Stop Clock Trial Set To Begin During West Indies vs England T20I Series

The ICC is set to experiment with a stop clock for the first time in international cricket during the first T20I match between West Indies and England on Wednesday.

The first game of the five-match T20 series will be played on December 12 in Barbados.

The trial phase will consist of approximately 59 matches between December 2023 and April 2024, the ICC said in a media release, stressing its "ongoing efforts to speed up the pace of play in international cricket."

As per the new rule, the stop clock will aim to restrict the time taken between overs and quicken the pace of play.

The bowling team will have to be ready to bowl the first ball of their next over within 60 seconds of the previous over being completed.

After two warnings, a third default by the bowling side will result in a five-run penalty imposed against them.

"We are continually looking at ways to speed up the pace of play across international cricket," Wasim Khan, ICC General Manager (Cricket) said.

"The stop clock trial in white-ball international cricket follows the introduction of a successful new playing condition in 2022, which resulted in the fielding team only being allowed four fielders outside of the inner circle if they were not in a position to bowl the first ball of their final over in the stipulated time.

"The outcomes of the stop clock trial will be assessed at the end of the trial period."

The idea of a stop clock in the game was proposed in 2018 by the MCC's World Cricket Committee which included Ricky Ponting, Saurav Ganguly, and Kumar Sangakkara, among others, to reduce the 'dead-time' between overs in international matches.

The five-match T20I series between West Indies and England will run from December 13 to December 22, with the first match set to be played in Bridgetown. Both teams then will move to St George's for two fixtures and finish the series with two matches in Tarouba.