First Red Card in CPL 2023 Evicts TKR’s Sunil Narine, Captain Pollard Calls it ‘Absolutely Ridiculous’: WATCH

The red card marked its presence for the time in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2023 on Sunday, penalizing Trinbago Knight Riders all-rounder Sunil Narine. In the game against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in Basseterre, the Kieron Pollard-led side was behind the required over rate at the start of each of their last three overs. As a result, they were left with only ten men for the final over and just two fielders outside the 30-yard circle.

As per the new CPL rules, if the bowling team doesn’t start the 18^th over on time, an extra fielder will have to step inside the 30-yard circle and only four will be allowed outside. If it fails to start the 19^th over on time, one more fielder must enter the circle, leaving three in the outfield. And if the 20^th over gets delayed, the umpire will bring out the red card to evict a player from the bowling side, also leaving just two fielders outside the circle.

Thus, Pollard asked Narine, who had completed his 4-over spell, to leave the field.

St Kitts batter Sherfane Rutherford made the most of the penalty and scored 18 runs off the last six balls, bowled by DJ Bravo. However, the Knight Riders smashed their way to the 179-run target after notable contributions from Nicholas Pooran, Lorcan Tucker, Andre Russell and skipper Pollard.

The Knight Riders skipper wasn’t happy with the newly implemented rule and called it ‘absolutely ridiculous’.

“To be honest, it will take away the hard work everyone has done,” Pollard said on the broadcast after the game.

“We are like the pawns and we are going to do what we are told. We are going to play as fast as we can. If you are penalised for 30-45 seconds in a tournament like this, it is absolutely ridiculous,” he added.

The red cards have been introduced in the 2023 CPL, for both men’s and women’s competitions, to combat slow over rates.

“Over rates will be monitored by the third umpire and communicated to the captains via on-field umpires at the end of every over, as well as to the crowd and TV audience, with graphics showing how far they are behind (or ahead of) the over rate,” a CPL statement had said.