Queensland's Marnus Labuschange becomes 1st player to be penalised for fake fielding in match against Cricket Australia XI

Queensland player Marnus Labuschange on Friday became the first player in cricket history’s to be penalised for the act of fake fielding during the one day match between Cricket Australia XI and Queensland in Brisbane. [caption id=“attachment_4017865” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative image. Getty Images[/caption] It was only on 28 September that the new rules brought in by ICC came into effect and it didn’t take long for the world to see them being implemented. At the start of the 27th over of Cricket Australia XI’s innings, Labuschange, who was fielding at the cover position, failed to grab a ball to his right, when right-handed batsman Param Uppal drove it there, as per a report on Cricket Australia website. In an effort to stop Uppal from taking a single, Labuschange got up and pretended like he was throwing the ball in the direction of the striker, which put off Uppal from taking the single for a second. However, as soon as he realised that Labuschange didn’t actually have the ball and was just fake-throwing, Uppal completed the single to get off strike. The batting team, as per the new Law 41.5, was awarded five penalty runs for this act by Labuschange. MCC has particularly singled out ‘mock fielding’ in one of its research papers as one of the things that is unfair and which should be dealt with by the administrators. The MCC law 41.5.1 says “it is unfair for any fielder wilfully to attempt, by word or action, to distract, deceive or obstruct either batsman after the striker has received the ball.” However, Labuschange ended up taking his side to a four-wicket win over Cricket Australia XI, a consolation of sorts for someone whose name will now forever be etched in cricket’s history books for the fake-fielding incident.