The challenges of ‘Net run rate’ and protecting the integrity of cricket tournaments

This article analyses one of the issues arising from the recently concluded ICC T20 Cricket World Cup where there were suggestions of ‘manipulation’ by an Australian player to eliminate the English cricket team from the tournament by going easy in one of their games to influence the ‘Net run rate’ which is a means to calculate the ranking of a team in the case two teams are level on points in the group stages of the competition. This article  analyses the International Cricket Council’s  regulations that are involved and looks at how these acts are regulated to prevent competition manipulation.  

At the outset, it is important to note that there is no suggestion by the author whatsoever that Australia did anything other than play their best and there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that there was any form of manipulation by them. However, this does present a helpful example to illustrate the issues that would have come into play were this not the case. It may also be helpful for other sports federations, national federations and leagues to draw lessons from the relevant ICC’s regulations that address this.

Article Highlights

• Introduction
• What is net run rate and what was the issue?
• ICC Code of Conduct
• What if England did not end up qualifying?
• Conclusion

Introduction

Another T20 World Cup has concluded, and time will tell whether hosting the event in the USA will assist cricket breaking into the competitive but potentially extremely lucrative USA sports market. In the end the tournament passed without any serious controversy. However, at one stage it looked as if cricket was going to have to grapple with an unsavoury issue concerning net run rate that appeared to be sending England home from the competition a lot earlier than anticipated.

This article will first briefly explain what net run rate is and why there was a potential issue. It will then set out what the International Cricket Council (“ICC”) Code of Conduct has to say about it before considering several discussion points on the topic.