Nathon Lyon opposes ICC's stump mic broadcast
What's the story?
Australian off-spinner, Nathan Lyon, recently opposed ICC's decision to broadcast stump mics at all times and its decision to penalize verbal obscenities used during an international game.
In the latest edition of The Unplayable Podcast (h/t cricket.com.au), Lyon said, "I think what's on the field needs to stay on the field. There are a few expletives flying around when people don't execute their skills. It's very, very rare that people are sharing expletives with the opposition or an umpire or an official. That's where I'm not the biggest fan of the stump mics going up because we're a lot of role models.
"I'm not saying swearing is OK, but when you're competing at the highest level and under extreme amounts of pressure, sometimes you miss your skill and therefore an expletive may come out," he added.
In case you didn't know..
After the conclusion of ICC's five-day Annual Conference in Dublin, the cricketing body made tweaked its Code of Conduct policy by adding four different offences to it, while also increased the punitive actions for Level 3 offences, one of which includes ball-tampering.
Audible obscenity, along with personal abuse, disobedience towards the umpire, and attempting to gain a cheating advantage were the new offences added to the ICC Code of Conduct. Along with this, the cricketing body changed its stump microphone policy, allowing the audio to be played even when the ball is dead.
The details
While Lyon agrees with the increased penalty for ball tampering, the Australian international is against the expansion of stump microphone.
However, the 30-year-old also touched on the other side of the debate, saying that as role models for kids, international cricketers like himself must be careful of what they say/do on the cricket pitch at all times.
What's next
Using swear words and expletives in the heat of the moment is an extremely common occurrence on the cricket field. It will be interesting to see how the players adjust to these changes made by the international cricket governing body.
The debate around the stump mic is likely to gather winds in the next few weeks as well.