#deliberate short running

Cricket's Biggest Single Rule Overhaul in a Decade — May 2026

Effective from 1 May 2026, the ICC and MCC announced their biggest single window of cricket rule changes in more than a decade — five tweaks to ICC playing conditions and 73 separate revisions to the MCC Laws of Cricket. The changes touch ODI ball use, boundary-catch mechanics, deliberate short-running penalties, the stop-clock regime, concussion-and-injury replacements, and a long list of smaller multi-day-cricket clarifications. The combined effect is a cricket rulebook that looks materially different to the one that opened the year.