MCC to trial red cards for bad behaviour

Red cards could be coming to cricket with the Marylebone Cricket Club set to trial new on-field sanctions to address badly-behaved players.

League, school and University cricket bodies in the United Kingdom have been invited by the MCC, the traditional guardian of the Laws of cricket, to take part in the trials.

The new provisions could also involve yellow cards, sin bins and five-run penalties.

A green paper produced by the MCC has outlined that the measures are intended to "arrest declining standards of player behaviour".

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"Whilst the majority of cricket is played in a competitive but fair spirit, there are some players, or even teams, whose behaviour is below what is expected for cricket,” the paper reads.

“Indeed, five matches in the UK had to be abandoned in 2015, following outbreaks of violence."

Players could be immediately red-carded and sent off for threatening umpires or any act of violence or language that is deemed to seriously offend another person based on discrimination.

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Yellow cards resulting in automatic sin bins of up to 10 minutes could also be in use for intimidation of umpires and threats of assault against opposition players.

Each send off or sin-bin offence would also result in a five-run penalty.

Bowlers who throw the ball back at opposition batsmen could also come under the scope of the new rules, with umpires encouraged to immediately award a five-run penalty to the batting side.

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Those showing serious dissent towards officials and players who are caught swearing at the opposition would also earn a five-run penalty.

Meanwhile umpires have also been reminded to issue the same penalty to captains for intentional time-wasting after the first warning.

The initiative is being undertaken by the MCC before a new Code of the Laws is set to be published next year.