'Too many changes in rules confusing'

MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur on Tuesday asked the Marylebone Cricket Club (

MCC

) to avoid making too many changes in the rules of the game.

The MCC is regarded as the custodian of the game, and is responsible for the rule changes, if any, in cricket. The MCC meeting, held for the first time in India, was attended here by former international captains like Ricky Ponting (Australia), Sourav Ganguly (India) and Mike Brearley (England).

“Thakur, who attended the meeting as a 'special invitee', asked the MCC to stop chopping and changing the rules frequently, as it confuses the followers of the game. He felt that cricket already has three formats, which have different rules, so the idea has to be to keep the game as simple as possible, as the fans have enough on their plate already. He pointed out how the rules have remained consistent in other sports,” a source told TOI on Tuesday.

England Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke had recently mooted the idea of four-day Tests, while the International Cricket Council (ICC) keeps tinkering with the ODI format to make it interesting.

Thakur informed the committee that day-night Test cricket was still a work-in-progress in India. “We're open to day-night Test cricket. We tried it in our domestic cricket, but we need some more research on this. We've to keep in mind some issues, like the dew factor, which crop up in our part of the world. Which need to be sorted, Anurag pointed out.

The BCCI also re-affirmed its commitment to promote Test cricket, something which won praise from the MCC. “He claimed that the Board was doing all it can to promote Test cricket, which was still reasonably popular in India. India are playing 13 Tests this season, and they'll try to play at least 10 Tests every season for the next eight years,” he informed.