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ICC Introduces New Rules: Pink Ball, Overthrows, and Time Wasting to Boost Cricket Excitement.
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News18•01-10-2026, 20:17
ICC Introduces New Rules: Pink Ball, Overthrows, and Time Wasting to Boost Cricket Excitement.
- •The ICC has implemented several new rules in cricket effective October 1, including the trial use of pink balls for day-night Test matches.
- •The pink ball aims to mitigate disruptions caused by poor light, especially in the final session of the day.
- •Under the new conditions, if a wicket falls in the last over of the day, play will no longer automatically end.
- •Batsmen wasting time will face penalties; a third offense will result in five runs awarded to the fielding team.
- •The rule regarding overthrows has also been changed, now only an attempt to hit the wicket with the ball will be considered an overthrow.
Key Questions Answered
The ICC approved the trial use of pink balls in day-night Test matches by mutual agreement to mitigate poor light impacts in the final session, with the condition that once agreed upon before the match, it cannot be changed back to a red ball.
Under the new playing conditions, batsmen wasting time will receive two warnings, and if a third instance occurs, the fielding team will be awarded five penalty runs.
An overthrow will now strictly mean an attempt to hit the wicket with the ball, meaning a fielding error made while trying to stop or pass the ball to another fielder is no longer counted as an overthrow.
