Leg before wicket
In
cricket,
leg before wicket (lbw) is the dismissal of a
batsman when the ball hits the player's leg pads when it would have continued to hit the stumps. Interestingly, although it is called "leg" before wicket, practically, it applies to any part of the body except the gloves holding the bat. The ball must also have been pitched in line with the stumps or on the off-side for the
umpire to give the batsman 'out'; furthermore, if the batsman is hit outside the line of the off-stump, he cannot be given out if he is attempting to hit the ball.
If the bowler thinks the ball would have hit the wicket, he calls "How's that", asking the umpire for his opinion. This is called as an appeal. If the umpire determines that the batsman is out, he raises his arm forward with his index finger up.
When assessing the appeal the umpire must make a judgment as to whether:
- the delivery was a fair one (i.e. not a no-ball);
- the ball pitched in line with the stumps;
- the batsman attempted to play a shot;
- the batsman did not hit the ball with the bat before being blocked;
- the ball would have hit the stumps had it not been blocked by the batsman's legs or any part of the body except the gloves.
All this has to be assessed about a delivery that takes less than half a second to reach the batsman. The lbw decision is probably the hardest the umpires have to make, and a source for commentary and controversy amongst the spectators. In recent years, with the huge amount of pressure and money at stake in cricket, several people have been pushing for a bigger role of cameras and simulation technology to aid the umpire and minimize errors in these decisions. However, as of now, lbw remains one of the few decisions that fall solely under the purview of the on-field umpire.
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