Law 42 Has The Recipe To Lead To Spite And Punch-ups

CLUB cricket kicks off in large parts of the country this weekend – but kick-offs of another kind will be weighing on the minds of the umpires and officials.

- Richard Edwards

CLUB cricket kicks off in large parts of the country this weekend – but kick-offs of another kind will be weighing on the minds of the umpires and officials.

Law 42, which covers player behaviour at all but international level across the world, will come into force in English club cricket this season.

And The Cricket Paper can reveal that there are fears it could lead to chaos.

One league chief told us he believed the law could even result in on-field punch-ups if umpires are too strict.

Under the new rules, umpires have the power to issue five-run penalties and even send players off for a proportion of an innings.

And while most agree that something had to be done to arrest the decline in standards of behaviour in leagues across the country, there are concerns that some umpires might go too far in the issuing of penalties, potentially sparking brawls that would normally be the preserve of Sunday League football.

Some leagues, most notably Hampshire’s Southern League, have opted out of the law this season, preferring to see how it unfolds elsewhere before implementing it.

In a great many other leagues, meanwhile, Law 42 will only be in force when neutral or quailfied umpires are officiating. In the lower leagues, where players are expected to officiate instead of putting their feet up on the boundary, Law 42 is unlikely to be exercised at all.