Cricket sin bins and red cards to be trialled by MCC
Thursday 11 February 2016 14:15, UK
The MCC has confirmed it is to trial the introduction of sin bins and red cards in a bid to improve discipline in cricket.
The trial will be carried out this season in club, university and schools cricket after an increase in reported incidents of ill-discipline and violence.
Five matches in England last year were abandoned due to violence and the game's governing body has moved to take action after consulting with umpire's associations.
The proposals suggest four levels of offences in the code of conduct, with players sin-binned for 10 overs for a level three offence and expelled from the game for a level four offence, such as threatening an umpire or assaulting a player.
"Cricket is one of the only sports where a player cannot be removed from the field, so that would be the most extreme punishment that we are suggesting," the MCC's head of laws Fraser Stewart told Sky Sports News HQ.
"But there are others, such as a sin-bin type system where a player might go for a cool-off for a certain number of overs and then also the introduction of penalty runs for non-cricket related offences."
"It would probably be the umpires woking with the captain to say 'you have to ask your player to leave the field' so we don't really want umpires brandishing red and yellow cards.
"It will try to be done in a different way where they will work with the captains to get the players to improve their behaviour."
The trial will affect all MCC-affiliated games - more than 450 contests - and if successful could be drafted into the laws of the game, which the MCC is currently re-writing and hopes to finish by the end of the 2017 season.
