Little extras add up to lot of trouble (23 May 1999)

23 May 1999

Little extras add up to lot of trouble

Scyld Berry

While the official logo of this World Cup is a pace bowler in his follow-through, the prevailing image so far is that of an umpire with arms outstretched. Extras, and especially wides, have been the 'form' player of the tournament. They have reached 30 in almost half the innings to date and twice passed 50, including the world one-day record of 59 extras Scotland conceded against Pakistan.

These World Cup games were supposed to consist of 50 overs each, but as each side are receiving two extra overs in wides on average, and another in no-balls, they are more like the old Benson and Hedges. It is also becoming rather tedious to see umpires spending most of the early overs with arms extended, although spectators can console themselves that they are being given six per cent more cricket than they have paid for.

Ian Bishop, the West Indian fast bowler, holds the one-day record of 15 wides but Mervyn Dillon, Heath Streak and Wasim Akram have made early bids for his mitre.

Old-timers will assert, with some justification, that bowlers nowadays are sloppy. But the main culprit is the playing condition for this tournament which has never applied to a World Cup before:

"Any offside or legside delivery which, in the opinion of the umpire, does not give the batsman a reasonable opportunity to score shall be called a wide." This longstanding part of the regulation is all right. What is new, and causing so many umpires to do aerobics, is that which follows: "As a guide, on the leg side a ball landing clearly outside the leg stump going further away shall be called wide."

There is nothing the ICC can do except emphasise this is only a guide. The condition was introduced by the ICC into all one-day international cricket last year and will run for two more years before it is reviewed. It looks like a good rule for flat pitches overseas but rather too strict for England in early season.

For the rest of this World Cup, captains will have to learn to live with it, by starting with seamers perhaps and keeping their swingers away from the new ball. A left-handed opening batsman is worth his weight in extras at the moment, especially against right-arm outswing bowlers who will make the odd one stray down legside.

The overall purpose of the wide law is to "prevent negative bowling". Its application should not be taken to such extremes that it encourages bowlers to be negative by deterring them from getting work on the ball and making them concentrate on nothing-ventured seam-up.

At Northampton, the TV umpiring was over-prominent as well when Ken Palmer made the two howlers of the week. Ever since, the South African TV station M-Net has kept replaying the Shaun Pollock dismissal to emphasise the injustice done by Palmer's interpretation.

In the second incident, it could be argued that Chaminda Vaas morally deserved to be credited with catching Daryll Cullinan at long-off. Legally, however, there is no doubt a catcher must remain inside the boundary. If TV umpiring is to be of this standard, viewers might as well phone in to give the verdict.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)