Former England captain David Gower feels that IPL could benefit if it could adopt one particular rule from The Hundred competition that came to an end on Sunday. The innovative tournament introduced several new rules including penalising the bowling team with mandatory field changes that forces it to place an extra fielder inside the circle leaving the boundary a little more vulnerable.
“If the IPL were to adopt that one idea from The Hundred, which is to penalize the fielding side if they’re too slow, with field placing, that would make a difference to any game. So maybe that’s one of the good ideas to come out of The Hundred,” Gower told Cricket.com.
While teams are generally fined with match-fee for the over-rate offense, ICC has modified the rule for the second cycle of its World Test Championship.
Teams found to be guilty of having exceeded the time limit to complete the required number of overs will now be docked WTC points in addition to the fine. India and England were recently at the receiving end of the new rule.
Gower, who played 117 Tests and 114 ODIs between 1978 and 1992, says the fine hasn’t made much difference as far as the over-rates are concerned because teams don’t mind “the odd bit of money disappearing.”
“I don’t get too upset by over rates. But it would be nice if people could stick to the over rates. There is no easy answer. They’ve tried fining people, but nowadays the odd bit of money disappearing doesn’t seem to make a jot of difference to players, who are already incredibly well paid,” Gower said.
He though feels that docking the points may prove to be a deterrence as it may end up impacting their chances of qualifying to the final. “Maybe this points thing is valid. Maybe you’ve got to fine the teams in a way that it works,” he said.
