CRICKET could be about to follow football in introducing a “yellow card” system to clamp down on any acts of indiscipline.

But leading cricketing figures in Lancashire don’t believe the measures are necessary in the local leagues.

The moves come after ECB chairman Giles Clarke said discussions with the MCC had taken place and officials at Lord’s were proposing to trial the system in minor counties and club cricket next season.

Under the proposals, a player could be sin-binned for a number of overs should he be deemed to have stepped out of line.

And with ‘respect’ the watchword in sport these days, Clarke will have had that in mind when he spoke about the need for a football-style disciplinary procedure to be introduced.

He said: “Though cricket at that level is mainly self-policed, abuse has to be stopped. A rugby player is sent off the field for 10 minutes, one eighth of the game, and a cricketer could go off for 12 overs."”

But former Lancashire chairman, and current ECB chairman of cricket, Jack Simmons – who was part of the high-ranking discussions – doesn’t believe the measures are needed at the grassroots of the game yet.

He said: “I think it would have to be something for the leagues themselves to introduce, but I would hate to think that it would be getting to the stage where anybody has to be sent from the field of play.

“Perhaps in the amateur game it is getting a little bit worse. As for the professional game, one or two have gone over the top but the umpire will have a word and the situation is dealt with.

“If anybody is found to have misbehaved then I would hope that league officials would take the relevant action and ban players for however number of games, like they do in international cricket now with match referees.”

In the last couple of seasons, there has been a concerted effort by the local leagues to improve discipline.

And Brian Woodhead, chairman of the Ribblesdale League, believes that discipline has improved in the past two seasons since the league introduced a disciplinary code of conduct for the players to follow.

He said: “We have a code of conduct that we introduced, which the clubs have adopted and is working well.

"Any disciplinary action is first of all taken by the clubs, and in the last two years it is rare that the league has had to intervene in disciplinary matters at all.”