CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Two test series starting on Thursday, Pakistan v Sri Lanka and South Africa v Bangladesh, will mark the introduction of a number of new rules in cricket.
There are 17 changes or introductions and these are the major ones which will be applied to all formats of the game.
*The restriction on the length and width of bats remain unchanged but the thickness of the edges cannot be more than 40mm and the overall depth can be 67 mm at the most. Umpires will be issued with a new bat gauge, which they can use to check a bat’s legality.
*A player can now be sent off the field for the rest of the match for any serious misconduct, such as threatening to assault an umpire, making inappropriate and deliberate physical contact with an umpire, physically assaulting a player or any other violent conduct.
*A review by a team using DRS will now not be lost in case of a decision that remains unchanged, solely as the result of an "umpire’s call".
*A batsman is no longer considered run out or stumped if running or diving towards the crease with forward momentum, and has grounded the bat behind the popping crease but subsequently has lost contact with the ground at the time of the wickets being put down.
*For boundary catches, airborne fielders making their first contact with the ball will need to have taken off from within the boundary, otherwise a four or six will be scored.
*A batsman can now be out caught, stumped or run out even if the ball bounces off the helmet worn by a fielder or wicketkeeper.
(Compliled by Mark Gleeson,; Editing by Ed Osmond)
