In a bizarre rule change, English county club Southwick and Shoreham banned sixes from its matches due to complaints from their neighbours. The new rule change implemented in the game asserted that the first six attempted by a player will not count while the second one will be deemed as out.

The decision was taken due to the smaller dimensions of the ground which led to neighbour Mary Gill, living close to the vicinity, complaining about smashed roofs and broken windows.

“It’s a very small ground,” said a nearby neighbor Mary Gill to MailOnline. “My parents and grandparents lived in this house before me and cricket balls were always sailing over and causing damage. One time – probably in the 1940s – my baby brother was outside in the garden and my mother found a cricket ball in his pram. Over the years we’ve had tiles smashed off the roof, windows broken, and all sorts of damage,” the 80-year-old recalled.

The players from the Southwick and Shoreham CC were unhappy with the decision as they thought it was ridiculous to ban sixes which is a glorious part of the game.

“Hitting the bowler for a six is part of the glory of the sport. How can you ban it? It’s ridiculous. To take that away removes the joy of it. I don’t agree that the rules should be tinkered with in this fashion,” one of the batters said.

“Everything is about health and safety these days and insurance companies are charging a fortune to indemnify sports clubs against accidental damage or injury to bystanders. If you buy a house next to a cricket ground then you’ve got expect a few cricket balls in your garden,” another player would say.

Earlier, in a similar incident, the St. Lawrence ground in Canterbury (Kent) allowed batters to yield four runs by hitting the ball at the tress placed inside the boundary rope.