Cricket is a Gentleman’s game and at the same time it’s a funny game too. Its rules and tradition are unchanged since the game was born. The cricket experts always wants some changes the Game of Cricket but ICC has managed to preserve its culture and tradition.
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Most of the games like football, tennis , badminton , hockey, etc are officiated by referees while cricket is officiated by umpires. Most of the the people are unaware about the fact that Cricket also in involves match referee.
Most of the cricket fans too have no clue what so ever about involvement of match referee in the game of Cricket. In this article, we will look after the role of match referees during the game of Cricket and after it.
There are total five officials present in a cricket match which includes 4 umpires and one match referee. Match referees are only appointed for high level matches. At the club level there are no referees involved in the game. The match referee act as a International Cricket Council representative at an international match.
Match referee usually sits in a room and do not enter into the field during the play. Match referees are not entitled to make a decision regarding anything in the play or cannot decide the result of the match. Match referee has to perform certain special duties.
To conduct the toss
The first and foremost duty of a match referees to conduct the toss right before the start play. Most cricket fans would have seen match referee alongside to captains before the toss. The match referee has to look after the coin toss that is conducted whether it is in a fair manner. After the coin has been flicked, he indicates the toss winner team.
To maintain ICC code of conduct
The ICC is code of conduct has 10 articles in it that ensures that the game has been played in a fairly manner. Match referees have to look whether the ICC’s code of conduct is maintain through out the game, it is the most important duty of the match referee.
The duty of the match referee is to identify whether there is any breach of the code of conduct during the play. The match referee has the power to penalize the faulty players which are found breaching the code of conduct. The penalty is based on the type of offense. There are four levels of offences categorized by ICC. The offences includes foul language , ball tempering, continuous running on the pitch ,wrong behavior with umpire ,maintaining slow rate and etc.
Also Read : 5 Instances Where Cricket Grounds Looked Like A Battlefield
It is the role of the match referee 205 the misconduct and impose penalties to the faulty players accordingly. Penalties includes cut in the match fees or heinous offence can lead up to ban of certain matches.
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Prepare match reports for ICC
The match referee prepares the match report that has all the events duly written that took place in a game and sends it to the ICC. The report contains everything such as the scorecard, summary of the match, milestone , code of conduct breach,etc.
The report also contains the playing conditions and the type of wicket on which the game was played. The match referee is entitled to ensure the playing conditions whether they are suitable to play cricket match. The match referee also sent reports about the performance of the umpires in the match.
The International Cricket Council look after the report of the match referee and take appropriate action accordingly. The pitch rating is also based on the match referee’s report.
The ICC Elite panel of match referees consists 7 former International cricketers. ICC appoint these match referees for every game irrespective of the format. The elite panel of match referees includes :
Javagal Srinath
Andy Pycroft
David Boon
Chris Broad
Richie Richardson
Ranjan Madugalle
Jeff Crowe