Cricket Albury-Wodonga brings in penalties for slow over rate

A new rule brought in by Cricket Albury-Wodonga states that each innings of a T20 match must take no longer than 84 minutes, with the 20^th over to commence in or before the 80^th minute.

For every over which runs past that deadline, 10 runs will be added to the opposition's score, while deliberately slow play while batting will see five runs deducted in the first instance.

Any repeat will see the captain sent to the tribunal.

Punctuality will be vital this weekend with round seven, at 11am, being immediately followed by round eight, at 3:15pm, and seven sides travelling between grounds in the interim.

"We've never had these double-headers before and we also haven't played T20 for a couple of years so we just wanted to make sure everyone was right," CAW chairman Michael Erdeljac said.

"If we find an issue and it's affecting the way matches are played, we need to deal with it."

The proposal to automatically suspend a captain for slow play was shelved.

"I fully understand that we need games going quicker, especially playing two in one day," St Patrick's captain Dean Nicholson said.

"We don't want to be playing when it's dark but, equally, we're not professional cricketers.

"Australia v New Zealand in the World Cup final, every fielder knows exactly where he's going to stand for each batsmen and where he score runs.

"But in our comp, if someone down the order hits their first two balls though cover for four, I might put a bloke out or bring him up and when you do that, there goes a minute-and-a-half and you start pushing the over rate."

Tallangatta captain Matt Armstrong pointed out that players may not be the ones most affected by the new rules.

"There need to be some penalties in place for obvious issues," he said.

"If teams are going well over their (time for their) allotted overs, there need to be some penalties to cover off on that but most people are pretty responsible.

"Knowing most of the captains personally, they all do their best to get through quickly.

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"It's a pretty big penalty in a short game. To add run penalties in a 20-over game could decide the game and they are worth six points.

"If the umpires or the league were worried about getting through the games, maybe starting 15 minutes earlier would be more common sense, in my opinion.

"The umpires are probably the ones who suffer in this more than anybody because they're the ones under pressure and they're the ones who have to enforce any penalties and they're the ones who have to decide what's a reasonable delay, whether it's people changing gloves or getting drinks.

"If there's a ground without a fence, the ball travels further.

"If you take nine wickets in a match, the batsman's got two minutes to get on the ground so there's another 18 minutes to add to the total.

"I'm supportive of whatever rules are put in place by the league, that's their job, but the fallout will probably be felt by the umpires.

"When you make decisions quickly, they're usually the ones that are under pressure."

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