Fielders Should Not Move Significantly Before The Ball Is Bowled

Vaughn stated that he was unaware he was contravening Section 7 of Law 41 by moving from slip to leg slip as the ball was bowled. This was an unwise thing to do, as the media will bring up the Mike Gatting - Shakoor Rana incident at the slightest provocation (or none) and it was Gatting's moving of the field as the bowler was running up to bowl that provoked the row.

A similar incident occurred in the 1997 Bombay Test between India and Sri Lanka where de Silva was caught by Rajesh Chauhan who sprinted from square leg to midwicket whilst the bowler Javagal Srinath was in his run up. The umpires Bucknor and Jayaprakash were criticised for not preventing the dismissal.

Vaughn's actions were a clear infringement of the rules (not just the spirit of cricket this time Ricky!) and should have been punished by the umpires with an immediate call of dead ball and an embarrassing reprimand for the England captain. If I were the match referee for the 1st Test I'd have a quiet word with Vaughn, informing him that what maybe ignored in a 14-aside non-first class warm-up game, will not be tolerated in a Test match.