The 18 first-class counties will lobby for amendments to be made to the ECB’s replacement regulations as early as next month after identifying three tweaks they believe will improve the use of substitutes in the County Championship.
The new rules have come under scrutiny after the first three rounds of fixtures, with some complaints that the rules leave matches imbalanced – particularly when bowlers can come in fresh for the fourth innings.
There have been no accusations of counties outwardly exploiting the rules, but Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores admitted they needed ‘tightening’ and Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson called for tweaks to ‘iron out’ problems. Notts’ Lyndon James came in for the injured Fergus O’Neill on the final day against Glamorgan earlier this month, and took two wickets in a 192-run win for the reigning champions.
Daily Mail Sport understands that there is a general consensus among directors of cricket to:
- Introduce a cut-off point for making a change;
- Increase the sit-out period for replaced players from its current level of eight days;
- Limit incoming players to those named in original matchday squads.
Lyndon James (centre) was used as a substitute by Nottinghamshire last week against Glamorgan
Yorkshire pulled off a double substitution against Hampshire, replacing bowlers Jack White (centre) and Jhye Richardson when they were hit with an illness
Replacement regulations will be a topic of discussion at the meeting of the Professional Game Committee next week, but the counties hope that their feedback will persuade Alan Fordham, the ECB’s director of cricket operations, to tinker with them during the Championship’s three-week hibernation from 18 May.
And in a separate development on the issue, Lancashire have written to the governing body to register a formal complaint after being prevented from calling in Tom Bailey as a like-for-like replacement when fellow new-ball bowler Ajeet Singh Dale damaged a hamstring against Gloucestershire last week.
Following the use of 12 injury and illness subs in three rounds of matches, the directors of cricket have focused on setting a mid-match deadline for substitutes after which teams must battle on with ailments and afflictions, akin to the recent Australian trial that permitted changes in the first two days of four-day matches only. This would limit how much of an advantage a team may get from a fresh bowler coming in for the latter stages of a match.
While the trial is running at the behest of the ICC, who are considering introducing subs for reasons other than concussion into Test cricket later this year, individual boards set their own parameters.
When drawing theirs up, the ECB argued that it would be odd to allow a substitution for an incident on the final ball of the second evening, but not for the match’s next delivery the following morning.
They also felt the open-ended nature of using substitutes promoted fairness in occurrences such as when a batsmen breaks a finger in a fourth-day run chase, as being reduced to 10 men through misfortune tilts the balance of a contest.
A feeling lingers that teams will use the regulation more liberally unless a greater deterrent is applied. This was brought to the fore by Yorkshire withdrawing both Jhye Richardson and Jack White with illness against Hampshire a fortnight ago.
As Yorkshire were not in action the following week, the eight-day suspension was circumvented comfortably and although there was no suggestion of any impropriety, it triggered a debate amongst the DOCs about upgrading to a greater level of jeopardy via a 12-day or fortnight-long return to play ruling.
Somerset opted to overlook reserve batter Archie Vaughan (pictured) when Tom Kohler-Cadmore got injured against Essex, instead parachuting in Will Smeed all the way from Wales
The bid to limit substitutes to only those in the original matchday squad follows Somerset’s decision to summon Will Smeed to Chelmsford from a 2nd XI fixture in Abergavenny so that he could replace Tom Kohler-Cadmore, when Archie Vaughan was already there as the reserve batter in the travelling party.
Meanwhile, Lancashire have written to the ECB to express their disappointment after match referee Peter Such’s ruling that Bailey was not a suitable alternative for Singh Dale – which Red Rose head coach Steven Croft called ‘bizarre’.
Instead of being allowed to bring in a right-arm seamer – albeit one who bowls in a different style, at slower pace – Lancashire were told left-armer Ollie Sutton, a genuine all-rounder, was a better fit.
It is understood that part of Such’s reasoning was performance-based, after Bailey claimed six wickets to Singh Dale’s two in the opening-round draw with Northamptonshire.
