Wide ball in Cricket – A History

From time to time, cricket lovers entertain themselves by going to watch the on-field matches or by playing fantasy cricket, which is very much in trend in the recent age. 

The points earned in fantasy cricket games depend on many factors, and one of the factors is the performances of bowlers.  spo

Wide ball is one of the crucial terms in cricket.

Let’s see what information we in our sling bag to share with you: 

A wide ball does not count as one of the bowler’s six legitimate balls in one over.

Wide ball was introduced in the rules of cricket in 1983. Before 1983, only runs scored off the bat were debited against a bowler. The new rule was not introduced uniformly in every test playing nation. All the ICC test cricket full members, excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, implemented the rule in 1983 and after that from their test cricket format. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are the only nations to implement the rule before their first test match. 

Nations	Rule Introduced
Australia	11th November, 1983
England	13th June, 1983
India	14th September, 1983
New Zealand	18th January, 1985
Pakistan	17th October, 1984
South Africa	13th November, 1992
Sri Lanka	30th August, 1985
West Indies	2nd March, 1984

The Rule: 

It is an umpire’s job to decide when a wide ball has been bowled. A wide ball will be called when the batsman, playing a normal stroke, is not capable to reach the ball. This can be relevant to a bouncer above head height. 

However a ball cannot be called wide if: 

• It is out of the batsman’s reach as an outcome of him moving away from it. 
• The striking batsman on the crease can bring the ball within reach by playing a conventional stroke. 
• The ball touches the batsman’s bat or any other part of his body. 

The umpire will gesture a wide ball by raising both arms at shoulder height and the bowler must bowl another justifiable delivery. The rule is that, for every wide ball the fielding team is penalised one run. This run, along with any other runs achieved as an outcome of the wide ball, is added to the batting team’s tally of extras and does count against the bowler’s individual figures. Umpires’ interpretation of what constitutes a wide ball is much stricter in limited-over cricket than in first-class cricket, in particular with deliveries down the leg side. A batsman can be stump off a wide. 

Enjoy reading and happy playing fantasy cricket!