LBW and leg bye laws to remain unchanged: MCC

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the world’s most active cricket club and the guardian of the laws of the game, will not change the laws for leg before wicket dismissals and leg byes.

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell had recently proposed radical changes in the LBW laws, stating that a batsman should be given out leg-before as long as the ball is hitting the stumps irrespective of the spot of its landing and impact.

“The new LBW law should simply say: ‘Any delivery that strikes the pad without first hitting the bat and in the umpire’s opinion would go on to hit the stumps is out regardless of whether or not a shot is attempted”, he had proposed.

Such suggestions are not new but would, MCC feels, result in an increase in negative, run-saving bowling from around the wicket at the batsman’s pads, which would not improve the game as a spectacle

“The current law encourages ‘pad play’ to balls pitching outside leg, while this change would force them to use their bat.the change would reward bowlers who attack the stumps and decrease the need for negative wide deliveries to a packed off-side field,” Chappell, 76, had further said.

“MCC has no plans to alter the LBW law or the leg bye law in the near future,” the club in an e-mail response to a query from this reporter. Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar is of the opinion to do away with the leg bye law (23-2).

“Such suggestions are not new but would, MCC feels, result in an increase in negative, run-saving bowling from around the wicket at the batsman’s pads, which would not improve the game as a spectacle,” the law office said.