Hope and doubt as concussion rule plays

THE ICC’s decision to allow concussion substitutes has drawn widespread praise — nobody wants to see players damaging their long term health or even risking their life unnecessarily — but how it plays out and whether it is exploited by the unscrupulous will be fascinating to watch.

In 2006 Ricky Ponting was put on the spot by Justin Langer at the Wanderers. His mate and opening batsman had been concussed early in the match and had been told he should not bat again.

The game came down to the wire with Australia eight wickets down chasing a small total to win.

Fortunately the tail got Australia over the line and the confused opener did not test his captain.

The Ashes will be the first series where the new concussion rule is tried. The details are few but one rule is that a “like for like” replacement player should be used if a player is concussed and cannot continue.

Langer, who was just the sort of player the rule was introduced to defend, is a fan but there are obvious areas that will need to be tested, if not finetuned

For a start touring teams could be at a disadvantage. A small squad that already has injuries might struggle to replace a bowler where the home team will have a veritable sweet shop full of options.

Test captain Tim Paine is a little more circumspect about its implementation but applauded moves to improve player safety.

“I think you will be hard pressed to make guys pull out of a Test match,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how it works.

“It’s obviously as new to me as anyone and it will be interesting to see how it works and how it is policed.

“I find it quite fascinating that you can replace a guy half way through a game but again we will wait and see how that works.”