Women's Premier League has notified the teams with a new rule regarding run outs and stumps after few decisions from the umpire triggered controversy in Delhi Capitals' last ball win against Mumbai Indians in the second match of the ongoing edition on February 15. (Full Coverage | More Cricket News)
As per ESPNCricinfo, the new rule mandates that the LED bail will need to be fully dislodged for umpires to judge that the wicket is broken when they are judging run-out and stumping calls. The current rules stated that as soon as the bails light up, the wickets will be deemed as broken. However, from now on the new guidelines will apply.
The ESPNCricinfo report states that the reason behind the rule change is that the set of bails being used for the tournament are lighting up earlier than usual. "The batch of bails being used during this WPL have been lighting up at the slightest disturbance, even when both spigots have not come off the grooves on top of the stumps," the report states.
The Laws of Cricket dictate that wickets are considered broken only when the bail is completely dislodged.
The third umpire for the Capitals vs Indians match, Gayathri Venugopalan, had come under scrutiny after she consistently ignored the lighting up of the bails and made her decisions on the basis of the point when the bails were completely removed from their grooves.
As per the report, umpires were already informed about the change in rules ahead of the match. However, teams were not and now that is also done.
Delhi Capitals had eked out a thrilling two-wicket win against inaugural WPL champions Mumbai Indians in the second game of this edition on February 15.
