Cricket is set to introduce sendings-off for the first time next year, while the size of bats is to be limited.
Umpires will be given the power to eject players from a game for serious disciplinary breaches.
MCC World Cricket Committee member Ricky Ponting explained that sanctions needed to be implemented.
“We’re talking about a significant change to lower-level cricket because it has got completely out of hand down there,” the ex-Australia captain said.
MCC (the Marylebone Cricket Club) remains the guardian of the laws and spirit of the game, and its world cricket committee – established in 2006 and comprised of 12 current and former top international players – has been a leading independent voice on the game’s major issues.
The new laws will be implemented at all levels of the game from 1 October 2017, subject to approval by MCC’s main committee.
According to the proposed new law, agreed at the world cricket committee’s meeting in Mumbai, players will be dismissed for:
• threatening an umpire
• physically assaulting another player, umpire, official or spectator
• any other act of violence on the field of play
Ponting added: “It got to the state where something had to happen to prevent those things happening on the international stage.
“The modern player now understands their role in society, about being role models and wants to play the game the right way for younger kids.”
