Over the first two overs, we have seen a pretty disgruntled DC coach Ricky Ponting chatting animatedly with the fourth umpire and making gestures that didn’t look polite at all. I mean it is only a conjecture whether he was respectful or not, but it didn’t look good.
Now the controversy was that someone in DC thought they had caught RR with five overseas players on the field, which should not be allowed. That is because Rovman Powell has come on the field as a substitute fielder, which he feels should not be allowed because he becomes the fifth overseas player on the field at some point or the other.
Let’s first see the playing condition that covers this kind of situation.
1.2.6
A team may not have more than 4 Overseas players on the field of play at any time during any Match. Thus, if the team names the maximum 4 Overseas players in its starting XI, an Overseas player may only take the field as a substitute fielder if the player that he is replacing is an Overseas player. If the team names less than 4 Overseas players in its starting XI, Overseas players may only enter the field of play as substitute fielders to the extent that by doing so, they do not take the total number of overseas players representing that team on the field more than 4.
Powell on the field did make it five overseas players representing RR on the night: Buttler, Hetmeyer (subbed out), Boult, Burger (subbed in) and Powell (a fielding substitute). Now if you read the playing conditions closely, DC have got it all wrong. It clearly says “fielders representing that team on the field” not how many have represented them at various points on the night. So RR are well within their rights to have Powell substitute as a fielder for anyone because they had only three other overseas players on the field.
