The World Test Championship final is going to be held in London next month between India and Australia. Ahead of this, the international cricket council announced a few changes in the rules, which will be effective from June 1st.
The ICC who has been discussing soft-signal in its previous meetings over the years, now decided to remove it permanently. The Indian Premier League removed it two years ago and now ICC has also done the same. This decision came after several controversies and meetings.
Earlier this year, the soft signal came under scrutiny during a test match between Australia and South Africa at the SCG. The match took headlines when third umpire Richard Kettleborough overturned the decision made by on-field umpires. Similar incidents took place several times in cricket history, which made ICC think of soft-signal validation.
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Such incidents have been happening for years now and thus made several controversies over the years. Many cricketers criticized the oft-signal and demanded to remove it from the conditions of international cricket.
According to the soft-signal, on-field umpires are allowed to indicate their unofficial verdict on a potential wicket, and then pass it to the third umpire. Several times the contradictory decisions taken by the umpires made controversies and forced the ICC to remove it from the conditions.
However, finally, ICC decided to remove the soft signal ahead of the 2023 World Test Championship Final, which is the 2nd edition of the ICC World Test Championship. The final will be held at The Oval, London, England. Australia and India qualified for the final and will compete for the trophy.
India has secured the 1st rank in ICC men’s Test team rankings, whereas Australia secured the 2nd spot. This will be Australia’s first World Test Championship Final, whereas India was defeated by New Zealand in the Final in 2021.
Indian Cricket Team
Cricket was introduced in India in the 18th century by British sailors. Currently, it is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The board has been operating since 1929 and it is the richest sporting cricket organization in the world.
Indian Cricket team has won several tournaments and Test championships over the years. In the 2019-2021 World Test Championship, the Indian cricket team was runner-up, and again for the 2023 World Test Championship Indian cricket team will be competing with the Australian cricket team. Indian Cricket team is a two times World Cup winner, one in 1983 and the other in 2011.
Indian cricket team won T20 World Cup in 2007 and was a runner-up in 2014. It won the Champions Trophy in 2002 and 2013 and was a runner-up in 2000 and 2007. Indian cricket team won Asia Cup 7 times; 1984, 1988, 1990-91, 1995, 2010, 2016, and 2018.
India holds several records in cricket history. Cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, M.S. Dhoni, Saurav Ganguli. etc. have contributed a lot to the world’s cricket.
