The ECB’s player replacement trial is under fire after new regulations were used six times across the second round of County Championship fixtures, with Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson leading the criticism.
Glamorgan fell to a 192-run defeat to Nottinghamshire with allrounder Lyndon James taking two wickets after he replaced the injured Fergus O’Neill on the fourth morning. Nottinghamshire attempted to replace O’Neill with Olly Stone only to have their request rejected, but Carlson was frustrated by the introduction of a fresh seamer on the final day of a match regardless.
“Obviously, with the injury replacement, bringing in someone later on has made a bit of a difference,” Carlson said. “This is no slight on Notts whatsoever, because we would have done the exact same thing if we were in that position. But to bring in a guy who hadn’t played cricket for three days to then come in and bowl, obviously that’s an advantage.”
Glamorgan had themselves used the new regulations to replace Ben Kellaway (hip flexor) with Sean Dickson on the opening day. Carlson added: “The thinking behind bringing in the rule is sound, but I think it has to be ironed out in terms of the way it does get done.”
Replacements have previously been permitted in the County Championship in the event of players suffering concussion, contracting Covid-19, or being called up by England, but the regulations have been expanded to cover injury, illness and significant life events this year as part of an ICC trial, which follows similar pilots in Australia, India and South Africa.
The ECB’s regulations allow a replacement to be used at any stage of the match, which enabled James to come in on the final day after O’Neill injured his rib. There is also no limit on how many replacements each team can use across a match, with Somerset and Yorkshire both using two across the second round of Championship fixtures.
Seven replacements were used across the nine matches in the second round, only one of which (Worcestershire’s Ben Gibbon replacing Adam Finch following a concussion) would have been permitted before this season’s trial.
The new regulations state that any replaced player will be unavailable to play across county competitions for the subsequent eight days. That stipulation should in theory remove any incentive for counties to game the system, but the situation is complicated by the fact that there are only four Championship fixtures in the next round of matches.
Former England opener and Sky Sports commentator Ian Ward described the new regulations as “complete nonsense” on X this weekend. Kent T20 captain Sam Billings, who is playing in the Pakistan Super League, wrote after Yorkshire replaced the unwell Jhye Richardson: “This is a ridiculous rule already!”
Alan Fordham, the ECB’s head of cricket operations, warned teams to play fair with the regulations before the start of the season. “If teams are going to start pushing right at the edges of the regulation, then it risks a chance that we’ll have to backpedal from some of the things that we are putting in place,” Fordham said.
The ECB had estimated that the new regulations would be used in around one in four Championship matches, based on evidence from the Sheffield Shield. They have been activated in five out of 18 matches (28%) to date, though three of those matches have seen two replacements used.
Player replacements in 2026 County Championship:
Hampshire vs Essex: Noah Thain replaced Tom Westley (finger)
Glamorgan vs Yorkshire: Will Luxton replaced Jonny Bairstow (thumb)
Essex vs Somerset: Will Smeed and Archie Vaughan replaced Tom Kohler-Cadmore (thumb) and Lewis Goldsworthy (hamstring) respectively
Middlesex vs Worcestershire: Ben Gibbon replaced Adam Finch (concussion)*
Nottinghamshire vs Glamorgan: Sean Dickson and Lyndon James replaced Ben Kellaway (hip) and Fergus O’Neill (rib) respectively
Yorkshire vs Hampshire: Logan van Beek and Ben Cliff replaced Jhye Richardson and Jack White (both illness) respectively.
*Replacement would have been permitted before new regulations were introduced for 2026.
