Rules questions

[Lenzar]

1) While a spinner is bowling, a wide ball is stopped by a slip fielder. Can he stump the batsman out if said batsman was outside of the crease?

2) A fielder takes a catch. He realises he has caught the number 10, whilst a much more skilled batsman could be run out with an accurate throw. Can he choose to reject the catch and run the better batsman out?

[Daemon]

1) Yeah, but I think it'd be classified as a run out rather than stumping

2) No

[andyc]

As above. Only the keeper can get a stumping; anything else it's a run out.

With those answered, and apologies for hijacking the thread a bit, but I've got a couple of fairly specific questions too that I thought of the other day and had no answer for. If the ball hits a helmet on the field it's 5 runs obviously. However:

1) As with the boundary rope, if a fielder is touching the helmet, say with his foot, while he touches the ball, does count as the ball hitting the helmet?

2) If the ball is heading towards the helmet, is the fielder allowed to simply pick up or move it the helmet to keep the ball from hitting it?

[Lenzar]

To clarify my 2), I meant, could the fielder choose to immediately throw the ball to the bowler/wicket keeper, without holding the catch for long enough (how long does a catch have to be held?)

[Crazy Sam]

I think it's more to do with control of the ball, so I would think that if the catcher has enough control to throw the ball accurately to the bowler or keeper, he has taken the catch.

I recall a catch by NZ (?) in a CUB tri-series in around 98-99 where a player caught the ball then dropped it as he went to throw it up in the air. Was deemed a drop as he didn't have control of it.

[andyc]

Originally Posted by Crazy Sam

I think it's more to do with control of the ball, so I would think that if the catcher has enough control to throw the ball accurately to the bowler or keeper, he has taken the catch.

I recall a catch by NZ (?) in a CUB tri-series in around 98-99 where a player caught the ball then dropped it as he went to throw it up in the air. Was deemed a drop as he didn't have control of it.

Well, there's the famous Gibbs dropped catch which was just like that too.

[Crazy Sam]

As for the helmet, I would have thought the 5 penalty runs are for the fielding team 'obstructing the play', so if they move the helmet then the ball wouldn't be obstructed, therefore no penalty runs.

Likewise if they're touching the helmet but the ball doesn't touch it, there wouldn't be penalty runs.