The incident happened in last week’s game which SRH won by one run. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was bowling the last ball of the match to Rovman Powell, who needed to score two to win. The ball struck Powell on the pad and umpire Anil Choudhary raised his finger, effectively ending the match with the ball declared dead. Powell opted to review, from which he was shown to be out, with the ball hitting the stumps on the full. However, had Powell not been out, the match still would have ended in a SRH victory, given that the ball was declared dead when the umpire raised his finger, so even if the ball had gone to the boundary, the runs would not have counted. Under the current laws the ball is not allowed to be bowled again.
Writing in a column for Sports Star, Gavaskar explained how the loophole could be problematic in the future: “This loophole can be exploited by many a canny captain and coach who are defending runs, particularly in the last over,” Gavaskar wrote. “This is again something that should be up for debate, but it is pretty certain that the ICC will not be able to implement it for the ensuing T20 World Cup. It can surely come up for discussion at the ICC Cricket Committee meeting that is likely to happen during the T20 World Cup, either in the USA or the West Indies.”
The T20 World Cup will get underway on June 2, a week after the IPL final. A similar incident to the one Gavaskar described happened in the 2015 ODI World Cup at the end of England’s group game with Australia. James Taylor was given out lbw by Aleem Dar, with Taylor attempting to cross with non-striker batter James Anderson for a single before his finger was raised. Glenn Maxwell threw down the stumps with Anderson short of his ground. When Taylor sent the lbw decision for review it was shown to be not out. Anderson, however, was ruled run out despite the ball being dead the moment Dar raised his finger. Taylor was subsequently stranded on 98*.
“If the law has to be referred to the MCC, then it would be a lot better if some former players who have played in the IPL and other T20 leagues in the world were brought in for their experience,” said Gavaskar. “The MCC makes laws, which are then to be followed by every cricket club, state, and country.
“Therefore, a committee that is going to have the biggest impact on the laws of the game must have people who have played it at the highest level and should be from different countries and not just primarily from England. I am just giving you a list of the MCC Laws Committee. I am sure they are all perfectly capable people, but apart from the former umpires, Sundaram Ravi from India and Simon Taufel, nobody seems to have any international experience.”
The MCC does not make laws concerning reviews or DRS. In international cricket, the ICC determines the process for reviews, with individual boards deciding process for domestic leagues. However, the MCC’s dead ball law (20.1) states: “The ball becomes dead when… a batter is dismissed. The ball will be deemed to be dead from the instant of the incident causing the dismissal.”
