Time innings commences

Owner: B Aitken
I am a scorer on the panel of Board of Control for Cricket in India.

A batsman is out at 11.00am. Normally, we take one minute and record 11.01 as the entry time for the new batsman, irrespective of the time at which the new batsman steps on to the field of play. Suppose the new batsman enters at 11.02, then also some scorers record it as 11.01 only. But as per laws of cricket, the new commences his innings as soon as he steps on to the field of play, in which case, time of 11.02 has to be recorded. Can you throw light on this?

First of all a general point: Law 2.10 Commencement of a Batsman's Innings covers the point in law, there will of course be a delay from the batsman being dismissed to the new batsman arriving at the crease. It is generally accepted by scorers that the incoming batsman's innings will start 1 minute later than the time of the dismissal.

As the Law does not require any time to be recorded there is no 'official' method of doing it: all we have is the conventions that have been adopted by scorers.

Now to the particular question. If, when a batsman is out, lunch is taken immediately and before the next batsman comes in, then his innings will not be recorded as starting 1 minute after the dismissal, it will have to wait till the umpire next calls Play. So the '1 minute' is not a rule that must be followed. In the case in question if the batsman doesn't step onto the field of play until 11:02 he surely cannot be recorded as being there at 11:01.

There is an interesting side line to this. What about the case of a wicket falling when drinks are due? The sequence of events would normally be: batsman given out starts to walk off; umpire asks if drinks are ready; if they are he calls Time; new batsman comes on to field of play; drinks break ends; Play is called. In that scenario the new batsman's innings starts when Play is called. If, however, he has stepped on to the field of play before the call of Time, then the time he stepped on to the field of play should be used.


Read more about Law 2.10 (Commencement of innings) at the MCC website