Hampshire coach reveals bizarre plan to bypass substitution rule

A leading county cricket coach has suggested plying his players with laxatives amid concerns that the new substitution regulations are ripe for exploitation.

Hampshire coach Russell Domingo says he likes the ECB’s trial allowing replacements for players who are injured or attending a significant life event, such as the birth of a child, but is ‘not sure about being replaced for being sick’.

‘If there’s an injury – a hamstring’s gone, a finger’s broken or there’s a concussion, I can understand it,’ Domingo told Daily Mail Sport.

‘But I could give my guys a laxative if they’re bowling badly in the first innings and then say they’re feeling sick in the second innings and take them out of the game.

‘When it comes to muscular injuries or physical cuts, of course, I can understand. I’m not sure about this kind of thing. It’s odd.

‘I could go out tonight and get hammered, drunk, rock up tomorrow and say: “I’ve got a headache, I am hungover. Replace me.” You’re bringing in a bowler fresh for the next innings. Maybe we need to tighten up in terms of what can you be replaced for.’

Domingo was speaking after Yorkshire took advantage of the County Championship’s recently-introduced rules allowing permanent like-for-like changes to line-ups, replacing seamers Jhye Richardson and Jack White, victims of separate incidents of food poisoning 24 hours apart, with Logan van Beek and Ben Cliff.

The former South Africa and Bangladesh coach was not bleating. Hampshire won the Division One fixture at Headingley by 214 runs. He was instead drawing on the experience of a season coaching the Lions in South African domestic cricket last winter, in which a much stiffer set of protocols meant players could only be permanently subbed out in instances of concussion or after medical scans verified injuries.

There was no suggestion of skullduggery in the actions of Yorkshire, who also used the regulations to replace captain Jonny Bairstow following a thumb injury in the season-opening draw with Glamorgan in Cardiff.

‘I don’t think any professional player I’ve ever played with or coached wants to miss a game,’ said Yorkshire coach Anthony McGrath.

‘Both Jhye and Jack hung around being sick in the back, saying: “Just give me an hour, give me an hour.” Last week, Jonny went for two hits in the indoor school, and (the medical team) were putting meshes on to try to get him through.

‘We wouldn’t replace a player unless we really needed to. Jhye Richardson’s a Test bowler. Why would we not want him? Jack White was our best bowler last year. So, if we are replacing him, there’s a real reason for it. We’re not strengthening ourselves. If a team’s down to nine men, it does make a bit of a mockery of the sport. So, as long as no one’s trying to pull the leg, and it is a bona fide reason, it’s a good thing.’

However, many followers of the county game were left questioning whether Yorkshire would have made the same choices if they were in action next week. An individual ruled out through injury or illness faces an eight-day stand-down period during which they are not permitted to play, but as they have a bye this will not apply to Richardson and White.

Responding to Yorkshire’s announcement that Australian Richardson would not miss any matches, Sam Billings, Kent’s limited-overs captain, said on social media: ‘This is a ridiculous rule already!’

However, Somerset duo Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Lewis Goldsworthy will not be permitted to face Hampshire this Friday after dropping out of the thrashing of Essex at Chelmsford because of a bruised thumb and a hamstring niggle respectively.

So far, seven players have been replaced in two rounds of the Championship – the 39 per cent ratio of instances to matches higher than the ECB’s head of cricket operations Alan Fordham expected when plans ‘optimising the quality of cricket’ were ratified.

Having studied Australia’s Sheffield Shield model last winter, it was anticipated to be somewhere slightly above one occurrence every four fixtures.

Fordham says there will be grey areas and ‘If we need to, we will refine as we go through,’ relating to a possibility of modifying a system founded on trust during the season itself.

Traditionalists fear losing the 11-a-side nature of cricket, with the Indian Premier League now using 12 players for tactical reasons as a matter of course.

There will also be some concern about Domingo’s hints at sharp practice coming to fruition when the stakes increase towards the end of the campaign, with the title and relegation on the line – given that changes are made on the word of a county’s chief medical officer.

‘We will be relying on their medical integrity. All being well, they won’t be signing on a dotted line they shouldn’t be signing on,’ Fordham said.

‘One of the things that we have been talking to the counties about is getting the best quality cricket, looking after players and not having players continuing in games when they shouldn’t be. 

‘If teams are going to start pushing right at the edges of the regulation, then it risks the chance that we will have to backpedal from some of the things that we are putting in place.’