Adam Collins

It's Better Late Than Never as ICC Move With Time.

In an era where opinion drives the media cycle, old-fashioned good news can run the risk of getting a bit lost. Naturally, the ICC cop their decent share of whacks, many of those perfectly well earned. But they solved a pretty challenging problem this month, and for that they deserve a pat on the back, for at last they have gotten the front foot no-ball nonsense sorted out.

It was a source of frustration that 2016 made worse before it got better when Adam Voges and Alex Hales were clean bowled by no-balls, only for television to quickly show the bowlers’ feet were well behind the line on both occasions.

In the case of the former, the howler occurred when he was on seven before going on to add 232 more. With that Australian series in New Zealand only consisting of two Tests (an issue for another day) the knock-on effects were considerable. When the latter was cleaned up in the second innings at Lord’s in June it was enough to inspire a (modest) protest from the visiting SriLankans for they felt so aggrieved at the cock up.

What made both episodes so shambolic was that replays were available before the batsmen were off the field to highlight the palpably wrong decisions. For years debate raged as to why central umpires still had this in their suite of responsibilities at the pace the modern game is played, doubly so with DRS already such a significant part of the simple task of getting less wrong.

When the world Cricket Committee was assembled in mid-year, Geoff Allardice, ICC’s General Manager of Cricket, tells The Cricket Paper the issue had been on the agenda “for a number of years”. But following the high-profile blunders they had to act, enough was enough.