Tactical fielding substitutions causing slow over-rates: Kaif

Calculated, pre-planned fielding substitutions are causing so many games to roll past midnight, Delhi Capitals' assistant coach Mohammad Kaif has argued, adding his bit to the growing row around poor over-rates this season. He spoke of how Delhi have been at the receiving end twice already this year. While KKR's Rinku Singh was used to cover for Piyush Chawla non-bowling overs on the field in Delhi, Karun Nair substituted for Sarfaraz Khan for the entire second innings in their game in Mohali, influencing a crucial moment in the game.

"Teams are planning in advance so that their quick fielders stay on the field longer and the slower fielders don't," Kaif said in Delhi on Wednesday (April 3). "The umpires should see that the fielding changes (substitutions) don't waste a lot of time. In the DC vs KKR game the other day, Russell went out and Rinku Singh came in to field for him. Rinku also came in and fielded for Piyush Chawla, who bowled his four overs quickly and left the field.

"Saw that again in our last game against KXIP. Sarfaraz didn't come out to field for the entire match. He got hit on the gloves but nobody knows the injury; maybe the umpires know."

Kaif also pointed out to how players who aren't in the playing XI often manage to create significant impact in the game, and that's something that needed to be looked at. Karun Nair was fielding at long-off when Colin Ingram's catch came his way. It was a good catch, running in and timing his jump perfectly, and it was an important dismissal given Ingram was Delhi's last recognized batsman in a tight chase.

Delhi needed 20 from 15 balls when Ingram got out, and his wicket kick-started a chain of events that would see the Capitals lose five wickets for five runs. "The substitute fielder took a good catch at long-off to dismiss Ingram. Teams are making these changes and it's probably not right," Kaif said.

Tom Moody, the head coach for Sunrisers Hyderabad, in part accounted the time-taking DRS referrals for the delay but added, "I certainly don't think that's the main reason." Moody said that SRH, as opposed to DC, have been lucky to not come across an opposition that substitutes its players tactically in the tournament so far and underlined how that's not the direction his team would be going in.

"It's not something we have come against and is certainly not a tactic we are looking at. We have had our playing XI on the field." Moody said. "We haven't had any over-rate issues personally because we generally bowl eight overs of spin. That's definitely an area you want to manage carefully because you want to keep the game moving; you don't want to drag it on too slowly. Referrals are going to take a little bit out of the game but I certainly don't think that's the main reason."

Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane, the captains of Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals respectively, have already copped fines relating to minimum over-rate offences -- that within the first ten days of the tournament but it hasn't done enough to speed up captains, who are still taking their time to set the field and plan their tactics, despite two official time-outs in place.

Both Sharma and Rahane were fined Rs. 12 lakh each but are financial sanctions akin to that ever going to be effective in a T20 league that swears by its coffers? "Fines aren't working. Players are earning too much money, so hurting them in the pocket with a little bit of money is not working at all," Simon Doull told Cricbuzz in a video blog. "Maybe we can go back to the days of old One-Day Internationals, so that you get penalized if you don't bowl your 20 overs in time. Maybe you get to bat only 18 overs in the second innings in that case.

"Maybe take points off them in the next game or maybe larger fines, say a match fee. That's 45-50,000 a game at times -- do we fine the skipper that much? I'm not sure that's going to work because if the team is winning, the team owners might end up paying that price as well."

Interestingly, ECB's upcoming T20 competition, The Hundred, will reportedly have a countdown clock to monitor the time left in the innings, with penalty runs given to the opposition team in case of missing the deadline.