XtraTime Web Desk: The England Cricket Board (ECB) on Tuesday banned cricketers from wearing smartwatches on the field of play in all upcoming matches, tightening its anti-corruption regulations in the wake of live streaming in county cricket.
With a vast majority of fixtures being televised live on television or live-streamed on digital platforms, it was imperative for the ECB to ban wearing the smartwatches which was earlier seen as a source of exchanging information. Smartwatches will be completely banned in televised games and will only be permitted in the players’ and match officials’ areas (dressing rooms, balconies, dugouts) only in non-televised games.
Lancashire spinner Matt Parkinson brought to light the opportunity for information exchange when he had revealed that he came to know about his maiden England call-up via a notification on his teammate Steven Croft’s smartwatch during the 2019 County Championship.
Now with the increase of live streaming of matches, the governing body of English cricket has decided to tighten its regulations.