Usman Khawaja has made his frustration known over the World Test Championship points deducted by the ICC owing to slow over-rates in the recently concluded Ashes series.

The ICC announced the over rate sanctions for the Ashes today (August 1). England were handed a massive 19-point penalty after they were found nineteen overs short across the five matches: two in the first Test at Edgbaston, nine in the second Test at Lord’s, three in the fourth Test at Old Trafford, and five in the fifth Test at the Kia Oval.

Australia, on the other hand, were handed a 10-point penalty for being 10 overs short in the fourth Test at Old Trafford, the only game that didn’t produce an outright victory for either team in the series.

Responding to the ICC’s sanctions, Khawaja, who was the highest scorer in the 2023 Ashes, put out a post on social media in which he vented his frustration at the deduction of points. Khawaja argued that since Australia didn’t even get a chance to bowl in the second innings due to rain, it didn’t make sense to penalise and fine them for slow over rates.

“Don’t even get the chance to bowl in the second innings at Manchester due to 2 days of rain and ICC still issue fines and take 10 WTC points of us for slow over rates! That makes a lot of sense… 🤦🏾‍♂️,” wrote Khawaja on Twitter.

It has to be noted that the rules regarding over-rate penalties were changed midway through the Ashes after Khawaja had approached the ICC general manager of cricket, Wasim Khan in an attempt to put forward the players’ concerns about harsh punishments for slow over rates.

Before Khawaja’s interjection, players were fined 20 per cent of their match fees for each over their team was found short, with the max limit for fines capped at 100 per cent of the match fee, while one point was deducted for every over that a team was short, granted they bowled more than 60 overs (if only one innings was played) and more than 120 overs (if both innings were played).

The fines were reduced significantly after Khawaja’s interaction with ICC. Under the new regulations, players are fined five per cent of their match fees for each over short with the max limit for fines capped at 50 per cent. The minimum overs cut-off has also been increased from 60 to 80 for one innings and from 120 to 160 for two innings for the over rate sanctions to come into effect. This change has benefitted Australia as they stood the risk of losing out on more points if the previous penalty system was still being used.

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