Big bucks have always been a part of the IPL.... from the Franchisee owners shelling out millions of US Dollars to players being bought for thousands of dollars (and some for millions). So it's no surprise that fines are hefty too.....

Who in the IPL adminstration wants a thinking fielding captain who sets attacking fields and guides his bowlers? bowler is only an instrument to bowl a full toss for six!

Do they count the time wasted by batsmen? If its not excluded Sangakara's fine can be blamed directly on Ganguly. His antics at the wicket is irritating. The longer Ganguly bats in the IPL, the opposition captain will continue to face the same problem.

Aakash Chopra highlights a valid criticsm on behalf of all the players. The 'status quo' represents a useful source of income for the IPL. Are they being greedy? A compromise should be sought, for spectators and players; both are essential for any competition to be successful.

I believe that the IPL should change the rules to penalize the franchisees instead of the players. This will ensure that lesser paid players will not feel more pinch as compared to the bigshots. Also, the team management will have to force the team to play a little faster.

yeah, the article definitely makes the sense since under the T20 format it is for sure most of the times not possible to complete 20 overs in 80 odd minutes specially when your team is not performing well, then u need to take that extra minute to break the flow or think twice before taking any crucial decision

I don't understand the logic behind huge fines; It should never be more than 50% match fee at any cost. Really frustrated with excessive ads of ipl matches and it feels terrible when this kind of injustice happens to the players..

Dear Akash, You have hit the nail right on its head.It really is baffling to note that the Captains & players are being made to pay "Fine" through their noses. Yes there should be no time wasting by the players delibeartely, but we see that the time is wasted in Changing of the bats, other euipments,injuries,getting back the ball from spectators after six is hit in the stands,next batsman coming after the fall of wicket, third umpire decisions etc. The captains should be giveb some leverage.

Excellent point Akash. You got it dead right. I hope the plight of domestic players reach the right ears!!!!

The obvious answer would be to either increase the amount of time available for the completion of each innings upto to 90 minutes, or a better alternative would be to introduce a system like soccer where the third umpire or match referee can observe any time wasted during a match/innings and thereby allocate extra time at the end of an innings. if any team is found to have delayed either innings over a set time threshold, that team is fined a small amount %of match fee. for repeat/extreme offenders possibly removing a point, or taking a penalty to their net run rate would be a more fitting penalty. I think that would have the desired effect of speeding up innings.

Please understand that IPL matches take place during prime time on television. The matches are scheduled to start at 8 pm and end at 11 pm. The channels earn most of their revenues in the slot of 7-12 pm. So if the matches get delayed by some time, just imagine the kind of revenue loss, channels will incur. Let us remember it is a commercial proposition and the rules remain the same for everyone. If 22 matches have been completed on time, there is no reason for other four matches to be stretched beyond. It simply boils down to indiscipline and thus should be dealt with severely.

@Krishnadeep, you sound like you are part of the IPL machine. There is nothing "commercial" about the IPL. Commerce imlies legality. Any KG kid will tell you that IPL is a blatant money-laundering machine. It doesn't care about the palyers or the game.

I have a solution and it is to make true pitches where both teams need to stay in Rhythm when the going is on!
If true pitches are out of equation, then we shall have bowling machines to take care of the bowling!

It is surely ironic that cricket, traditionally the one of the most leisurely paced of sports, seems to be the one getting most worked up about time these days. You don't see fines being dished out every time a football match goes five minutes overtime, do you?

Yes, tardy over rates and deliberate time wasting should be dealt with, but the punishment should fit the "crime". As for the TV companies: the game's not about them (usually; watching the IPL I'm starting to have my doubts) and moreover delays are part and parcel of sports broadcasting. Deal with it.

What injustice? The captains and team owners all now understand the cost of tardiness and will act accordingly. 4 minutes is aplenty for 6 balls. If field changes are taking time, there just needs to be innovation. Perhaps teams can start using hand signals for preset fields and hop to it. Batsmen who are timewasting should also be fined, if they are not already. If the fields including "impoverished" local talent do no like it, they can make sure that there are no delays or take it up with their team management.

BTW, is there any proof that the players themselves are shelling out for the fines? Or is the team taking care of them?

As for the viewer, slow over rates is equal to watching more ad breaks and more rubbish.

Dear Akash as you said its absoultly correct.impossing fines on captains and players its ridiculous business of the IPL Management and i don't agree this,this IPL management should consider all kind of assepts ,coz's of delay and they have to give atleast 15 to 20 munits spare time.

I can't believe the fines are absolute amount and not the percentage of match fees...don't the international matches have fines based on match fees...I also agree that more time should be allocated per T20 over. Just because several matches managed to be done within time limits doesn't make it fair/proper/right...!

I wonder how much the extra few minutes are worth in advertising revenue!

Perfectly written Aakash. Your blogs are refreshing to read.
There are two other reasons for slow over rates. One, there can be 10 dismissals in an innings, which remains the same whether its a T20 or 50 over match. Though the next batsman has to come quicker in T20 than in ODI, still the batsman takes his own time to mark his guard, check the field etc. There are 85 mins to absorb 10 batsmen doing this in T20 and there are 210 mins to absorb the same number of batsmen in a ODI, assuming a team is all out in exactly 20 overs.
Second point is the sight screen problems in almost every ground and the batsmen were found to be repeatedly spending time on getting it right always.
Not to forget the right and left handed batsmen giving headache to the fielding captain.
I feel in an urge to get a game done quickly, IPL is ignoring the basic tenets of the game. Clouds wont come tumbling down if the time given is not so tight. I think each inning should be of 100 minutes.

Penalising players is not the right answer. Any delebrate attempt to delay the play should be marked and penalty for it has to be mandatory and for that Franchise should be responsible for its players attitude. This will bring up more discpline in the team and game.

And I forgot about the several referrals for which the TV umpire takes enormous time to decide. Even things like whether its a 4 or a 6 is referred and decided before the next ball is bowled. This can be avoided, and the TV umpire can do this job by directly in touch with the public announcement and the official scorer without affecting the momentum of the game, especially when the batsman has taken 2 runs when a fielder made a boundary line save, or if the decision is about 4 or a 6.
The two time-outs are crazy too - stops the momentum of the game twice, instead of once as before. We should revert to the old system of one break of 3 mins after 10 overs. every minute is valuable.
Crudely speaking, IPL may even suggest batting from one end only for all 20 overs rather than keep changing the ends after every over!! This may be crude, but will meet IPL's commercial interests!

Not all the extra time taken can be considered as poor management by the fielding captain ..

Cricket could take a queue from football and make the match refree keep a tab of purposeful delaying players (whether batsmen stealing time for a breather or bowlers buying time to muster some energy)

Once a tab is kept of that ... a better way to address wasted time is to penalise by either reducing the number of overs your team bats to chase a total or reduce the number of runs the opposition needs to chase ..

That I am sure will help nip this in the issue in the bud.

Not all the extra time taken can be considered as poor management by the fielding captain ..

Cricket could take a queue from football and make the match refree keep a tab of purposeful delaying players (whether batsmen stealing time for a breather or bowlers buying time to muster some energy)

Once a tab is kept of that ... a better way to address wasted time is to penalise by either reducing the number of overs your team bats to chase a total or reduce the number of runs the opposition needs to chase ..

That I am sure will help nip this in the issue in the bud.

It is absurd to fine them for an amount more than that they are being paid. The fines should be bans/fraction of their match fees. There is no 'revenue loss' as krishna suggests as an ipl match would get more viewers than a stupid drama or something. The match would normally end after 11. I dont agree 11-12 is prime time, so if ipl stretches into that period, it is no loss and probably the other way round.I don't get what the administrators at playing at. Further as as the author suggests, the over rate problem as croped up much too often to be merely the teams fault.

I don't understand why the players have to be fined so heavily for a delay of 3-4 mins. Does anyone suffer any loss? In fact 4 mins more means more advertisements to be shown. Also doesn't the match extend by 15-20 mins in the event of a tie.
I feel a delay of 1-2 overs should be tolerated. If spectators can put up with in-over ads I am sure they don't mind an extra 6-8 mins.

Why don't we protest against this stupid clause? Every one let us try and change this section .From March 30, 2010 every one that goes to watch the matches bring a sign saying “No ban or fine on slow over-rates”. Please pass this message to everyone and help the players.

Another big criticism will be the time taken by batting side. What if the bowler and fielder are ready but not the batsman? Do they deduct the time taken by batting team?

If anything, the captain should be rewarded by the IPL. Its because of these delays that they get to sneak in those irritating ads between 2 deliveries. An they're minting money that way.

An excellent point made by Akash. As it has been pointed out on numerous occasions, the time taken by the batting team should also be included when making a decision about slow over-rates. The best way would be to time the whole game. Let the clock count-down from 85 minutes right from the 1st ball. Every time there is a stop due to ball being lost in the crowd, batting change, bat change, injury, 3rd umpire decision etc, the clock should be stopped. At the end of the inning, the bowling team can be charged a $/minute overtime rate. This way the bowling captain can constantly look at the clock and make adjustments accordingly.

To the point that domestic players will suffer, the fine amount should be proportional to how much ever they earn. So if the fine is 50% match fee, then say someone like Jayawardane who makes some 100K per match should pay 50K, where as some local indian player who gets about 5K per match should pay 2.5K fine. What say?

Hemant has it right. The fielding side must have time added on for third ump. decisions and a minute extra for each dismissal since the new batsman eats up time walking in, taking guard, surveying the field and so on.

Im just curious as to who gets the money from the fines? If the organizers get the money then i guess it makes sense to have stringent timelines and possibly even pay umpires a little extra for every decision they send to third umpire to slow fielding team down....srely organizers make enough money to not need to pocket the fines...

I am agree with Akash. T20 format is completely different format than 50 over match. In 50 over bowlers can find their rhythm so would take less time to complete over but in 20 over match bowlers are taken away in just 1 or 2 over’s so it makes difficult for bowlers to complete an over within just 4 minutes. As this game demands more from batsman; batsman take their own sweet time before facing the ball. Again more wickets falls in T20 so again time gets deducted. We have seen that more players are getting injured due to run-out and other reasons and it reduces again time. Each team should be given 100 minutes including two strategic timeout. So that captain can think over and utilize best resources. It will ease pressure from captains and surely they can perform better. Obviously it is going to help franchise, broadcaster and IPL as they can show more ads as time will be increased. Only fielding captain is not responsible for completing 20 over’s. IPL committee; plz think abt it....

Ridiculous article. How many games finished within the time limit? And how many did not? So why's it unfair? Let the captains get their act together! It's not very exciting watching them think! Imagine we have to listen to those insufferable commentators to fill in space while these guys set their field or discuss strategy! Fine them!

I dont believe in fines. I think they should have rules like cutting down the no. of overs for chasing like we used to have in 1996 WC. Ind Vs Pak match.. Pak had to chase the target in 48 overs. This will potentially affect the match result. Hence the captains will play keeping this in mind. The fines and bans are not going to help.

Given the amount of money involved, it’s not surprising that the fines would be so exorbitant. Though it is true that the cheaper players would feel the pinch more than the expensive ones, it will not change if you decrease the fine money. Binu has made a good suggestion that the franchises should be forced to cough the money. I, however, think that it would be even better if the players are made to cough out a percentage of the total money they’d earn from the match. That way not only will the expensive and cheap players feel a similar pinch (well almost), but also if the percentage is high enough, it’d make them think before slowing the over rate.
The timelines need to be revisited too and a buffer time kept for umpire decisions, bat/glove changes by the batmen and similar things which should not be counted in the fielding sides over rate.

What is this talk about loss of revenue with matches getting extended ?
More time wastage allows the TV Channel to air more ads & make more money.

I think these is an excellent suggestion by Binu Thomas to penalise franchise... though I also agree that management of the IPL doesn't give a damn about players or quality of cricket or cricket. All they want is to make money.

Every 3rd ball there is a commercial in the stadium and every 6th ball they have it on the TV. The more time they(players) take, the more commercials we see.Having said that the franchises are not liable to pay, the losers are neither the IPL nor the TV channels but the players. 5 mins of extra time for each team will help the teams complete it on time. IPL can get the penalty money back from the commercials for that extra time spent on field

Mr. Chopra, given your ability to analyze the game I would have loved to see you captain the Indian side. Could coaching the Indian team be in your future?

Some people think that every think should go perfect that scares me. If 22 matches go on time why not 4 more. Does not make sense if you are thinking perfectly. If the teams maintain time 80-90% of the time that is good enough for me.

Hello Krishnadeep ! Is it a cricket match you are talking about or a serial on prime time television ? Pls remember it is also a game of cricket and sporadic delays have been known to happen in cricket matches, you know !

Big League Big Fines...what's wrong with that. The players dont get paid in pennies. They are here for the big bucks. They get paid more for playing, they pay more in fines as well. I think it is completely fair.

Haha... dont they show adds whenever there's a delay between even 2 consecutive balls .. leave aside the delay between 2 overs! Man, these IPL guys are earning both ways!!

Good point Akash. I was thinking of lowly domestic players too.

Haha... dont they show adds whenever there's a delay between even 2 consecutive balls .. leave aside the delay between 2 overs! Man, these IPL guys are earning both ways!!

Something tells me that Yuvraj might be wryly smiling to himself- he's not captain this season.

@Krishnadeep - Are you from IPL admin? The rest of the people in the comments section have a different views than yours and majority wins here.

You are on target on this ridiculous fine - so who earns it? It is the IPL (or rather Modi's revenue target is achieved) - do advertisers earn part of this - more importantly do they deserve a creditback of any fines? The IPL expects players to play like a hamster on a wheel or like a street performance monkey - there is no room for strategy, consultation that is the hallmark of every American sport, be it the NBA, NFL, MLB or the NHL. Timeouts for breaking opposition momentum, rethinking strategy are clearly part of any intelligent sport - this, combined with the effect it has on players hit by injuries, shows the IPL in its true colors - its rapacious greed for money. Players in each US league sport and in tennis get actively involved in league-driven charitable activities - how about the IPL? None! Modi prefers to be seen with Zinta, Shetty and SRK and IPL parties are littered with "models" - how come the owners of DDD, CSK, DC are not to be seen? It is shameful greed.

Guys , These crickets make a lot of money .Dont worry about them .

I don't agree with your point of view... cricket is not a soap show where you can sit back and edit the unnecessary clips to fit into the 3 hrs time.if teams are pressed to act like controlled robots then cricket as a game will loose essence.when tv channels are making so many millions by exploiting crickets popularity its prudent enough for them to at least be considerate enough for the game to be conducted in its natural pace.

Yes, it's IPL community. They are organizing this type of tournaments for making their pocket heavy in any way. So this type of penalty is nothing but a way of making IPL community's pocket much heavier. It's also known that not all players in a team get their money after the tournament as they were contracted before the tournament. No doubt that IPL will be banned totally or at least neglected by these victims in near future.

brother what comes easy goes easy. this isno longer sports. its big time money making machine.am i right?

This is a valid issue. Since so many things can happen in a sport. Cricket has it’s own uniqueness. Left/Right batsmen combination, injury to batsman or a fielder, changing or bats, helmets/caps, retrieving ball after a six, changing the ball, TV referrals to name a few. The fielding captain should nbe given at least an opportunity to forgo his time out to make up for some time. But that would impact the ad revenues to IPL. A great issues for every one involved in this exciting sport.

sanga would have definitely done a better job. other captains face the same situation too. penalising every player is a bit too harsh. i think the captain and owner of the team should be penalised so that they can put more pressure to complete overs in time.

Where does all this money go ? The money collected from them fines and penalties, who gets to keep'em ?

By making and enforcing such ill-thought rules, IPL and like authorities loose the respect they deserve. A batsman can waste time and make their opponents pay for his misdeed. This isn't fair, is it?

u r right aakash,in t20 even one ball can change the course of the match.so its always pressure for the fielding captain even to arrange their fielders.If they want the the fielding side fast to finishing the innings and play fastly then why they allowing the batsmen to take their own time ,then batsmen should be fined.T20 is a pressure game ,so they should give some extra time instead they ask them to finish the match quickly and finally krishnadeep u gave one of the worst comment i have ever seen

freakin Indian cricket administrators think that they have brains and they know the game and thats the biggest problem.

They should count the time wasted by batting side.

Why don't they round it off 100 min per innings. Each team gets 15 min extra and if a team stills ends up taking more time we do something like a duckworth lewis by shaving off remaining overs or runs and also a fine for the reponsible team.

I have to agree with krishna from a pure business sense of it. the tv channels do lose a lot of money for every minute the game extends .There is no denying this. and also the IPL is simply a lucrative business proposition from every angle for everybody involved in the administration. The players involved already know this and have agreed to it - which is why they get paid the big bucks and not some flat token fee for representing their respective teams. Hence i find no reason for the players not to take the brunt for delays caused by one of their own.. yes, the right person may not be getting fined always, but thts just the way penalities are.
IPL is not like the EPL football. in EPL there are more than enough owners who are satisfied at running their administration at a loss for years on end. They have their own reasons for it, either the love or their name being attached to football.. etc.
For positive reform in the IPL the admin must take some loss some time .. which wont happen.

This shows How inefficient captain Punjap has. The rule is for everyone. But Punjap captain does not know what he is doing. Yuvi is the best caption for Punjap

Punjab has already lost too many. Why bother with things like field setting and communication now? Specially when it takes away their hard earned living for the local indian players? Just get on with it. Punjap is gonna lose anyway.

Wouldn't it be fairer (and more fun for spectators and sponsors) if any penalty for slow play was assessed in free hits rathers than $'s?

Geez, how hard could it be to take the time available, subtract a conservative allowance for field changes and interruptions (tactical and unplanned), divide by 20, add 30 seconds for quicks, subtract 30 seconds for spinners and tell your bowlers to stick to it or they don't get another over?

Over rates make sense in ODIs and test matches where the game is played all day, but in a 3 hour game why does over rate matter so much? Why not give the teams a little more time and give the fielding side some leeway.

You are a professional be that way & complete your quota on time, do not give excuses... If there were genuine excuses then match referee would have considered them before imposing the fine. Why to complaint now!!

Everyone can see that the team owners are making a hefty profit no matter what .... The fines should be on them ... The team and not on a individual

In most matches there are frequent delays while spectators or policemen are removed from in front or above sight screens. Local organisers should correspondingly be fined $10000 for each such transgression, for this is what the stewards are required to control without fail and without instructions from umpires on the field. If the offender is a policeman, deduct the amount from the fee paid to the Police Dept for their services, and for the third such offence ban senior Police officials from attending the next TWO matches.

In most matches there are frequent delays while spectators or policemen are removed from in front or above sight screens. Local organisers should correspondingly be fined $10000 for each such transgression, for this is what the stewards are required to control without fail and without instructions from umpires on the field. If the offender is a policeman, deduct the amount from the fee paid to the Police Dept for their services, and for the third such offence ban senior Police officials from attending the next TWO matches.

If at all the monetary fine is to be collected from players, it should be in the ratio of their earnings and that may make things slightly better for the local Indian recruits who get a few Lakh Rupees for whole IPL. Even better would be if IPL were to impose less fines. The owners on their part may pay this. The owners do not mind paying huge amts on buying a team(170 crores per yr on Pune is just an example) but they are not allowed to spend more than 35 crores(per year) on cricketers! Is it not ridiculous? Let that amount be more if it happens in the auction! It may mean some cricketers earn 35 crores alone per year! Why not?

Good post. But if you see till now, just 4 captains have been fined. That means that the other 4 captains have adjusted to the situation and got the overs within time.

as a fan, I would like the game to go slow, especially in crunch stages of the match. So that we can see more emotions on field and off it. Game 16 CSK vs KXIP was a crunch game and was at the right pace. The fans loved it and rated it the best game of ipl so far this year(because sanga was not rushing that night).

As my point of view. They need to give more 5 or 10 min. Other wise they can't stop this penalty.

To be fair, the fines may be a % of the player cost, rather than a fixed amount for all players.

lets be honest Cricket is not a sport that's played in a rush, players have to think about every move. a little unfair to rush players when there is so much to play for and a rush decision can change a game. lets make cricket the winner here not the big cheeses

There is no reason why 20 overs should not be completed within the time limits, barring injuries, multiple lost balls, or time wasting by the batsmen. The batsman should be ready when the bowler reaches the end of his run-up, and should have a warning for the first offence, and then be given out for time wasting on the second offence (similar to a bowler bowling 2 balls above waist height). There is no reason for mid-pitch conferences by the batsmen every couple of deliveries. Go back 30 years and the over rates were 18 to the hour, and even earlier they were still higher. With all this so-called professionalism these days and super-fit players with training schedules and gyms, 15 overs an hour should be a breeze.

Twenty-20 should be an enjoyable game.Everyone knows that players are already under tension.The captains are much worse.So such ridiculous fines serve no purpose except increasing the bank balance of BCCI.All the captains should protest together.At the end of day they have to take something home.After all people have come for enjoyment and DJ cann't be stopped.Planning takes a lot of time.Every ball has to be carefully bowled.There could be some nagative points system just like fair play award to motivate players.But money at no cost is acceptable.

good point aakash. the amount of fine is not a big deal as they r also earning more but it should be respective of their personal match fee. so the fine should be in % of match fee such that everyone is feeling the same heat. the pace of game is the beauty of T20 so fines should be severe but why fine those who r guiltless. many a time the root cause of delay is not captain. there are delays due to sidescreen problem, more wicket fall, 3rd umpire reffers, injuries and the unneccessary talks between the batsman. so there should be a soccer type system where another umpire or referry is keeping track of the time lost not because of the fielding team faults.

I think the IPL bubble is on it's way to bursting. Citi moments of success, max mobile time outs, dlf maximums. Terrible team kits (sorry but they are horrible), boundary after boundary. I'm getting sleepy writing this. This American type sports model for cricket isn't right. The hype will go away and I may be wrong but the IPL with it. It's boring. Why fine a guy such a huge fee in a game where you can take time out? Stupid. Is there anything exciting about the IPL at all. Not for me.

Fining all the players in the team for slow over completion is rather absurd. And I doubt this is the end of the slow over rates fines to be delivered in this tournament. Should it play out the way I think it is going to, at some point some team is going to end up with enough blanket fines to put some players literally in the red (paying more in fines than they make from their franchise). If that is the case, either the franchise is simply going to have to step in to cover those fines, or these players will probably simply not play the next IPL. And if the franchise dangles their contracts in front of them to force them to play, the players will probably just sue the franchise. After all, the moment this became a contractual money fest (even more so than things usually are), it stands to reason that players will choose to seek legal redressal of an unfair contract term. As such, I do not see how this fining mechanism could survive the market economy, that the ipl so likes to exploit.

cricket is moving from sports to business. Its all about making money, take any movement of IPL management its all about business. Cricket is a game which is played for 5 days and still finish without win or lose and the same game have these time limit rules. I know test and T20 are two different formats but CRICKET is cricket. 11 fielders and two batsmen. T20 is an exiting format but made for business not for the benifit of the game.

Does time out really helps? Move it and give liberty to teams and extend time

Absolutely ridiculous. No T20 domestic games in Australia are crammed into such a short time, even in local cricket competitions. 80 or 85 or 90 or 100 minutes, who among the viewing public cares as long as it's an exciting game? (But as some have pointed out, perhaps the TV stations and their advertisers care, and that might be the cause of the absurd fines.) And Ajit, it's 'cue' not 'queue'.

On the Contrary if match is finished before time IPL should pay to captain.....

The more I read about Akash's blogs the more I appreciate the sane mind and articulate young man he is. This article has hit the nail firmly on the head when he talks about the domestic players. There is a compassion,a definite warmth in his articles. This is very similar to Harsha's columns before he became another spokesman for IPL. Its great to read such columns with its heart in the right place.

Keep it up, Akash.