Lancashire captain and England legend James Anderson has described the regulations surrounding injury replacements in the County Championship as “daft” and “nonsensical”.
The season-long trial permits replacements for injury, illness, and significant life events. However, Lancashire have been left confused on two occasions by decisions regarding the replacements they were allowed.
During their victory at Gloucestershire, Tom Bailey was considered too experienced to serve as a like-for-like replacement for fellow seamer Ajeet Singh Dale, forcing Ollie Sutton to be brought in from a second XI fixture. The following week, Tom Hartley was prevented from replacing Arav Shetty for similar reasons. As a result, Shetty, a spin-bowling all-rounder, was replaced by George Bell, a wicketkeeper who bowls occasional spin.
Replacements must be approved by the match referee. At Bristol, the referee was Peter Such, while Ian Ramage officiated at Chester-le-Street.
“I don’t know what the protocols are,” Anderson said on his Tailenders podcast. “I think they just check Cricinfo and the stats, to see if the averages are better.”
“Arav Shetty had really badly broken his thumb in three places and we were told we couldn’t replace him with Tom Hartley because he’s too experienced.”
“It seems daft. Surely the whole reason the replacement thing has been brought in is for situations like that – someone has broken their finger and there is no way they can take part in the rest of the game, and we had a like-for-like replacement there.”
“It happened to us at Gloucestershire as well. It just feels a bit nonsensical.”
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) may adjust the replacement regulations after the first block of County Championship fixtures ends. Each team has two more games before the competition pauses for the T20 Blast. During these two rounds, match referees will gather feedback from directors of cricket at all 18 counties. The ECB wrote to counties this week confirming they will be consulted.
The governing body has emphasized that the new regulations are a trial, and they will learn each time the rules are applied. The protocols for selecting a replacement player are not new – substitutions for concussions and Covid cases were already in place before this season.
The International Cricket Council has permitted trials for injury replacements in domestic cricket, with India and Australia implementing their own versions.
Although Anderson admits his team would have been short of fit players against both Gloucestershire and Durham without replacements, he said he is “leaning towards” scrapping injury replacements entirely.
The 43-year-old, the most successful seam bowler in Test history with 704 wickets, suggested he would never be allowed to enter a game as an injury replacement because he would always be more experienced than the player he replaces.
“It basically means I’ve got to play every game,” said Anderson.
“There’s no point me resting, because I can’t then come into a game – I can’t be a replacement, ever. If I get injured, I get injured. There’s more chance of me getting injured if I try to play every game.”
“I can be replaced, because no one in our squad has the same experience, but I could never replace someone else.”
