McGrath backs red cards in cricket

Glenn McGrath is all for the introduction of red cards in cricket - as long as such extreme penalties don't wipe out the game's colourful personalities.

The MCC, custodian of the game's laws, will receive a recommendation from its World Cricket Committee to give umpires the power to send off a player in the most extreme cases of on-field breaches of discipline.

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The move, which will apply to all levels of competition from Test to village green, is expected to come into effect next October, with former Australian captain Ricky Ponting on the adjudicating panel.

"It's all about making the umpire's job easier out in the middle and I'm all for anything that does that," McGrath said on Thursday

"The umpires are doing an exceptional job at the moment, watching every ball and then controlling the guys out there.

"I'm all for it... but it's a fine line between having robots running around with no personality, no character.

"You want emotion out there so we can't get rid of that, but it has to be controlled.

"We need that happy balance."

McGrath famously received a red card from umpire Billy Bowden for his mock under-arm delivery in the first-ever T20 match against New Zealand at Eden Park in 2005.

But fast bowling's greatest Test wicket-taker admits there were other more serious times in his career where a red-card deterrent may have made him pull his head in.

"There were a couple of time I probably carried on like a pork chop and wished I could have gone back and changed that," McGrath said.

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McGrath suspects red cards would mostly only be applied for incidents like the legendary WACA clash between Dennis Lillee and Javed Miandad in 1981.

"It'll be interesting to see to what extent it will be used. They obviously have it in soccer and football and no one wants to get red-carded, but we'll see how it goes."

Officials have made it clear the introduction of a red-card system is specifically targeted at addressing increasingly poor standards of behaviour in recreational cricket, rather than at the professional level.

It will, however, apply in all international and professional domestic matches.

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