Index
LAW 25 CHANGES
As was mentioned in the commentary on Law 24, any Penalty time accrued for being absent from the field during a previous innings will be carried over to the batting innings
A player cannot bat until his Penalty time has been served, or until his team has lost five wickets. This has previously been included in professional playing conditions but never within the Laws. The change prevents an opening batsman leaving the field towards the end of the fielding innings to rest before his own innings
A runner shall be allowed if the umpires are satisfied that the batsman has sustained an injury that affects his ability to run. This tightens the circumstances when a runner is to be allowed. It is clarified that only a nominated player may act as the runner and he must not have any unserved Penalty time resulting from Law 24
The Law still clarifies that a runner should be someone who has already batted but adds that, if that is not possible, then the runner should be changed as soon as it does become possible. This would mean that, if one of the opening batsmen had a runner and his partner was dismissed first, the outgoing batsman would need to become the runner
When there is an injured striker, the runner at square leg must have some part of his person or bat behind the popping crease until the ball reaches the striker, which prevents the runner from ‘backing-up’ to gain an advantage. Runs will be disallowed if the runner leaves early, in a similar way to how illegal leg-byes are treated and 5 Penalty runs are also awarded
As was mentioned in the commentary on Law 24, any Penalty time accrued for being absent from the field during a previous innings will be carried over to the batting innings
A player cannot bat until his Penalty time has been served, or until his team has lost five wickets. This has previously been included in professional playing conditions but never within the Laws. The change prevents an opening batsman leaving the field towards the end of the fielding innings to rest before his own innings
A runner shall be allowed if the umpires are satisfied that the batsman has sustained an injury that affects his ability to run. This tightens the circumstances when a runner is to be allowed. It is clarified that only a nominated player may act as the runner and he must not have any unserved Penalty time resulting from Law 24
The Law still clarifies that a runner should be someone who has already batted but adds that, if that is not possible, then the runner should be changed as soon as it does become possible. This would mean that, if one of the opening batsmen had a runner and his partner was dismissed first, the outgoing batsman would need to become the runner
When there is an injured striker, the runner at square leg must have some part of his person or bat behind the popping crease until the ball reaches the striker, which prevents the runner from ‘backing-up’ to gain an advantage. Runs will be disallowed if the runner leaves early, in a similar way to how illegal leg-byes are treated and 5 Penalty runs are also awarded