Intimidatory Bowling warnings, what are the rules?

[karan_fromthestands]

I have seen bits and pieces of the first 4 days and the entire last day, I was surprised by Oxenford warning Shardul Thakur for "intimidatory bowling" when he bowled a few short balls to Pat Cummins who is not that bad with the bat. But he gave a free pass to the Aussie bowlers, particularly when Cummins was going on and on with the short stuff against Sundar. Now Oxenford is a pretty good empire and I am not raising questions on his integrity, I am just confused about when exactly the umpires step in and warn the bowlers for intimidatory bowling. I am pretty sure there might have been other bowlers called out for the same and we might have missed it looking at how normal the interaction was between the bowler and the umpire in this instance. How does this really work?

 

[cnerd123]

Apparently the law is only enforced if a bowler bowls 3 or more 'bouncers' in an over. Bouncer is defined as any delivering that crosses the batsman above shoulder height.

Whether or not a bowler is actually 'intimidating' a batsman seems to be irrelevant.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

Apparently the law is only enforced if a bowler bowls 3 or more 'bouncers' in an over. Bouncer is defined as any delivering that crosses the batsman above shoulder height.

Whether or not a bowler is actually 'intimidating' a batsman seems to be irrelevant.

That makes the rule useless, and it also clears a lot.

 

[cnerd123]

Yea that's what we were discussing in the match thread this whole series.

The alternative puts the onus on judging a grey area onto the umpires, which isn't great. Leads to a lot of controversy. I'd rather the retire the law from International cricket entirely and just fold the penalties into the Playing Condition that governs the number of bouncers in an over.

The law serves a role in grassroots cricket but doesn't have a place in the professional level anymore IMO

 

[Shri]

not blaming the umpire here. he's just doing his job

but the rule itself sucks

like you can get away with 145-150kmph balls aimed at the ribs, breaking hands etc but not 130kmph balls that loop over the batter's head slowly? that is a joke.

 

[NotMcKenzie]

Looking at the actual laws (not the ICC playing conditions), that's not actually true:

41.6 Bowling of dangerous and unfair short pitched deliveries

41.6.1 The bowling of short pitched deliveries is dangerous if the bowler’s end umpire considers that, taking into consideration the skill of the striker, by their speed, length, height and direction they are likely to inflict physical injury on him/her. The fact that the striker is wearing protective equipment shall be disregarded.

But no one seems to have noticed because they don't want to.

 

[NotMcKenzie]

The ICC playing conditions are similar:

41.6 Bowling of dangerous and unfair short pitched deliveries
41.6.1 Notwithstanding clause 41.6.2, the bowling of short pitched deliveries is dangerous if the bowler’s end umpire considers that, taking into consideration the skill of the striker, by their speed, length, height and direction they are likely to in inflictct physical injury on him. The fact that the striker is wearing protective equipment shall be disregarded.
...
41.6.2 A bowler shall be limited to two fast short-pitched deliveries per over.
41.6.3 A fast short-pitched delivery is defined as a ball, which would have passed above the shoulder height of the striker standing upright at the popping crease.

In summary, balls passing above the magic height are automatically defined as dangerous, but other short-pitched deliveries can be considered so even though they don't pass above the magic height. Of course, whether umpires will actually exercise this discretion given them is another question entirely.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

The ICC playing conditions are similar:



In summary, balls passing above the magic height are automatically defined as dangerous, but other short-pitched deliveries can be considered so even though they don't pass above the magic height. Of course, whether umpires will actually exercise this discretion given them is another question entirely.

Oh, in that case the umpires do have some amount of flexibility which they never exercise.

 

[cnerd123]

The ICC playing conditions are similar:

In summary, balls passing above the magic height are automatically defined as dangerous, but other short-pitched deliveries can be considered so even though they don't pass above the magic height. Of course, whether umpires will actually exercise this discretion given them is another question entirely.

it was mentioned on air, or by someone on CW, that the reason Thakur got pinged for 41.6 was because he bowled a 3rd bouncer in an over. That in of itself is what triggered the warning, and that this was apparently a matter of protocol amongst umpires.

Now whether they meant this was written instruction give by ICC, or whether this was just something all umpires did as a matter of convention (such as how they refer all run-outs to the third umpire, or how they used to not give LBWs if a player 'got a big stride in') IDK.

Clearly it's not written in the actual published PCs. Something worth looking into further. Could just be the umpire made a mistake, but Bruce Oxenford is pretty solid.

 

[Spark]

yeah they followed the existing protocol. but the existing protocol doesn't actually do what any reasonable person would assume the rule demands based on a plain reading of the text of the rule.

 

[Senile Sentry]

Bowl 130 kph fruity loops a harmlessly above a batsmans head, and be a non Aussie.

Pauls' Rules, CA, 2021.

 

[jimmy101]

Apparently the law is only enforced if a bowler bowls 3 or more 'bouncers' in an over. Bouncer is defined as any delivering that crosses the batsman above shoulder height.

Whether or not a bowler is actually 'intimidating' a batsman seems to be irrelevant.

From watching yesterday's action there was definitely an over or two where Cummins bowled 6 bouncers in a row to Pujara. Was expecting the umpire to step in, especially after he was hit on the helmet a few times, but nothing was said at all.

 

[Starfighter]

From watching yesterday's action there was definitely an over or two where Cummins bowled 6 bouncers in a row to Pujara.

Just because he ducked them doesn't mean they were over shoulder height.

 

[Line and Length]

41.6.3 A fast short-pitched delivery is defined as a ball, which would have passed above the shoulder height of the striker standing upright at the popping crease.

This definition of a fast short-pitched delivery is defining short-pitched deliveries that are virtually harmless, no matter what the speed. Howmany batsmen stand fully upright when at the crease?