‘Seriously’ injured player ineligible to play for a week, needs COE nod | Cricket News
NEW DELHI: As the Ranji Trophy season gets underway, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) has updated its playing conditions to cover the loopholes in the serious injury replacements provision. According to the new document shared with the state associations, a player will not be eligible to take the field for a week from the day he/she is replaced for a serious injury and will need to take clearance from BCCI’s centre of excellence (COE). The board has introduced the ‘serious injury replacement’ provision in playing conditions as a part of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) pilot project before incorporating it in international cricket’s playing conditions. “If a player is replaced for serious injury during the match, the concerned player will have to stand down for a minimum period of seven days from the time the serious injury replacement was permitted. After the completion of the minimum stand down days the concerned player will be required to report to BCCI – COE for further assessment of his fitness. The specialist panel at the BCCI COE will assess his / her fitness and based on the specialist report the player will be cleared for any future participation in BCCI matches,” the BCCI notification to state associations read. As per the updated playing conditions, if a player gets injured on Day One of the match scheduled from Oct 15-18 and is taken to the hospital in the evening for a scan before an injury replacement was requested and permitted on Day Two (Oct 16), Oct 17 will be the first day of the minimum stand down days. There have been raging debates around allowing a replacement for serious injuries. The debate gathered steam when Rishabh Pant walked out to bat in the Manchester Test this July with a broken foot followed by Chris Woakes being unable to bowl in the second innings of the final Test of the series at Oval. While a section of former cricketers raised the need to have such replacements, few were concerned about teams misusing the provision. TOI understands that the ICC will take stock of how it is working out in domestic tournaments in the coming chief executives’ meeting in Nov. Demerit points/sanctions to be carried forward irrespective of formats The BCCI also clarified that a player’s demerit points and sanction will be applicable in the next match his team is slated to play irrespective of the format. For example, if a player cops a suspension or demerit points in the last Ranji Trophy match of the team, he/she will have to stand down from the next game his/her team plays even if it’s in T20 or One-day format.
