5 Confusing Rules in Cricket

5 What's wide and what's not

The most simple yet most strange decisions can be the call for a wide.

Take for an instance if the batsman takes a step or two outside the stumps, it would be ideal not to call it as a wide even if the ball crosses the marked line.

But on specific occasion if the batsmen fielding just wanders in his crease and stays back in his usual stance and the bowler sprays wide, umpire might be confused whether the batman was moving for the ball and came back in during the time of delivery.

In these days of unconventional cricket, this may happen a lot with batsmen in an attempt to unsettle the rhythm of the bowler, tend to move to alter their lines.

And then there are the special cases. The likes of Kevin Pietersen and David Warner as the masters of switch-hits, change their stance completely, making it tougher for the umpires to make a ruling.

It’s not easy being an umpire in a game of cricket.

4 The LBW decision

This rule must be one of the the most debated ones in the history of the game.

Even for a regular cricket follower, this would be still a mystery why a particular batsman was not given out for a delivery that might’ve surely hit the stumps.

In the earlier years of the sport, the wicket was awarded only when the ball pitched on the stumps and hit in line with the stumps. The ruling of allowing the balls pitching outside off-stump and coming in to hit the batsman in line with the stumps came later.

A right-handed bowler has to be impeccable in his line to get a decision of lbw in his favour against a left-handed batsman, bowling over the wicket, which is the more preferred mode of operation for many bowlers.

Then there’s an issue with the marginal calls, which rest in the hands of the umpire. If more than half the ball lands outside the line of stumps, it’s deemed not out, and so is the case with impact in front of the wicket.

Add to that the close scrutiny of the decisions with the help of technology and it’s definitely not the best rule to start explaining to someone who's new to the game.

3 The boundary rope

The invention of Twenty-20 has led to drastic reduction in the sizes of the grounds.

If you point that to any bowler, he will curse himself for his choice of becoming a bowler like a mad man. There is no fixed boundary in cricket as the ropes and advertisement boards are coming more and more closer the pitch. The problem is not just that.

These are two rules regarding how the boundaries are awarded to a batsman:

(i) the ball either touches the rope or is grounded after the boundary, or

(ii) the fielder, while in contact with the ball, touches the boundary or has some part of his person grounded beyond the rope of the fielder.

This signifies that the ball, even if it lands on the rope is awarded as a six. In any case what if the fielder fielding at the boundary in an attempt to save a four makes a desperate dive and unintentionally pushes the boundary boards/rope slightly further and it stays thereafter for the rest of the match to be played. You might have observed this many a times in a cricket field.

Here comes the important part: In the progress of the match, if the ball is hit to the same spot and lands just inside the rope (at the original place from where the rope was pushed back), it will be a 4 and not a 6. How strange is that!

In these days where every other match goes down to the margin or one or two runs, how valuable would be those crucial few inches to which the rope was extended.

2 Duckworth Lewis Rule

Is there anyone who can claim that they‘ve fully understood the D/L rule other than those two gentlemen who formulated it?

In the most recent Twenty-20 match that was in the controversy was the IPL game between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils. Sunrisers were asked to chase just about run a ball when the actual target was more than 140 in 20 overs. 

There is some loud opposition coming from players for the Twenty-20s for a need of alternative for this ruling.

This rule also needs the batsmen to be told after every ball where they stand in accordance to the par score. It involves confusion and no common fan can claim to understand it fully. There is a compulsion on the support staff to let the batsmen know of their situation and strategy on how to go about the chase every over.

1 Net Run Rate

Talk of the country after last night has been how Mumbai Indians made it to the play-offs as they didn’t cross the target within the alloted deliveries which was needed to push their NRR above Rajasthan Royals. Actually they did. They would have still qualified had they hit a boundary in any of their next 2 balls as it would have taken them to 193. The final score is the category for NRR calculations, and not the target.

In these cases clarification couldn’t have been possible had the play not stopped due to that dismissal of Rayudu. The batsmen in middle were not informed that they need boundary to qualify. They might have just taken a single off the next ball. Mumbai would have exited the competition.

When chasing, most players enjoy finishing off the match with a boundary. However it will be just a single if the batsmen setting off for a single reach the other end before the ball reaches the boundary. Yes, you will not be awarded those 3 runs which you deserve if you complete the single.

Run rate calculation has always been troubling for the common fans, adding more confusion (and excitement) during a match.

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