Umpires will have the authority to send players off for serious breaches of behaviour under updated laws of the game which will be used from October 1, 2017. "We felt the time had come to introduce sanctions for poor player behaviour and research told us that a growing number of umpires at the grassroots level were leaving the game because of it", said John Stephenson, the MCC's head of cricket. "Hopefully these sanctions will give them more confidence to handle disciplinary issues efficiently”, added John.