Lorgat defends abolishing runners in cricket

ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat defended scrapping the provision of runners in international cricket on Thursday, saying batsmen were not using the system in the right spirit.

"It's been considered by the cricket committee... and there has been a strong feeling that runners were used not in the right spirit," Lorgat told reporters in Hong Kong.

"It's quite a difficult one for umpires to determine whether there has been a real injury to batters or whether it was a tactical use of runners," he added.

Runners were abolished by the ICC Executive Board during its five-day annual conference which concluded in Hong Kong on Thursday.

"If a bowler gets injured you can't continue bowling for the rest of the day and the feeling was that it would be better to not allow the use of runners because there has been abuse in the past," Lorgat said.

The ICC's decision was criticised by former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who said if the batsmen were to be denied runners, even bowlers should not be allowed water on the boundary.

He said the ICC should also do away with substitute fielders so that the batting side is not the only one affected.