Four levels

Law 42 is a ledger. It lists what a player may be punished for on the field, in four levels, and it prices each level. The prices rise from a warning to five runs to ten overs to the rest of the match, and the last of them is paid by the whole side.

Level 1

Wilfully mistreating any part of the ground, the equipment or the implements of the match. Dissent at an umpire's decision by word or action. Offensive language. Obscene gestures. Excessive appealing. Advancing towards an umpire in an aggressive manner. The first Level 1 offence by a team draws a warning. Every one after it costs five penalty runs, awarded to the other side.

The warning is to the team, not to the player. A side gets one, and after that every player in it is on the second offence.

Level 2

Serious dissent. Inappropriate and deliberate physical contact with another player. Throwing the ball dangerously. Language or gestures that are obscene or seriously insulting, whether aimed at players, umpires, officials or spectators. Five penalty runs, immediately. There is no warning at this level.

Level 3

Two offences. "Intimidating an umpire by language or gesture." And "threatening to assault a player or any other person except an umpire." The player is suspended from the field for ten overs in a match of unlimited overs, or one fifth of the allotted overs in a limited-overs match, and the other side gets five runs. One fifth of fifty overs is ten; one fifth of twenty is four.

The exception in the second offence is the hinge of the whole Law. Threatening a player is Level 3. Threatening an umpire is not, because it is Level 4.

Level 4

"Threatening to assault an umpire." "Making inappropriate and deliberate physical contact with an umpire." "Physically assaulting a player or any other person." "Committing any other act of violence." The player is removed from the field of play for the remainder of the match, and no substitute is allowed.

That last provision is the one that reaches past the offender. Law 24 already says a substitute may not bowl or act as captain. Law 42 says there is no substitute at all. A side plays the rest of the match a fielder short.

What the levels are measuring

Read down the list and the variable is not the seriousness of the act but who it is aimed at. Contact with a player is Level 2; with an umpire, Level 4. A threat to a player is Level 3; to an umpire, Level 4.

Dissent is Level 1, serious dissent Level 2, intimidation of an umpire Level 3. The Law prices anything done to an umpire above the same thing done to anyone else, and it says so by where it puts each line.

The runs are the constant. Five penalty runs is the price at Level 1 from the second offence, at Level 2 from the first, and at Level 3 alongside the suspension. What changes between the levels is not the runs but the time: none, none, ten overs, the rest of the match. The Law escalates in minutes, not in runs.

It is also a Law that escalates by kind, not by count. A second Level 1 offence is still Level 1 and still costs five runs. Three of them do not add up to a Level 2. The levels are categories of act, and repetition raises the bill but not the category.

The one line in another Law

Law 16, on the result, lists the ways a match is drawn and ends the list with a case that is not about runs or time at all. A match is a draw "when Law 42.6.2 is applied". Conduct can determine a result. The Law on results defers to the Law on conduct for one of its outcomes, which is the clearest statement in the code of how far this Law reaches.

Law 42, Players’ conduct: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code →

Law 16, The result: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code →

Law 24, Fielders’ absence; Substitutes: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code →

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No. 3 in By the Book, a series of 17.

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