The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), an organisation that has been framing cricket laws for a long time, has decided to make a substantial change with regard to the batsman’s position during caught dismissals.
The current cricketing laws say when the batter is out caught, the non-striker can take a strike next ball if the two batters had crossed each other before the catch was taken, but that rule won’t apply from October this year.
According to the change in law, a new batter will now have to be necessarily on strike whether the two batters cross each other or not. The crossing of the batter while the ball is in the air, before being caught, is going to be irrelevant with the new rule.
This recent change in cricket laws might influence the results of a lot of games
This might influence the results of a lot of games going forward because there arises a lot of scenarios where a set batter bats with a tail-ender towards the end of the innings in close games and in case the tail-ender gets out trying to go for a big shot, it still puts the set batter on strike as they cross while the ball is in the air.
Even in the past, a lot of cases have been there where the two batters crossing while the ball was in the air and the set batter taking strike next ball changed the complexion of the game. It remains to be seen how much the new rule influences the results as it comes into effect from October.
The first time this new rule was tried was in The Hundred tournament in England last year where the new batter was always on strike regardless the two batters crossed during caught dismissals or not. And, MCC clearly thinks now that the rule is good enough to be applied universally at all levels of the game.
