CRICKET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 January 1941, Page 2

CRICKET

FATE OF THE BATSMAN. CAN BE OUT TEN WAYS. A correspondent propounds the old conundrum :“How many ways can a bastman be out?" and then proceeds to furnish an answer with something like a sting in the tail. Laws 21 to 30 in the Laws of Cricket say that there are nine ways of a batsman being out. They are (1) bowled, (2) caught, (3) stumped, <4> leg before wicket, (5) hit wicket, (6) obstructing the field, (7) hit ball twice, (8) run out, (9) handled the ball.

But, points out the correspondent, there is surely also another way, often overlooked by those in authority—the batsman who takes more than two minutes to come in can. on an appeal by the fielding side, be given out by the umpire.

Thus, there must actually be ten ways in which a batsman can be out, instead of nine, as summarised in many text-books?

In effect, this is correct. Yet. M.C.C. rules provide not exactly that the striker is out if he takes over two minutes to come in, but that the whole side is out.

That the whole side should be adjudged out, or to have lost the match, is considered rather drastic, so most associations have adopted a rule which provides for the individual batsman being given out if he takes over two minutes to get to the crease. In such a ease, the next batsman on the list comes in.