James Anderson criticised the ECB’s injury replacement system in the County Championship after Lancashire lost two appeals for like-for-like substitutes during the current season. The 43-year-old questioned how match referees judged replacement requests under the trial rule introduced this year.
The ECB’s regulation allows teams to replace injured players only with cricketers in the same category. Batters must replace batters, bowlers must replace bowlers and all-rounders must replace all-rounders.
Lancashire first ran into trouble against Gloucestershire when match referee Peter Such rejected their request to bring in Tom Bailey for injured seamer Ajit Singh Dale. Officials reportedly viewed Bailey as “too good” a replacement. Lancashire instead called up left-arm seamer Ollie Sutton after Mitchell Stanley suffered a back problem.
Sutton travelled by taxi from a second XI match in Leicester to Bristol, a journey that took three hours. He missed most of the opening day, while Bailey only fielded as a substitute.
Lancashire faced another rejection against Durham. Officials refused permission for left-arm spinner Tom Hartley to replace off-spinning all-rounder Arav Sheth because Hartley carried more experience. Lancashire eventually selected wicketkeeper-batter George Bell instead.
Speaking on the Tailenders podcast, Anderson said: “I don’t know what the rules are. I think they just look at Cricinfo and stats to see if someone’s average is better.”
He added: “Arav Sheth broke his thumb really badly in three places and we were told we couldn’t bring in Tom Hartley because he was too experienced.”
Anderson also questioned the purpose of the system itself.
“This replacement player rule was brought in for situations exactly like this, when someone breaks a finger and can’t play the rest of the match. It feels a bit ridiculous.”
The former England fast bowler retired from Test cricket in 2024 but continues to play county cricket in the 26th season of his professional career. Anderson joked that Lancashire could replace him because no player in the squad matched his experience, but he could never qualify as another player’s replacement.
