By Karen Knott

A couple of points arose from recent matches. One was the question of a run out when both batters ended up at the same end. Who is out? The umpire must ask a few questions in his mind. Did one of the batters leave his crease or did he leave his ground and then return before the other batter arrived in which case the arriving batter is out or did, they cross at any time? There are quite a few points to consider. I witnessed a case of this in a match in New Zealand recently when both batters ended up at the same end. Unfortunately for the umpire at square leg his view of events was slightly obscured by a fielder and didn’t see what I could from the pavilion. He consulted with his colleague but unfortunately gave the wrong batter out. There was no argument, the batter went. After the match the umpire asked if he had got it correct but I said no but explained how his view was slightly obscured as to the final grounding of the bat. Someone was out. He made the call to the best of his ability. In any case it made no difference to the result.

Recently there has been some concern about player behaviour and acceptance of umpires’ decisions as documented in a letter sent out from the Huddersfield league to their clubs. Umpires go out there to give the best they can and yet often get blamed for a team losing a match through the decision they gave against them. No one mentions the dropped catch, the poor calling which leads to a run out, the almighty miss hit which sees a stump cart wheeling out of the ground. No, it seems its always the umpires decision that is remembered. Players must accept decisions which are made with the best integrity. Umpires have sanctions they can apply with levels of offences for poor behaviour, ranging from a warning, 5 penalty runs, asking the captain to remove a player for one fifth of the overs played if 50 or less, or asking the captain to remove the player for the rest of the game depending on the offence committed. Umpires do the job because they enjoy the game. Let’s face it without them there could be no game. Poor behaviour is not acceptable.