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<\/p>\n\u201cWe devised a model for consideration by our playing conditions advisory committee that allowed for injury substitutes in first class cricket,\u201d a Cricket Australia spokesperson told this masthead.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur initial advice was that this model would not comply with the parameters set for such trials by the ICC. More recent advice suggests this could now be possible, and it is something we are investigating ahead of the coming season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trial is intended to introduce a way to cover the impact of serious injuries on an affected team, while reducing the chance of the system being exploited to disadvantage teams that have 11 fit players.<\/p>\n
A mandatory post-game stand-down period for the substituted player is one of the ways that rorting the system might be avoided.<\/p>\n
There is also debate about when would be the most appropriate time for a trial: immediately after the Big Bash League when players are adjusting back to long-form cricket and injuries become more likely, or during the block of games before the Ashes when Australia\u2019s Test players make rare domestic appearances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the game is serious about considering this, it needs to go through a process with all stakeholders and get players\u2019 views and other views and work through all the scenarios to see whether it actually makes sense,\u201d Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Paul Marsh said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to keep an open mind to things, but this needs to be considered from all angles.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In the 2009 Test between South Africa and Australia, Graeme Smith took to the crease with a broken finger.<\/p>\n
Some of the most ardent advocates for injury substitutes have long resided in Australia. Among them is CA\u2019s long-serving chief medical officer, Dr John Orchard, who had this to say in 2012, when looking at how players were increasingly required to play Twenty20 games in proximity to the very different requirements of Tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is going to limit T20 cricket when it is getting bigger crowds and it\u2019s bringing in more money than the traditional forms of the game,\u201d Orchard said. \u201cYou\u2019re never going to stop players playing in tournaments that earn more money than their Test cricket.<\/p>\n
\u201cBringing subs in is a radical solution, but it is one that has to be debated more and more. It is really a matter of how long we\u2019re prepared to sit back and watch injuries have a greater and greater impact on cricket matches, before people get sick of outcomes of Test matches being decided by who happens to have the least injuries rather than who has the better side.\u201d<\/p>\n
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On the flipside, seasoned Test cricketers have always been extremely wary of the rule, as outlined by Smith during his time as a venerated skipper of South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a sport out there that really tests you for as long mentally, emotionally and skill-wise other than Test cricket, and I think maybe rules like that might soften the blow a bit,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why people who look back over time can be proud of what they\u2019ve achieved, that they\u2019ve been able to handle what this game is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fast forward to 2025, and it was Stokes who offered the most strident opposition to the idea, based on the realities of how battered a fast bowler\u2019s body can get towards the end of a long series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s absolutely ridiculous that there\u2019s a conversation around an injury replacement,\u201d Stokes said. \u201cI think that there would just be too many loopholes for teams to be able to go through. You pick your XI for a game; injuries are part of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI completely understand the concussion replacement \u2013 player welfare, player safety. But I think the conversation should just honestly stop around injury replacements because if you stick me in an MRI scanner, I could get someone else in straightaway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you stick anyone else with an MRI scanner, a bowler is going to show, \u2018oh yeah, you\u2019ve got a bit of inflammation around your knee; oh sweet, we can get another fresh bowler in\u2019. I just think that conversation should be shut down and stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n