Stokes Protest Points Penalty for Slow Over rate.

In the making of a new controversy, England test captain Ben Stokes has protested against the WTC points cut for the slow over rate during the England v/s New Zealand test match. This it's not the first time when Stokes messed with the ICC for over-rate regulation, during the Ashes in 2023, in the Lord’s test match strokes refused to sign the over-rate sheets and he’s been continuing this since then. His protest also sparked a new debate on the over-rate rules and their penalties in test cricket.

Current regulations 
Current ICC regulations recording over rates are very strict and come with very harsh penalties, as per the regulation teams must maintain 15 overs per hour, if the teams miss the limit, they would be severely penalised with one world test Championship point per over below required over rate along with the 15% match fee.
Impacts on Teams

In the current WTC cycle, there have been penalties on several teams but England is the most penalised team ever in the WTC. England lost a total of 22 points during the cycle, including 19 points from the 2023 Ashes series alone. Recently England and New Zealand both penalised 3-3 points for the slow over rate, the penalty affecting New Zealand's position as they slipped from 4th position to 5th.

Stokes' Arguments
Ben Stokes has raised several concerns about the rule which sounds valid. As per him, the team that relies on base bowling faces the heart effect of the regulation, pace bowling is more time-consuming than spin bowling, so there is a partiality between the countries that rely on fast bowling and the spin-friendly countries, mostly the Asian ones. He also mentioned tactical changes, such as field adjustments, which are essential to Test cricket strategy, which consumes time. He also pointed out that even when the team finished the matches before the time they were still penalized, in the last game there were 10 hours left after the finish of the game. 

ICC wants to maintain the spectator interest and the speed of the game so that more and more matches can be finished with a winning result, but the regulation has discussions about the heavy penalties.

What might be the solution? 
There can be a very simple solution: the penalties happen only when the matches are drawn or all the 450 overs have not been played in the game. If the result comes before the end of the 5th day then there should not be any penalties or heavy penalties on the team with a slow rate.

It will be interesting to see where the debate goes and whether there is any official consideration about the regulation after the continuous protest from England's captain Ben Stokes