Lancashire's Frustration Highlights Flaws in English Cricket's Injury Replacement Trial

Lancashire are not the most popular county at the moment. From next week the live-streamed coverage of their matches at Old Trafford will go behind a paywall – free to members, £20 a season if not. And so the thrill of Jimmy Anderson bowling from the end that bears his name will play out to a smaller audience.

Although beyond this, or the broader sadness at Old Trafford becoming a dystopian hotel-cum-events space where the first team feels secondary, there seems to be widespread agreement that the Red Rose have been hard done by of late: namely, in the ongoing trial of injury replacements in English cricket.

To recap, this year sees teams in the County Championship able to replace a player if they are afflicted by injury, illness or a significant life event – a broadening of existing allowances for concussion or England call-ups. Subject to approval by the match referee, with documentation from the team doctor, a change can be made at any point in a match and there is no cap on numbers.

For Lancashire, the whole thing has been a bit of a head-scratcher. In successive matches they have essentially been told that the cricketer they chose to leave out of their XI is too good or too experienced to replace the one who got the nod.

First Ajeet Singh Dale pulled a hamstring in just his second over against Gloucestershire and so Lancs tried to sub in Tom Bailey – one right-arm fast-medium new ball bowler for another. But Bailey is also 10 years older, 300-odd wickets wiser, so the answer was no. In the end Lancs had to settle for Ollie Sutton, a left-arm medium all-rounder who went on to bowl 12 overs in the match.

And then at Durham last weekend, Lancashire lost Arav Shetty, a young right-arm spin-bowling all-rounder, to a fractured thumb on day two and were blocked in an attempt to draft in Tom Hartley. Not because Hartley is a left-arm spinner (who can also hold a bat) but because of 40 more first-class games and five Test caps. And so in came George Bell, who bowls a few offies but is a wicketkeeper-batter.

Lancashire went on to lose at Chester-le-street in part because no frontline spinner meant little relief for their seamers and a lack of threat on a day four surface that had already seen Callum Parkinson bowl 39 overs for the hosts. Bailey – selected this time – even switched from seam-up to off-breaks for a spell.

However the playing regulations make no mention of the incoming player’s ability, age, experience or reputation, just “like for like (or sufficiently close).” It continues: “Specifically, the type of player should match the role of the affected player”.

From the outside it looks like the match referees are now making subjective judgements, weighing the up-and-comer against the old pro and, by extension, critiquing selection. Apparently part of the Bailey decision from match referee Peter Such was that he had bowled better than Singh Dale the week before.

Perhaps they are so mindful of the system being gamed that they are second guessing the team’s intentions. Although you kind of understand it, because it does feel ripe for manipulation. Hampshire head coach, Russell Domingo, even joked he could slip an underperforming player laxatives to get them ruled out with illness.

The trial is one of a number encouraged by the International Cricket Council and things are more vague in England than elsewhere. India only permitted replacements for external injuries in their Ranji Trophy trial – ie fractures or deep cuts – while Australia allowed soft-tissue injuries but not illness.

Even then, the Sheffield Shield only allowed only one change per side – the opposition also got the option to make a tactical sub of their own – and it had to be made in the first two days. This tightened system resulted in seven replacements across 31 games. In England there have been 16 for injury or illness (plus another for concussion) across the 29 fixtures to date.

A more obvious snag in England is the eight-day stand-down rule, compared to 12 in Australia. Designed to serve as a deterrent, it is merely days, not playing days, and so can be served during a week with no fixture. It may be a coincidence, but six replacements in the second round – before half of the counties went on a break – represented a three-fold increase on week one.

Now the England and Wales Cricket Board has stressed that this is very much a trial and done in consultation with the counties. Grey areas and shortcomings were expected – desired, almost, because little would be learned otherwise. Mid-season tweaks are theoretically possible. Whether they will be is another matter.

But aside from replacements for significant life events – yet to be triggered but a sound addition when remembering the case of Derbyshire’s Blair Tickner – what final system emerges from the trials should not be the only question here.

Domestic cricket may yet feel the need for replacements. But before more are allowed in Test cricket beyond those for concussion, the sport should seriously be asking itself whether it truly wants injuries to be part of it.

Well-meaning they might be, but their introduction would significantly alter the fabric of what Test cricket in part is: 11 versus 11 and a feat of collective endurance – a test of fitness, hardiness and courage, not simply temperament and technique.

It is less about the box office moments such as Chris Woakes or Rishabh Pant walking to bat in significant pain – dramatic though they were – and more about the broader question of conditioning and potential abuse. Teams may be more inclined to gamble on a player’s fitness going into a match, or simply gin up a reason for fresh legs midway. Scan any fast bowler and you will find something.

England took a punt on Anderson at the start of the 2019 Ashes and it backfired to little sympathy. But he played a remarkable 188 Tests and has also just peeled off four straight county games and is the leading wicket-taker in the country – still setting the standard for physical conditioning at the ripe old age of 43.

Grumpy though he may be as the Lancashire captain denied in recent weeks, he can at least crack a smile that 704 Test wickets means, contrary to predictions after retiring from England, any bowler can now replace him.