Akshay - Thursday, Jun 26, 2025The ICC has decided to change many rules in international cricket. These include the rule related to saliva. After the use of saliva, the umpires will decide whether to change the ball or not.
The ICC has recently changed many rules for men's international cricket. Among these, the rules related to boundaries have been implemented from the World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle. At the same time, the rules will be implemented in ODI cricket from July 2. The ICC has brought a new rule regarding stop clock in Test cricket.
The ICC has now decided to implement the stop clock rule in Test cricket. This rule is already being used in ODIs. In this, the fielding team should be ready to start the next over within one minute of the end of the previous over. If this does not happen, the umpire will warn the fielding team twice. If this continues even after the warning, a penalty of five runs will be imposed on the bowling team. After 80 overs, all warnings given by the umpires will be void. This rule is being used from WTC 2025-27.
The ban on applying saliva on the ball in international cricket will continue. This is why when bowlers needed a new ball, they used to apply saliva on the ball, which would spoil the ball and then they used to demand a new ball from the umpires, so that they could get an advantage during bowling, but now the ICC has made a rule that it is not mandatory for the umpires to change the ball if saliva gets on it. The ball will be changed only when it appears completely wet or has been damaged. The decision to change the ball is completely left to the discretion of the umpires. Here umpires have been given extra power.
Suppose if the umpires present on the field are in a state of doubt regarding the catch on a ball and are talking among themselves. Then the TV umpire tells them that it was a no-ball. After this, the batting team used to get one run and there was no talk about whether the catch was taken correctly or not. But now according to the new rule, the third umpire will see whether the catch was taken correctly or not. If the catch is taken correctly, then the batting team will get only one run. Apart from this, if the catch is not taken properly and is dropped, then the batting team will get the runs scored by the batsmen in addition to the runs of no-ball.
Till now, if a batsman was caught taking a short run, the batting team had to pay a penalty of five runs. But now according to the new rules, if a batsman deliberately takes a short run, the umpire will ask the fielding team to decide which batsman they want to keep on strike. Apart from this, a penalty of five runs will definitely be imposed.
If a player gets seriously injured in first-class cricket, the ICC has asked the boards to test the possibility of fielding a full-time replacement player in their first-class cricket who can come and play a participant's role for the team. The replacement player should be the same as in the case of a concussion substitute. The umpires must clearly see the injury before allowing a full-time replacement. This will not apply to players suffering from hamstring strains or minor injuries. This rule will be on a trial basis. It will be entirely up to the countries to implement it in domestic cricket.
