Leg before wicket
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In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket (lbw) is one of the ways in which a batsman can get be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out lbw under a complex series of circumstances that primarily include the ball hitting the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued to hit the wicket. The lbw rule is designed to prevent a batsman protecting his wicket against being bowled with his body, rather than his bat.
Despite the word leg in leg before wicket, the rule applies if the ball hits the batsman on any part of his body, except for the glove of a hand in contact with the bat (which is considered part of the bat).
Conditions for LBW
The conditions for a batsman to be given out lbw are:
- The ball must be legal
- The ball must not be a no ball.
- The ball must miss the bat
- If the batsman manages to hit the ball with his bat before the ball hits his body, he cannot be out lbw.
- The ball must have been going to hit the wicket
- If the ball's trajectory suggests that it would have missed the wicket had the batsman not been present, then he cannot be out lbw.
- The ball must not pitch on the leg side of the wicket
- An imaginary line is drawn parallel to the long axis of the pitch from the leg stump. If the ball pitches (bounces) on the leg side of this line, then the batsman cannot be out lbw.
- If the batsman is attempting to hit the ball with his bat, the ball must strike his body directly in front of the wicket
- If the ball hits the batsman outside the line of the wicket, and he was attempting to hit it (usually referred to as "playing a stroke") with his bat, he may not be out lbw.
The last condition involves the judgment of the umpire on whether the batsman has attempted to play a shot at the ball. It is designed to prevent batsmen from merely kicking the ball away outside the off stump, which provides no chance of giving up a catch off the bat. A common defensive tactic against spin bowlers is to use the leg pad to defend against balls on the off side, but the lbw rule means they must either have the bat placed near the pad, thus providing a chance for edging a catch to the slip fielders, or risk being ruled out lbw.
The lbw rule is always judged by the umpire at the bowler's end. If the fielding team believes a batsman may be out lbw, they must appeal to that umpire for a decision.
All the lbw conditions must be assessed for the delivery, which takes around half a second to reach the batsman. As in other aspects of the rules, the batsman is always given the benefit of any doubt so, if an umpire is unsure, the appeal will be turned down. An example of this is if the batsman take a step forward before the ball hits the batsman's leg. The ball might well have gone on to hit the wicket, but it is very difficult for the umpire to be certain of this, as the ball would have been 1.5-2 metres in front of the wicket as it hit the batsman's leg. With the benefit of television replays it is common to show that all of the lbw conditions were satisfied thus some people complain that an umpire wrongly allowed a batsman to continue. However since the umpire should be certain that a batsman is out in order to call him out, and he has no benefit of television replay, the umpire's decision is usually appropriate. Most players and commentators acknowledge this and criticism of umpires is minimal.
The lbw decision is arguably the hardest the umpires have to make, and can be a source for commentary and controversy amongst the spectators. In recent years, with the increasing amounts of pressure and money at stake in cricket, several people have been campaigning for a larger role of cameras and simulation technology such as Hawk-Eye to aid the umpire in the
uncertain cases. However, as of now, lbw remains a decision that falls solely under the purview of the on-field umpire.
It is worth noting that a batsman can be out lbw if the ball hits the pad first and then goes on to hit the bat (a so-called pad-bat), but not in the case where the batsman hits the ball with the bat but the ball then goes on to hit his pad (a bat-pad). However, in the latter case, a batsman runs the risk of being out caught, as the ball may ricochet off the pad at a relatively low speed for a close fielder (such as silly mid on) to catch.
See also
External link
- Law 36 (http://www.lords.org/laws-and-spirit/laws-of-cricket/laws/law-36-leg-before-wicket,62,AR.html) of the Laws of Cricket