Marylebone Cricket Club says David Warner’s right-handed batting in BPL within rules
The Marylebone Cricket Club has stated that David Warner changing his guard and batting as a right-hander in the Bangladesh Premier League was totally within the stipulated rules of the game. A left-handed batter in general, Warner hit fourteen runs in three balls taking guard as a right-hander.
A regulation left-handed opening batsman for Australia, David Warner turned into a right-hander for his Bangladesh Premier League team Sylhet Sixers hitting Chris Gayle for 14 runs in three balls. All this happened in the nineteenth over of their innings in the match against Rangpur Riders.
The copyright holder of the cricketing rules, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has come out and clarified that since Warner made it obvious that he is going to bat right-handed, there was no violation of the rule in the process.
“MCC has reviewed the footage of David Warner switching to batting right-handed in the Bangladesh Premier League match and feels that his actions were within the Laws of Cricket,” the MCC told ESPNcricinfo.
“The laws do not state that a batsman can bat only in one way and, from the footage seen, it seems clear that Warner made it obvious that he was changing to batting right-handed. The bowler, Chris Gayle, altered the field accordingly and everyone seemed to know what was happening,” they added.
Though Warner is banned from participating in any form of cricket in Australia due to being banned by Cricket Australia for his involvement in the ball tampering saga, he has taken part in the Bangladesh Premier League. But he is likely to discontinue from the event mid-way due to an injury he sustained recently. Warner’s ban tenure will come to an end on March 28th later this year.