Ben Stokes, the England Test captain, showed his displeasure over the ICC’s lack of communication with the players and urged the ICC to re-evaluate the over-rate standards for the World Test Championship. Stokes’ frustration came from England’s latest over-rate offence in the first Test against New Zealand as both teams were penalized despite finishing the game within the fourth day.

Both teams were docked three WTC points and the players were fined 15 % of their match fees as well. With this, New Zealand moved down from fourth to fifth on the WTC points table. Meanwhile, England have had 22 points deducted so far as a result of their over-rate offences in this WTC cycle as well, including 19 in the 2023 Ashes.

“The most frustrating thing, from both teams’ points of view, is that the game finished early, there was a result. But I think the frustration actually stems back to last year in the Ashes where it was the first time I really brought it up to the match referee and the umpires,” said Stokes. “I guess the most frustrating thing is that it’s always an issue depending on where you are in the world and the style of cricket that’s played. There’s never an over-rate issue in Asia because of how much spin is played.”

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“There’s so many tactical decisions that you need to make, whether that be chatting with the bowler or field changes. As a captain, I like to change things quite a lot and the field could be completely different six balls in an over. But that’s not taken into consideration. And getting told to just ‘hurry up’ isn’t going to fix it, because we’re out there playing a game. The times and the rules are the same wherever you go in the world. From a player’s point of view – and I’m not the only one who shares this opinion – we would like to have a lot more communication with the ICC around this,” opined Ben Stokes.

He was particularly irked by the non-response from the ICC in the matter as well. He also shared he hadn’t signed the over-rate chargesheet since the Lord’s Test as a form of protest until he heard from the ICC as well, although he and New Zealand captain Tom Latham did accept the charges levelled in Christchurch for the teams’ over-rate offences as well.

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“The two conversations I’ve had with the match referees have actually been very good and the match referees have handled it very, very well and been very understanding from a player’s point of view. But it’s been over a year now since I made some comments around the over rates and still to this day we’re yet to hear any response back from anyone at the ICC around that,” he said.

“I’ve not signed an over-rate sheet since Lord’s in the Ashes just until we hear some communication back from the ICC that we’re still waiting for. Captains have to sign over-rate sheets and fines and stuff, but I have said ‘no’ until I have the conversations. But they still take the fines off you anyway,” Ben Stokes concluded.