ICC committee approves rule changes

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday approved a number of proposed changes to rules of the game at its meeting in London.

Retention of reviews

From October 1, teams will not lose a review for "umpire's call" verdicts under the decision review system (DRS). The ICC chief executives' committee on Friday approved this and all other recommendations made by the ICC cricket committee in May.

A number of the approved recommendations were related to the DRS. Teams will no longer have their reviews topped up at the 80-over mark in Test matches. DRS, meanwhile, will now be used in the T20I format as well.

The committee also agreed on minimum standards for the use of DRS in international cricket, with mandatory use of ball-tracking and edge-detection technology,

Other changes approved by the committee include:

Bat size restrictions

In order to restore the balance between bat and ball, the ICC approved recommendations relating to bat sizes. The MCC's cricket committee, which met in Mumbai last December, had set the limits to 108mm in width, 67mm in depth and 40mm at the edge.

Punishments for on-field misconduct

As in football, umpires will now be vested with the power to send players off the field for serious incidents of misconduct. "All Members," the ICC said, "have agreed to implement this in full."

Run-out rule change

Batsmen will be ruled to have made their ground if their bat bounces after being grounded behind the crease.