Cricket’s laws were written long before the Ashes began, but are still a ‘work in progress’
PHOTO: A 1748 painting titled A Cricket Match at Mary-le-Bone Fields. (Melbourne Cricket Club)
When the umpires place the bails on the sets of stumps 22 yards apart for the first Ashes Test in Birmingham this Thursday and call “play”, they will be reproducing a set of actions that have been in place for almost 300 years.
For all the decision reviews, switch hits, infra-red cameras, wide bats, data analysis, pink balls and ball-tracking technology, the simple act of a bowler sending down a ball to a batter defending a set of stumps has remained as unchanged as the characteristic sound of that leather on willow.
Or has it?
The row over the overthrows in the final over of the recent World Cup Final showed that even the best credentialled commentators — even former Test captains — didn’t know all the rules of cricket.
The game in its various forms had been played possibly for hundreds of years before 1744, when a group of gentlemen calling themselves The Cricket Club first codified the game by drawing up a set of six rules at the Star and Garter Hotel in London’s Pall Mall.
The writing and syntax are at times impenetrable — maybe it was the times, or maybe it was the ale at the Star and Garter.
But through the spelling mistakes, dodgy grammar and quaint expressions emerges the game of cricket we know and love.
PHOTO: Even today, the rules of the game can be confusing even to those who have played professionally. (AP: Alastair Grant)“The pitching the first wicket is to be determined by the cast of a piece of money when the first wicket is pitched and the popping crease cut, which must be exactly 3 Foot 10 inches from the wicket. The Other Wicket is to be pitched directly opposite, at 22 yards distance,” they wrote.
“The bowler must deliver the Ball with one foot behind the Crease even with the wicket, and when he has bowled one ball or more shall Bowl to the number 4 before he changes wickets.
“If the wicket be bowled down its out … A Stroke or Nip over or under his Batt or upon his hands (but not arms), if the Ball be held before She touches the Ground, though She be hugged to the Body, its out.”
She, of course, is the ball.
“If Either of the Strikers is crossed in his running Ground designedly, which design must be determined by the Umpires. NB – The Umpires may order that notch to be scored.”
Before runs, there were notches — literally a mark in a piece of wood. Every 10th notch was deeper to help tally up at the end of the innings.
A handy ready reckoner was produced for players — a handkerchief measuring 70-by-70 centimetres which featured an illustration of the standard fielding positions of the day, with those six rules written around the borders, could be whipped out if any clarification was required.
There are just three of those handkerchiefs still in existence. One at Lords, one in private ownership and one at the Melbourne Cricket Club.
The first six laws of cricket were printed on a handkerchief for easy reference. (Melbourne Cricket Club)The birth of the boundary and six
Melbourne Cricket Club librarian David Studham said the major changes in the early days of cricket involved the development of round-arm and then overarm bowling, which was officially legalised in 1864 — 13 years before the first Test in Melbourne.
In that period the number of stumps grew from two to three and the size of the bats was limited.
One of the biggest developments of the game in the 19th century was overarm bowling. (State Library of Victoria)“There was once incident when somebody turned up with a bat that was the width of the stumps,” Mr Studham said.
“There was a complaint made and as a result the size of the bat was regulated for the first time.”
By 1884, a new code of laws was introduced — now there were 55.
“That really regulated, for the first time, much of the game that had been left in the dark or given to gentle assumptions by people.”
For example, 1884 was the first time the word “boundary” had been explicitly used in the laws.
“A six only comes in the early years of the 20th century,” Mr Studham said.
Cricket-loving crowds have been flocking to “The G” for centuries. (State Library of Victoria)Before then, hitting the ball over the fence was only worth five runs. To get a six you literally had to hit the ball out of the ground — over the top of the grandstand and into the park.
In 1744 the two stumps could be no more than 22 inches high — no doubt in line with the underarm bowling of the day — but by 1931 they had grown to between 27 and 28 inches high and widened to nine inches.
Then in 1947 the laws were upgraded again.
Warwick Armstrong gets creative
For the first time, the overthrow laws that caused so much controversy in the World Cup final were introduced. Runs from overthrows would be added to the runs already scored and fielders couldn’t manipulate the scores through a “wilful act”.
The rule was introduced to stop the likes of Australian captain Warwick Armstrong from kicking the ball into the fence after the batsmen had already run five so they would only score four. Now, that act would be worth nine runs.
Warwick Armstrong’s tomfoolery forced many changes to the rules of the game. (Melbourne Cricket Club)Armstrong was always one for stretching or even breaking the rules. In the 1921 tour of England, he managed to bowl two overs in row (one from each end) during the Manchester Test.
The rules have changed several times since — most recently in 2017.
Sydney and Melbourne play an intercolonial match on January 20, 1866. (State Library of Victoria)Those six rules, which could be written around the border of an (admittedly oversized) hanky, now run to more than 100 pages.
Indeed, the Marylebone Cricket Club, which administers the laws, has published a 450-page book called Tom Smith’s Cricket Umpiring and Scoring to explain the rules in plain English.
“The modern game, with its intricacies of broadcasting and money, really means that we have to write more. And the more we write, the more we have to write,” former ICC elite panel umpire Simon Taufel said.
Taufel, who still sits on the MCC laws sub-committee, said the laws of cricket are “a work in progress”.
Even though so much about the game has changed, much still remains the same. (State Library of Victoria)“As soon as we try to tweak and change a law it provides another opportunity for additional problems and consequences,” Taufel said.
“The laws have gone through a couple of hundred years of refining and discussing and revision to keep pace with the game.”
And yet the more things change, they more they stay the same. There’s still a bowler, a batter, a sphere of leather, a lump of willow, and two sets of wickets 22 yards apart.
