Ask the Laws Department XXII: (Sending a player off)

MCC, the Guardian of the Laws of cricket, discuss key issues in "Ask the Laws Department" in conjunction with The Wisden Cricketer. This edition considers sending players off.

Seeing Red

Officials can send players off in rugby and football In football and rugby, players can be sent off after breaking the rules.

Cricket’s umpires do not have that power but the captain is obliged to control the members of his team and on occasion has chosen to do so by asking someone to leave the field.

This is exactly what happened in the 4th ODI between West Indies and South Africa in May 2010 in Dominica.

Chris Gayle was the captain and he asked his left-arm spinner, Sulieman Benn, to leave the field.

The "offence" was not disciplinary or obvious to those watching - or even to the umpires.

Sulieman Benn was asked to leave the field by Chris Gayle earlier this year Gayle asked Benn to bowl over the wicket but Benn wanted to continue bowling round the wicket and was not prepared to change.

After no agreement Gayle told his bowler to leave the field.

Gayle explained afterwards: "It was my call to actually ask him to leave and tell him that he is not needed any more."

Nowhere in the Laws does it say that a captain may send a player from the field but Law 1.4(Responsibility of captains) states: "The captains are responsible at all times for ensuring that play is conducted within the spirit and traditions of the game as well as within the Laws."

This message is reinforced at the start of Law 42, which deals with Fair and Unfair play. And The Spirit of Cricket, written as a Preamble to the Laws, compels the captain to "take action" with a player who the umpires feel has been guilty of misconduct.

The most drastic action would be asking a player to leave the field.

Red and yellow cards, akin to those used in football, have been considered but rejected by MCC and other bodies, feeling it is right for the captain to control and discipline his players.

This unusual incident illustrates the control that a captain can have over his players.

The circumstances of this story are extremely rare and it would be more common (but still rare) for a player to be asked to leave the field as a result of his behaviour towards the opposition or an umpire rather than his own team.

England seamer Darren Gough was once ordered from the field by Nasser Hussain Examples might include abusive language, violence or disputing an umpire’s decision.

During a warm-up tour match in Sri Lanka in 2001, for example, Nasser Hussain asked Darren Gough to leave the field to cool down after Gough had an angry exchange with the batsman.

If a player is sent from the field by his captain, a substitute fielder is not permitted.
So what powers do the umpires have if they cannot send a player off?

In addition to asking the captain to take action, they are obliged to submit reports of unfair play to the appropriate governing body responsible for the match.

This body could be a school, a league committee or the ECB or ICC. Such reports often result in bans or fines.

Although the umpires themselves cannot suspend a bowler, the Laws instruct them in certain circumstances to "direct the captain to take the bowler off forthwith". Such circumstances are:

• a third instance of the bowler throwing the ball (Law 24.2)
  
• a second instance of unfairly changing the ball’s condition (Law 42.3)

• dangerous and unfair bowling after two warnings (Law 42.7)

• deliberate bowling of high full-pitched balls (Law 42.8)

• time wasting by the fielding side during an over, after a warning (Law 42.9)

• the bowler running on to the protected area after two warnings.

The umpires cannot suspend a batsman under any circumstances. Any unfair play by the batting side is dealt with by the disallowance of runs, the award of penalty runs to the fielding side and via the post-match report.

Ask the umpire - with MCC Laws sub-committee

"The batsman plays a sweep shot but misses. The ball hits his pad (no appeal for lbw) and, as he completes the follow-through of the shot, he accidentally hits the ball, which has bounced off his pad.

"The ball goes over the boundary. Is it a dead ball, four runs or is he out for hitting the ball twice?

"This did happen to me once and four runs were given. Was the umpire right?"

- Submitted by Pete Amis

MCC says:

The umpire was indeed correct. The striker is not out Hit the Ball Twice, as Law 34.1 says the second strike must be "wilful", which was not the case; besides, he hit the ball only once.

There is no reason why ‘dead ball’ should be called. The second strike was inadvertent. In this instance, it worked in the striker’s favour.

If the ball had looped as a simple catch to a fielder, the dismissal would have stood and he would not have felt so lucky.