13 years ago today, on 1 October 2011, the ICC had banned the runner rule from international cricket.

Runner Rules: To make cricket more simple and modern, changes are constantly being made in the rules. Sometimes new rules are introduced in cricket, and sometimes old rules are abolished. The abolition of old rules is beneficial for most players. But, today (01 October) 13 years ago, the International Cricket Council had abolished a rule which batsmen still miss.

We are talking about the rule of batsmen taking ‘runners’. The ICC had abolished the rule of taking runners for batsmen on October 1, 2011. Due to the abolition of this rule, the batsmen had to face a lot of difficulties.

After getting injured, batsmen used to use runners. However, now if a batsman gets injured in such a way that he will not be able to run, then either that batsman has to retire or he has to limp and run to score runs on his own.

The rules were being misused

The batsmen gradually started misusing the runner rule. Batsmen used runners under the pretext of injury. However, ICC had abolished this rule keeping in mind the improvement in fitness and skill development.

Did Sidhu and Saeed Anwar misuse it?

During a program, former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin, while talking humorously, had said that Navjot Singh Sidhu used to hold his leg as soon as he reached the score of 90 runs. Seeing this, a runner was prepared for him.

Whereas former Pakistani fast bowler Wasim Akram, while exposing Saeed Anwar, had said in a program that refereeing came into cricket only because of Saeed Anwar. He used to sit down holding his feet after every century. Wasim Akram further said that every referee used to tell him in advance that Saeed would not be given a runner.

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