India great Sunil Gavaskar has called for the inclusion of stalwarts like Rahul Dravid and Graeme Smith in the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the custodian of cricket's laws. The demand was made on air after India captain Rohit Sharma's dismissal in the second ODI against England at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. (More Cricket News)
Rohit miscued one from Liam Livingstone to be smartly caught by Adil Rashid at midwicket. The skipper had crossed over with Shreyas Iyer by the time the catch was completed, but new batter Axar Patel took strike the next ball anyway. That was because the current MCC law has disallowed crossing over for non-strikers when a batter is caught out. Gavaskar questioned the logic behind this rule change.
Commentating at the time, Gavaskar wondered why this amendment was needed. He said: "The laws are changed by MCC. At the moment, the laws are with the MCC. It's a private club that makes the laws of international games all over the world. And I do believe that there should be some international experience there.
"Maybe some former captains should be there. Just giving a few names. Graeme Smith, Rahul Dravid – somebody who's been a recent coach. Ricky Ponting has been around. These are the people who I believe should be in that laws committee. You need playing experience over there and the committee that is there, I am not too sure there is international experience."
He further said: "There's umpiring experience, Yes. Simon Taufel is there. But for any law to change, there needs to be some background. Like the playing conditions came in for two bouncers in an over, one bouncer in an over, or 90 overs in a day, there were reasons behind it.
"I don't know whether there was a reason to change this law that the non-striker would no longer be on strike if the players crossed ends and the batter who played the ball was out caught. I just think that was such an important television aspect too."
The rule did not have any bearing on the result, however, as India won the match comfortably to seal the three-match series 2-0 in their favour.
