Yellow card and red card in cricket

Question

Yellow and red cards are given in some team sports like rugby,football etc.

Is there a practice of issuing these cards in cricket?

I heard that Billy Bowden gave yellow card for shane warne, and Rudy Koertzen gave red card for Glenn Mcgrath - (Is it correct?) If yes, for what reasons these cards were given in cricket?

Answer 1

There is no system of cards in Cricket. The instances you mentioned were funny ones.

1. Shane Warne was shown a yellow card during the Tsunami welfare match between ICC World XI and Asia XI. Here, Shane Warne at the end of 49.5 overs of the first innings ran to the pavilion presuming the overs quota was completed. The Umpire Billy Bowden called him back and showed him a yellow card (for fun) and asked to continue batting.

2. Glenn McGrath's red card instance happened during the first ever T20 international between Aus and NZ. The players were rather in celebratory mode as it was the inaugural match. McGrath bowled (Rather rolled) the last ball of the innings to Kyle Mills as an under arm delivery prompting Billy Bowden, the umpire then, to show him a red card.

Answer 2

No.

There is no card system that is in place for cricket. Action is taken on players after the game and subsequent hearings by the match referee, in case they fail to follow the rules and ethics of the game. The examples that you provided might have been in jest and they, for sure, could not have been ejected from the game.

The main reason for other sports to have cards and stricter discipline is that they are contact sports. There is hardly any physical contact with other players in cricket, which reduces the chances of violent behavior.

Probably, this is why they call cricket a gentleman's game.

Answer 3

Umpires (at the moment) have no authority to send players off the pitch. That having been said, they have certain courses of limiting action they can take in case of misbehaviour, some of which are only applicable to specific events:

• If a batsman "wilfully obstructs or distracts the fielding side by word or action" and the fielding side appeal, the umpire could uphold the appeal and the batsman would be dismissed under Law 37 (Obstructing the field)
• If a bowler is deliberately bowling dangerous and unfair short- or full-pitched deliveries, under Law 42 (Fair and unfair play) the umpire may instruct the fielding captain to suspend the bowler immediately, thus preventing him from bowling again in that innings

For general misbehaviour, the umpires may report a player or team to the "Governing Body responsible for the match" (Law 42.18), e.g. the league board. This may result in a suspension of the player, or even a removal of the team from the competition.

However, as stated earlier, there is no direct way to send a player off.

Answer 4

There are no yellow or red cards in cricket. There is a system of warnings for technical infractions and unfair play, but these are not signaled in a particular way, only communicated verbally. There is also no official way to eject a player from a game altogether.

I'm not familiar with the cases you mention, but there have been occasions in international cricket where yellow and red cards have been used humorously. But they have no official merit.