Cricket is one of the most popular sports on earth right now. Over a billion fans watch cricket matches regularly, and the biggest events in the sport include the Indian Premier League, the ICC T20 World Cup and the ICC Cricket World Cup.
While it seems like a simple game, there are some things related to cricket which are tough to understand even for the die-hard fans. Here is a list of such two rules.
1. Wide rule
The on-field umpires can rule a delivery from a bowler as ‘wide’ if it is outside the drawn wide lines on the pitch. There is also a rule that if the ball goes down the leg-side in white-ball cricket, it will be called a wide. However, with the evolution of batting shots, the wide rule seems to have become relative.
In the recently-concluded Indian Premier League season, there were multiple instances when the ball was was outside the off stump. However, the umpires did not call it a wide because the batter changed his stance and came closer to the fourth stump line. It is unclear to many fans how is the call made if a batter moves from his position. Even the decisions for reverse sweeps and switch hits seem confusing.
2. Duckworth Lewis Method in cricket
Will it be advantage employees if Salary is given by Duckworth Lewis in rainy months. If baarish mein bhi employee is coming to office. What do HR log think?
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) July 9, 2019
Fans are gradually understanding the net run rate calculations in this sport, but they are yet to understand the Duckworth Lewis method. In one of his previous interviews after a rain-hit game against the Australian cricket team, Virat Kohli had said: “We don’t really understand the Duckworth Lewis method. After getting them down to 118, we thought it would only be 40 or something. 48 was tricky.”
MS Dhoni, who is one of the most successful cricketers in history, also failed to understand the DLS method. “I don’t think even ICC understands the DLS method,” Dhoni had said once.
