CRICKET COMMENTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 93, 10 December 1931, Page 6

CRICKET COMMENTS

"Cover-point.")

(By

The Rotorua representative cricket team selected to play the Bay of Plenty Sub-Association at Matata on December 13 is an evenly balanced side and it is pleasing to see a number of the younger players ineluded. It was the intention to choose from the players .participating in the match a Bay of Plenty Minor Association team to play Southern Hawke's Bay in an elimination game to decide the challengers for the Hawke Cup. Owing to the ruling of the New Zealand Council that the match must be played at Dannevirke, however, it is unlikely that the fixture will eventuate, the chief reason being the lack of finance. "Leg Before Wicket" DJfccision. No decisions cause so much discussion and heart-burnings as those for "leg before wicket." And yet, compared with that for a catch at the wicket, the matter is fairly simple. Besides which, it must be remembered that , in contrast with va catch at the wicket, the umpire is the only person who is in a position to give ' a decision — neither bowler nor wicketkeeper, and certainly not the batsman, . can be sure of a eorrect view. The real difficulty is when the ball is played by the bat before touching the pads. The distance traversed by the ball between the bat and pads is so short that it is hardly possible for any deflection to be noticed while the "snick," if audible at all, is often swallowed up in the subsequent blow against the batsman's legs. However, except for this the matter is a much a more simple one than it is often | supposed to be. Three consideration? 1 only are relevant: (a) the ball must f be pitched in a straight line between | the wickets; (b) it must be going to g hit the wicket; and (c) it must be 1 intercepted by some part of the bats- f man's person other than his hand i (for this purpose "leg" means arm | or head or any part of the body or | clo thing, except the hand or batting | glove — even the wrist is "leg"). The | point from which the ball is bowled | — whether over or round the wicket | — or whether the ball is straight or | breaks, has nothing whatever to do i with the case. | Position of Umpire | In general an umpire should, as i mentioned before, stand so as to have s the two middle stumps in line, but | if he finds a bowler swinging across | from either off or leg he will find it | a wise plan to incline his body slight- t ly so as to have the two off stumps 1 or the two leg stumps respectively in j line; for if a bowler of this type pit- * ches the ball on the middle stump he usually misses the wicket, and the result of a "leg-before" appeal will generally rest on the question whether the ball was pitched just on the wicket or just off. Leg Before Decision. One often hears it said that a round-the-wicket bowler should not obtain a leg-before decision. The note on law 24 should dispose of this doubt, for it is more explicit; a bowler who delivers.the ball from a point immediately above the return crease can « ,iit the wicket with a perfectly straight ball pitched on the wicket at a distance of about five feet in front of the popping crease. This is, of course, a well-pitched-up ball, but with any break in the right direction the ball may be pitched shorter. Even a round-arm bowler, who delivers the ball from a point three feet outside the return crease — an extreme case — could obtain a leg-before decision with a perfectly straight ball, pitching 18 inches or so in front of the popping crease. In actual practice, many round-the-wicket bowlers bowl nearer to the centre line of the wicket than some so-called over-the-wicket bowlers. I know of one of the latter who is frequently no-balled for bowling outside the return crease; while I know one of the former who constantly knocks down the wicket as he bowls. Here is a case in which it would be much easier for the round-the-wicket bowler to obtain a legoefore decision than the over-the-wicket bowler. Each ball must be taken on its merits, and the three considerations mentioned above are all that concern the umpire. Whether the ball is pitched on the wicket is easy to decide, provided the umpire is standing in the right position. Whether the ball would have hit the wicket is another question, and cannot be decided definitely until the umpire has gSen the bowler in action for some overs. A poin1 often overlooked is whether the ball even if straight will rise above the top of the stumps or no. The difficulty of deciding whether the ball has hit the batsman's person or was touched first by the bat has already been mentioned. Stumped. . The batsman's foot, or part of it, must be grounded within the popping crease; on the line is out. Gonsequently if his foot is on the line only, he may be legitimately stumped. The wicketlceeper must not be over eager and take the ball before it has. passed the wicket. One sometimes sees this done with a very slow ball, to which the batsman has jumped out. Again, the batsman, after completing his stroke, will sometimes lift his back foot off the ground without moving it forward. Here again he may be rightly stumped, and the wiclcetkeeper is quite justified in waiting to see if the foot is lifted. It is for the umpire to decide whether the ball is "finally settled" in the wicketkeeper's hand, and is therefore dead. If* he thinks the wicketkeeper is eontemplating putting the wicket down, he must decide that the ball is still in play. A