Penalty for ball tampering increased as ICC releases new Code of Conduct

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Saturday has released a revised version of the ICC Code of Conduct and ICC Playing Conditions. Along with that, it has also updated the in-famous Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) System. 

According to a statement by ICC, these stipulated changes will be kicked into effect when South Africa take on Zimbabwe in the first ODI which will be played in Kimberley. 

The newest version of the ICC Code of Conduct introduces some new offenses and also sees the change in level of the other offenses. For instance, it has changed the level of ball tampering from offense 2 to 3.

The maximum sanction for a Level 3 offense has been increased from eight suspension points to 12 suspension points (equivalent to 6 Test matches or 12 ODIs). Match referees will now hear Level 1, 2 and 3 charges with a Judicial Commissioner only hearing Level 4 charges and appeals.

Updates DLS system

Since its introduction in 2014, this becomes the third version but the second update to the DLS system. The ICC said that this update has been carried out after following a detailed ball-by-ball analysis of scoring patterns, including in the Powerplays, in all limited overs internationals played during the previous four years.

The latest trends and analysis indicates that teams have been able to accelerate much more tha before thus extending their acceleration patterns. And as a result, the average scores in ODIs have substantially increased.

The scoring patterns between ODI (final 20 overs) and T20 were analyzed, so were the scoring patterns between men’s and women’s international matches. The study revealed that while overall scoring rates are obviously different, wicket-adjusted resource utilization rates are almost identical.

This essentially confirms that a single version of the DLS System is compatible with all formats.

ICC Playing Conditions

With the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 less than a year away, the ICC has not made any major changes to the existing playing conditions. There are only a couple of minor tweaks, which includes allowing a match to be concluded before a scheduled interval and 'not allowing' the boundary rope to be any more than 10 yards from the edge of the available playing area, unless the boundary is the maximum 90 yards from the centre of the pitch.

(Inputs from ICC website)