although he and New Zealand captain Tom Latham did accept the charges levelled against them in Christchurch.
“The two conversations I’ve had with the match referees have actually been very good and the match referees have handled it very, very well and been very understanding from a player’s point of view. But it’s been over a year now since I made some comments around the over rates and still to this day we’re yet to hear any response back from anyone at the ICC around that,” he said.
“I’ve not signed an over-rate sheet since Lord’s in the Ashes just until we hear some communication back from the ICC that we’re still waiting for. Captains have to sign over-rate sheets and fines and stuff, but I have said ‘no’ until I have the conversations. But they still take the fines off you anyway,” lamented Stokes.
