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Rohit Sharma remonstrated with the umpire during the final over of Mumbai’s chase against RPS. (Source: PTI)
LATE ON Monday night, Rohit Sharma asked umpire S Ravi for a mid-pitch explainer at the Wankhede Stadium about what constitutes an off-side wide in T20 cricket. This after he felt peeved at being denied one when Jaidev Unadkat’s off-cutter slid well past the guideline provided for the umpires in the final over of Mumbai’s run-chase. Rohit, though, had walked across his stumps at the point the ball crossed the line of the stumps, and it was this “move” that led to Ravi deciding against spreading his arms out. (Results | Fixtures | Points Table)
It’s unlikely that umpire Ravi would have had enough time to take Rohit through the intricacies of an off-side wide. But here, we find out what the lawbook says and how an umpire interprets it.
When it is a wide: According to Law 25 in the MCC manual, the ball will be considered as passing wide of the striker unless it is sufficiently within his reach for him to be able to hit it with his bat by means of a normal cricket stroke. A wide basically is a ball that the umpire interprets as being out of a batsman’s reach. In limited-overs cricket the umpire is provided with a reference point, the 17-inch demarcation, which is 17 inches or 43.18 cm to the right of the off-stump. The guideline is an aid that assists him in deciding whether the batsman in his normal stance—which is a leg-stump, middle-stump or at times an off-stump guard—cannot quite get bat to ball. So if Rohit stood his ground, Unadkat would have had to bowl another delivery and Mumbai would have gotten a crucial extra run.
When it isn’t a wide: The umpire shall not adjudge a delivery as being a wide (a) if the striker, by moving, either (i) causes the ball to pass wide of him, as defined in 1(b) above or (ii) brings the ball sufficiently within his reach to be able to hit it by means of a normal cricket stroke.
At Wankhede, Rohit took at least a couple of steps towards the ball. And it’s understood that when a batsman moves, the 17-inch line moves with him. And it’s then left to the umpire’s interpretation about whether at the point the ball crosses the line of the stumps, whether it was wide enough outside the batsman’s reach. On Monday, Ravi clearly deduced that Rohit had moved close enough to bring the ball “within his reach to be able to hit it”. Similarly the ball wouldn’t have been a wide if Rohit had given himself a lot of room to say play an inside-out shot and created the 17-inch distance between him and the ball, if it had crossed within the guideline.
When it is a wide regardless of a batsman’s movement: The ball passes wide of the return crease, regardless of the striker bringing it within reach but failing to make contact. There is one scenario in which ‘batsman’s reach’ isn’t a factor at all. That’s when the bowler somehow manages to push the ball beyond the box or the return crease. In this case it doesn’t matter how close or far the batsman is to playing a shot to the ball.
When the angle of delivery dictates whether it is a wide or not: A right arm bowler bowling around the wicket to a right hand batsman or a left arm bowler bowling around the wicket to a left hand batsman bowls full pitched yorkers on the off side just within the “Wide Guideline (Off Side)”
According to an Indian umpire who’s officiated in a few ODIs and T20s, there are firm guidelines that have been laid for consistent interpretation of wides and the human element involved is rather limited. There is little question of an umpire being subjective, he says. The ICC releases circulars every year with specific guidelines for new situations that arise in modern-day cricket. The wide yorker for example is a widely used weapon in the death overs to make life difficult for batsmen. And some seamers prefer creating an even more chronic angle by going around the wicket.
“Full deliveries from around the wicket to a batsman close to the 17-inch wide line is to be treated as a negative tactic because you are limiting the batsman’s reach,” the umpire says. In these cases, wide yorkers from this angle can be called a wide even if they pass within the guideline. So there’s little margin for error for a Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who likes to go this way in the final overs. The same rule doesn’t apply for a delivery from that angle pitched on a length, as a batsman can still get under the ball or swing at it.
When a batsman is playing a reverse sweep or a switch-hit: The leg stump wide interpretation is no longer in play. The Wide Guideline (Off Side) shall apply on both sides of the stumps. Whenever a batsman attempts a reverse sweep or switches his grip on the bat after the ball has been delivered, the leg-stump wide is out of question. Only off-side wide rules apply, which means the ball should be wide enough—ideally more than the 17-inch range—to be out of his reach on either side. This makes it fair on a bowler whose line has otherwise been compromised by the audacity of the batsman to switch his grip or stance at the last moment.
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