‘It diminishes the relevance of World Test Championship’: Stuart Broad calls ICC’s over-rate penalty system wrong | Cricket News

Former England seamer Stuart Broad has lashed out at the ICC for docking England’s 19 World Test Championship (WTC) points for the slow over-rates over the course of the five-Test Ashes series, which ended 2-2. Australia were docked 10 points.
England were found to have been behind the ask in four of the five Tests: two overs in the first Test at Edgbaston, nine in the second at Lord’s, three in the fourth at Old Trafford, and five in the last Test at The Oval.
“It diminishes the relevance of the World Test Championship, to be honest,” Stuart Broad told the Daily Mail.
“It’s been one of the most entertaining series of all time and for England to come out with nine points from a possible 60, the system’s wrong and needs looking at.”
Speaking before the final Ashes Test, Pat Cummins had said, “This series has been a bit of an outlier I think. We haven’t had any over-rate sanctions over the last few years until this series. It feels like this one has been played at a different pace. It’s something we need to speak about in ODI cricket as well, when you’re setting fields the time can run out pretty quickly.
“It feels like there’s different plans every second over, or every over, every couple of balls. One batter might have a totally different plan to another one,” Cummins said.
“So there’s lots of field movement. A lot more fast-bowling overs than there ever has been.
“This series is maybe that little bit higher-pressure, and it’s not only the fielding side but you see the batters taking that little bit of extra time.”

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting placed the onus on the match officials to keep up the pace of play.
“I think the umpires need to start just getting the players around more. Getting them ready, getting them organised, making sure the batter’s ready to face up, making sure the bowler is at the end of his mark when the batsman gets back to his crease. We’ve got to find a way not to be losing so much time in these games,” he said on the ICC Review.
Former England captain Nasser Hussain, on the other hand, was fully in favour of stringent penalties for slow-over rates. “I do think the ICC should continue to be strong with teams,” he said.