Beamer law changed after new sanctions deemed 'overly harsh'

Law 41.7 was published just over a year ago and imposed much stricter penalties on bowlers for delivering full tosses above the batsman's waists

MCC announced on Thursday that it has amended the law which covers the bowling of beamers.

Law 41.7 was published just over a year ago and imposed much stricter penalties on bowlers for delivering full tosses above the batsman's waists.

The rule change in 2017 meant that a beamer was defined as a full toss of any speed over the batman's waist, whereas it had previously slow deliveries could be up to shoulder height.

It also saw the reduction of the number of warnings from two to one, with the second infringement now seeing the bowler removed from the attack.

^{Marcus Trescothick tries to deal with a beamer}

According to MCC, feedback from around the world to this change "was, almost universally, negative, with many feeling that it was overly harsh, particularly on younger bowlers". 

Such was the difficulty the new law created, that several governing bodies introduced their own rules concerning beamers to work around the law.

The new change will bring the danger presented by the bowling to the discretion of the umpire, much like with short-pitched bowling. The imposition of warnings is now down to the judgment of the umpire, and is no longer a 'catch-all' sanction.