Pollard, moving his limited fielding options around, asked Narine, who had finished his four-over spell with 3 for 24, to leave the field.

“To be honest, it will take away the hard work everyone has done,” Pollard said on the broadcast after the game. “We are like the pawns and we are going to do what we are told. We are going to play as fast as we can. If you are penalised for 30-45 seconds in a tournament like this, it is absolutely ridiculous.”

Red cards, a first in the game, have been introduced in the 2023 CPL – for both men’s and women’s competitions – to combat slow over rates. “We have been disappointed that our T20 games have been getting longer and longer each year, and we want to do what we can to arrest this trend,” Michael Hall, CPL tournament operations director, had said in a statement prior to the start of the tournament.

The slow over-rate penalties

The rule, using the 85-minutes-per-innings rule for T20 cricket, is that the 17th over of the innings must be completed by 72 minutes and 15 seconds, the 18th by 76 minutes and 30 seconds, and the 19th by 80 minutes and 45 seconds, before the last over ends within 85 minutes.

“Over rates will be monitored by the third umpire and communicated to the captains via on-field umpires at the end of every over, as well as to the crowd and TV audience, with graphics showing how far they are behind (or ahead of) the over rate,” a CPL statement had said. “Dispensations will be given for injuries, DRS and time-wasting by batting side where appropriate.”