MCC makes major change in law for catches at boundary line, ‘bunny hops’ to be illegal

In what seems to be a major development in cricketing rules, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has made a major change regarding the catches at the boundary line. The new law will also make the ‘bunny hops’ beyond the boundary line ‘illegal’. So, the fielders will have to be very careful while executing these kinds of spectacular catches beyond or near the boundary line.

The new law explains that if a fielder is in the air, he/she can touch the ball only once while being beyond the boundary line. Following this, he will also need to pull himself/herself back into the playing field and take a catch to make it legal. 

A debate around the ‘bunny hop’ catch started after Michael Neser pulled off a catch in BBL 2023, when he jumped twice beyond the boundary line. It also transliterated into the fact that he landed twice beyond the line. However, the catch was declared legal because there was no specific rule regarding this, but the batter was left annoyed.

Our solution has been to limit any fielder – MCC

“MCC has devised a new wording where the 'bunny hop' wholly beyond the boundary is removed, but these catches where the fielder pushes the ball up from inside the boundary, steps outside and then dives back in to catch the ball, are permitted,” says the new rule introduced by MCC.

“Our solution has been to limit any fielder who has gone outside the boundary to touching the ball while airborne only once, and then, having done so, to be wholly grounded within the boundary for the rest of the duration of that delivery,” the rule adds further.

The new law for the ‘catches at the boundary line’ will come into effect from October 2026; by the same time, the next round of transformations in rules by ICC will be implemented.