Ever heard of red and yellow cards in cricket?

Cricket Wellington is reportedly considering introducing rugby-style red and yellow cards as it has become concerned about players' abuse of umpires.

There is a critical shortage of umpires in the New Zealand capital's premier men's club competition, and three matches in this season's Ewen Chatfield Trophy one-day competition have been played without umpires.

Player behaviour is cited as a major factor, as umpires choose to officiate at school first XI level, rather than face abuse in the men's grades, Stuff.co.nz reported.

Chairman of the Cricket Wellington Umpires and Scorers Association, Grant McAlister, said that for premier men's cricket, they need 12 umpires a Saturday and they have been averaging about nine.

He added that a lot of teams and people feel one can have one umpire in a game, but it's actually very hard. He said that if something goes wrong, the players are the first to bounce and bombard one with stuff.

Instead of leaving one umpire to fend for himself, the association has opted to appoint none to certain fixtures. That leaves the players to try to keep order and make decisions.

Cricket Wellington community cricket manager Chris Nevin said that without doubt, the games that haven't had umpires straight away captains haven't been happy about it.

Nevin has made it clear to clubs that things cannot continue as they are. If neither umpire numbers nor player behaviour improves, CW could look at a card system, which has already been tried in a handful of other club competitions around the country.

Nevin said that depending on the behaviour, the players might get a yellow card and they're stood down for an hour during the game, whether they're batting or they're bowling or they're fielding.

He added that if they're in the middle of their innings and they've done something they shouldn't, they get a yellow card and their innings is put on hold for an hour, and they're not allowed to come back in to bat until the team's nine wickets down.

Nevin said that player behaviour does have to improve if they are to see an improvement in umpire numbers. 

Image: Umpire Brent Bowden shows a yellow card after Shane Warne of the Rest of the World XI left the field without being dismissed as part of a bet to raise money for the relief fund during the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal One Day International against The Asian XI played at Melbourne in January 2005.

Photo: Hamish Blair/Getty Images