The International Cricket Council (ICC) has introduced a new feature to be applied in Cricket World Cup 2024. A stopwatch will be used in between overs while in limited-over international games.
The trial of this stopwatch feature was done in December 2023 during men’s limited over International games.
During a press release, ICC stated that:
“The trial was supposed to run until April 2024, but the experiment has already yielded results regarding timely completion of matches. Results presented to the Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) demonstrated that approximately 20 minutes had been saved per ODI match.”
ICC further added:
“The feature has now been added as a mandatory playing condition in all Full Member ODI and T20I matches from 1 June 2024. As per the stop clock rule that was trialed in men’s white-ball cricket, the fielding side is expected to start a new over within 60 seconds of completing the previous over.
“An electronic clock, counting down from 60 to zero, will be displayed on the ground, with the onus on the third umpire to determine the start of the clock”. ICC stated that.
So, when the fielding side does not follow the 60 seconds on the clock they will face 2 warnings. At that time the following rule break will result in a five-run penalty, every time this happens.
“There are a few exceptions to this rule, and the clock, if already started, can be canceled in certain situations. These include, when a new batter comes to the wicket between overs, an official drinks interval has been called, the umpires have approved the onfield treatment of an injury to a batter or fielder and the time lost is for any circumstances beyond the control of the fielding side,” the ICC counted.
This press release also announced the Qualification process for World Cup 2026.
“The 20-team tournament will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, and will have a total of 12 automatic qualifiers,” the ICC added.
“The top eight teams in the 2024 edition will join India and Sri Lanka as automatic qualifiers, with the remaining spots (between two and four, depending on host finishing positions) taken up by the next best-ranked sides in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings table as of 30 June 2024.The remaining eight positions will be filled through the Regional Qualifiers.”
The ICC also said that the T20 World Cup 2024 would have reserve days scheduled for the semi-finals and final.
Furthermore, ICC highlights about the Cricket World Cup 2024 semi-finals and finals. These big days will be reserved.ICC added
“minimum of five overs will need to be bowled to the team batting second to constitute a game in the group stages and the Super Eight stages. However, in the knockout matches, a minimum of 10 overs need to be bowled in the second innings to constitute a match.”