Old ‘experiments’ in new laws

Press, 27 December 1980, Page 14

Old ‘experiments’ in new laws

For the first time since 1947, the Laws of Cricket have been rewritten, and the new code is in use in New Zealand this season. Many of the changes incorporate the many experimental laws of recent years.

Some 70 changes have been made to the old laws, but most of them are minor ones, and are already familiar to present-day players. The New Zealand Cricket Council has decided on one departure from the new laws. The new code puts the responsibility on umpires for deciding the fitness of the ground, weather and light for play. But in New Zealand this season, the batting side may still make one appeal against the light in a period of play.

One of the new laws which is certain to cause difficulty is the requirement that umpires are responsible for the correctness of the scorebooks. That seems ludicrous.

How can an umpire rule, after perhaps six hours in the field, that Jones made 51 and Brown 49 and that they were not each 50? Can he be expected to remember how many times in the day he signalled leg-byes? Modern cricket, particularly oneday limited-over matches, now make heavy de-: mands on umpires. This seems to be an unnecessary extra burden. The laws already cover restrictions on the number of bouncers which may be bowled. Now the laws state that umpires must consider the direction of

the delivery — that is, at the batsman or well away from him. So with intimidation there has to be an intention to injure the batsman. The relative skill of a batsman has to be considered when determining if bowling is intimidatory. Another change relates to the taking of catches. Now, the., fieldsman must remain completely inside a boundary .in the act of taking a catch, and thereafter. He cannot hold a catch and then cross the boundary line. Many cricketers will remember the controversy about a new type of aluminium bat tried out in Australia last, season. The new laws state that the blade of the bat.must be made of wood.

There is an entirely new-

law under the heading “Timed Out.” and it is another one which may not please umpires. It is applied should an incoming batsman wilfully take more than two minutes to come in; the batsman may be given out if. upon appeal, the • umpires investigate and satisfy themselves that the delay was wilful. While the new code tidies the laws, experiments continue. This season in all matches in •; New Zealand except test matches, an experimental lbw law will be in use. It provides that a batsman may be out lbw from a ball pitched outside his leg stump, provided it is delivered from the -opposite side of the striker’s leg stump.