Usman Khawaja Behind ICC's Decision To Change Slow Over-Rate Penalty Rule? Check Here

Usman Khawaja said five days after the formal announcement, that he had a direct hand in the penalty's decrease and also credited Wasim Khan, the ICC's general manager of cricket.

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. The amendment was approved by the CEC, and it was decided that it would be "applied from the start of the current World Test Championship cycle".

Interestingly, during the final of the recent World Test Championship between Australia and India, players were heavily fined for slow-over rates. In the ongoing Ashes series, England and Australia were also found guilty of this issue.

Usman Khawaja of Australia's cricket team said, five days after the formal announcement, that he had a direct hand in the penalty's decrease and credited Wasim Khan, the ICC's general manager of cricket, heavily. 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.

“I’ve known Wasim Khan, he was part of Pakistan (Pakistan Cricket Board) and I played in PSL (Pakistan Super League) so got to know him," Khawaja said ahead of the fourth Ashes Test in Manchester.

"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."

Captain Pat Cummins and Australia's head coach Andrew McDonald both backed Khawaja. McDonald, who worked closely with ICC General Manager Khan when he was Chief Executive at Leicestershire, where the Australian had a coaching job back in 2014, similarly enjoys a personal relationship with him.