A substitute in the
sport
of
cricket is a replacement
player that the umpires allow when a player has been injured or
become ill after the nomination of the players at the start of the
game. The rules for substitutes all appear in Law 2 of the
Laws of cricket.
A substitute can act for the injured or ill player in the field, although he
may not bowl, bat, or act as
wicket-keeper or as captain, unless otherwise agreed by the
captains. A famous example is the 1986 Test between England and New Zealand
at Lords, where England used 4 different wicketkeepers due to injury to their
original wicketkeeper. (But see "Tactical substitute" below.) The substitute may
also act as a runner when the injured or ill player is batting, but may not bat
himself. A player may bat, bowl and field even if he has had a substitute for
part of the game. If a player has a runner, he may be given out if either he or
his runner transgresses the rules.
Retired hurt
If a batsman
gets injured or ill while batting, he may retire and resume his batting at
Retired out
A batsman
retires out if he retires without the umpire's permission, and
does not have the permission of the opposing captain to resume his innings. This
occasionally happens in friendly or practice matches, for instance English
county sides versus University Centres of Cricketing Excellence.
Only two
batsmen have retired out in Test match cricket. Both instances occurred in the
same match, where the Sri Lankan batsmen Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene
both retired out to save the Bangladeshi opposition further embarrassment. Each
of these two batsmen had already scored more runs than the entire Bangladeshi
team in the previous innings, and it is arguable that they deliberately gave
batting time to newer teammates.
Tactical substitute
In 2005, the
International Cricket Council announced, as part of a package of changes to
the playing conditions for
One-Day Internationals to be trialled over a ten-month period, that
football style tactical
substitutions would be permitted. Each team was to be allowed one
substitute, who had to be named before the toss was made, and could be
introduced at any stage of the match. The NatWest Challenge series between
England and
Australia in July saw the first use of these new regulations, which do not
apply to other forms of cricket such as
Test
matches.
This change, however, has been widely criticised by players, commentators,
and fans. In particular, it is said to give the team that wins the toss an even
greater advantage than usual
In March 2006 players and officials started to rebel against this
controversial rule and a one-day international series between South Africa and
Australia saw the players agree to boycott the rule. Just a few weeks later the
International Cricket Council announced that the rule was being withdrawn and is
no longer used.
