Ashes 2023: Cricket needs to change its laws to ensure catches like Mitchell Starc’s are fair, writes Robert Craddock

Don’t blame the third umpire for ruling that Mitchell Starc’s catch was not out. The decision was technically correct. But it is time for the rule to change.

The problem for cricket is not that Mitchell Starc’s catch was ruled not out … it’s that the decision was technically correct.

Cricket needs to change its laws – again – to ensure catches like Starc’s are fair.

Don’t blame the third umpire for ruling in favour of England batsman Ben Duckett who swatted a ball into Starc’s glue fingered grasp on the fence before he cushioned his fall with the ball sliding across the turf in his total control.

Under the strict interpretation of the laws of the game which say a fieldsman must have complete control of his own movement – Starc didn’t – as well as the ball before it touches the ground, the correct decision was made.

Mitchell Starc’s catch was ruled not out. Picture: Getty Images

If this decision was taken to the high court the umpire with the law book under his arm would beat the frustrated fieldsman every time.

The trouble is the law book should be the embodiment of the spirit of the game and this rule doesn’t quite get there.

From backyard cricket all the way up to a Test at Lord’s a catch like Starc’s catch should be out. But it technically wasn’t.

In Starc’s mind the catch was so obviously out he didn’t even take the precaution of turning his hand upside down and sliding his knuckles across the turf.

If he had done that the catch would have been deemed out even if a few blades of grass had touched the ball. The umpires have been given a directive to give “fingers on the floor’’ catches out.

But once you push the ball into the ground and you are still moving, under the laws of the game you technically have to be given not out.

Mitchell Starc talks to the umpire after the decision went against Australia. Picture: Getty Images

It’s a rule which defies common sense and the spirit of the game.

It’s one thing if the grass is used as a means to push the ball into the hand and assist the catch.

A not out call under these circumstances is entirely understandable.

But it is quite another when the catch has been cleanly pouched and the fieldsman and simply going through the process of falling to ground and cushioning his fall.

Even England’s assistant coach Marcus Trescothick could not understand why it wasn’t out.

Cricket could learn from rugby league’s rule changes where it allowed the corner post to be in play in tries where it previously had been “out.’’

The game could also spread its wings to accompany the law book with video examples of what is fair and what is not.