In cricket, a penalty run is a run awarded to one team for various breaches of the Laws by the other team, generally related to unfair play or player conduct.
Penalties are awarded under Law 41 for Unfair Play [1] and, since 2017 under Law 42 for Players' Conduct [2] It has been suggested that penalty runs could be imposed for slow over rates.
Under Law 42[15] five penalty runs are awarded to either team if the umpire judges the conduct of their opponents unacceptable.
One reason for this is that such an award on the pitch by the umpires will be a judgement of a wilful act, and hence of cheating, which the umpires are unable to determine conclusively at the time, or prefer to be made by the Match Referee at more leisure.
Some of the recent Law changes are specifically intended to curb deteriorating behaviour in recreational cricket and hence address the retention of umpires [18]