Usman Khawaja of Australia's cricket team asserted he was actively involved in the decrease of the penalty five days after the ICC made its formal statement on changes to the over-rate sanctions. Wasim Khan, the general manager of cricket for the ICC, received high praise from Khawaja. The current five-test Ashes series, in which three Tests were played with the previous penalty in effect, is when the new rule will take into effect, according to the ICC release.
The Chief Executive Committee of the International Cricket Council (ICC) adopted modifications to the over-rate sanctions in Test cricket at its summit last week in Durban. As such "players will be fined 5% of their match fee for each over short up to a maximum of 50%. If a team is bowled out before the new ball is due at 80 overs, there will be no over-rate penalty applied even if there is a slow over rate. This replaces the current 60 over threshold." With Khawaja's intervention, Australia lost only 20% of their match fee.
Ahead of the fourth Ashes Test in Manchester, Khawaja reveals that he knew Wasim Khan, having played in PSL and felt it's unfair that players are being 80% of their match fee. As quoted by News18, the veteran opener said:
"I’ve known Wasim Khan, he was part of Pakistan (Pakistan Cricket Board) and I played in PSL so got to know him. Just kept in touch and he’s now GM at the ICC. I’m an ACA (Australian Cricketers’ Association) board member so I do look at what’s around cricket. I just thought someone has to find a way to speak to the ICC about it. We had played three games and they’d been three really good games with results, entertainment, the WTC (final) was the highest-watched Test match ever or something like that. Just really good stuff. And we were getting fined 80% of our match fee. It’s a lot of money."
Usman Khawaja reveals that Pat Cummins and Andrew McDonald also spoke to Wasim Khan:
The southpaw further claimed that Wasim was quite reasonable and that actions happened right after Pat Cummins and Andrew McDonald intervened:
"Just really frustrating as a player, you are giving it your all out there, providing entertainment then you are getting stung for it. Just felt like I needed to speak and Wasim was really good, got him on text, called him, and we talked. He took the feedback. Patty (Pat Cummins) talked to him, Andrew McDonald talked to him and to his credit it wasn’t just listening and no action. Actions happened within one or two weeks."
The five-Test Ashes series stands at 2-1 in Australia's favour.
