The Pink Ball to make a historic entry
Australia and New Zealand will come together for a historic day-night Test in Adelaide in November and the two countries will embrace the novel 'pink-ball' clash. It will be the first ever day-night test match for the Adelaide Oval. Even though the concept of the Day-Night Test was first flagged in Sutherland but the lack of a suitable ball had been a stumbling block.
The first ever cricket guidelines
The first Code of Laws were set on 30 May 1788 by the Marylebone Cricket Club. Before that there was no one set of rules followed in cricket.
Bye Bye Super-Sub
The ICC scrapped the super-sub rule (which allowed a runner for an injured player) for one-day games at the executive meeting in Dubai. The super-sub rule placed "too much importance" on winning the toss in one-dayers. The original intention of the substitution rule was to galvanize teams to make more use of all-rounders but in practice, specialists were been used to fill a gap.
Free hit for a No-Ball
The ICC sanctioned the "Free Hit for No Ball" which empowered a batsman to go for a free-hit after a no-ball without fearing a dismissal. The rule had already been implemented in Twenty20 cricket. BCCI was the only body objecting to this rule, as did Bangladesh initially; others were in favour of this rule. This rule came into effect from 1 October 2007.
Two balls will do the talking on field
The ICC announced that two balls would be used by the fielding side from each end in one-day cricket. ICC was concerned about the wear and tear of the ball which gave an edge to the later batsmen. The changes were approved by the International Cricket Council's Executive Board in May, following inputs from its Cricket Committee.
Dead ball gives way to Free-hit
Now, whenever a bowler breaks the non striker's end stumps in the delivery stride, a no-ball would be called. Earlier, when the non-striker's end stumps broke in the delivery stride, a dead-ball was called, following an initial warning regardless of the outcome of the delivery. The changes were largely prompted after England bowler Steven Finn repeatedly broke the stumps in South Africa in 2012.
Stern hops on to the Duckworth- Lewis bandwagon
The Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method used in matches which get affected by rain would now be called Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (D/L/S) method. The third part of the name stands for Steve Stern whose additions have been incorporated in the changed algorithm. This formula calculates "target score for the team batting second in a limited-overs match" which gets obstructed by rain or other circumstances.
ICC bids farewell to batting powerplay
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is all set to make changes to the 50-overs game to find a semblance of balance for the fielding team. This decision comes after a series of World Cup records made by teams earlier this year. The ICC's Cricket Committee headed by Anil Kumble, has advised that batting powerplay be done away with, as it restricts the fielding side.
