By Dale Budge
Perhaps the time has come for cricketing associations to remove the LBW rule from the game in all games that do not have officially appointed umpires.
The game continues to be blighted by inconsistent and ill-informed decision making around the leg before rule in grades below premier cricket and is often the source of frustration that can at times boil over into verbal abuse or worse.
Let’s face it, adjudging LBW decisions is not easy at the best of times – you only need to watch professional cricket on the international stage, with fully fledged professional umpires and players, to see how easy it is to incorrectly decide whether a batsman should be out or not.
The game now uses technology with multiple cameras, slow motion, hot spot, snicko and ball tracking etc to work out whether a player is out or not. Elite players incorrectly challenge a decision in almost every game played while elite umpires have decisions overturned on a regular basis.
If the very best make mistakes how on earth can we expect local club players to get decisions right?
In my experiences natural bias occurs when player umpires are used. Some players don’t know the LBW rules accurately and many just see being hit in front as a reason to expect a decision to be out regardless of where the ball has come from or where it is going.
To simplify things and remove a lot of the ill-feeling that comes with player umpires, I would simply remove the LBW rule altogether in the lower grades.
There is no two-day cricket played below Premier Reserve these days so if a player wants to stand in front of their stumps and simply survive, they can do that until their heart is content but it isn’t going to result in winning the game.
Without LBWs to worry about, there is a good chance players will play a more positive brand of cricket, which can only be a good thing.
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