The Marylebone Cricket Club — the custodian of the laws of the game — will allow only umpires the right to decide whether play can be halted because of darkness.

That will eliminate the practice of batting sides stopping play for tactical reasons.

The MCC “has introduced changes aimed at providing more fairness to both sides and reducing the amount of playing time lost,” it said in a statement Thursday.

The other changes include an umpire being required to attend the pre-match toss and the winning captain having to decide whether to bat or bowl immediately. Captains could previously wait until 10 minutes before the start of the game.

The MCC has also reduced the number of warnings given batsmen for damaging the pitch from two to one before penalty runs are issued and banned bowlers from warming up by bowling the ball into the ground to a teammate — an action that can wear the ball and waste time.