Umpiring conundrum

[Blenkinsop]

This happened in a club match at the weekend. Bowler has a straight run-up coming directly behind the umpire, then jumping wide at the last minute to bowl right arm round the wicket. Batsman asks the umpire to stand back from the stumps, as otherwise he's unsighted until the delivery stride. Bowler wants the umpire to stand right up to the stumps, saying that otherwise the umpire would be obstructing his run-up. Who's right and where should the ump stand?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Instinctively I wanna say the bowler. Primarily because quite a few bowlers hide their delivery hand in their other one until they hit the delivery stride, so the batsman is unsighted as to what delivery it might be until then, and this seems a broadly analogous situation.

 

[Starfighter]

Bowler. If the batsman is disconcerted by the runup, that's their problem. There's nothing against it in the laws.

I was convinced by someone to come from behind the umpire bowling over wicket in juniors and yes people did complain.

 

[TheJediBrah]

The bowler's the only one who has a say on this. Batsman has some balls trying to have their way. Would be like a bowler trying to move the sightscreen

 

[cnerd123]

The real answer is neither. The umpire should stand where he can get best view of the popping crease and the batsman both. If you're moving your neck up and down significantly you might miss what happens at the strikers end, or you'll not be able to call no balls.

If you can accommodate the bowler's request, great, but you must be able to do your job first. Otherwise the bowler needs to revamp his run-up. The batsman's opinion is irrelevant.

 

[Burgey]

The batsman's opinion is irrelevant.

This is how it should always be tbh