Benefit of doubt - to whome?

Of late, more and more cases arise of the benefit of doubt going to the bowler in the case of doubtful decisions and decisions of judgement. This is good for the game – from a bowler’s point of view at least.

Many are of the opinion that cricket has been and is a batsman’s game. To me, it is not all that clear. I write this article shortly after Sachin Tendulkar was out LBW to Simon Taufel. The preceding sentence has no error. Collingwood was the bowler, Tendulkar was on 91. Tendulkar was struck inarguably outside the line of the off stump. The ball was not going on to hit the stump – both from judgement of the naked eye first up and as per hawk eye - and Simon Taufel gave Tendulkar out. A crucial point is to be noted here – Tendulkar did not offer a shot.

The law states that a batsman may be given out if the ball has struck him outside the line of off stump when he is not offering a shot. Although this is how it is, the umpires have been apprehensive to give a batsman out under these circumstances. That is changing in the recent past, which is for the good. Batsmen have to be penalised for taking advantage of the protective covering in such a manner.

Now, with Tendulkar’s decision, it may have just gone a bit too far. Simon Taufel is a modern umpire and for all I have seen of him, an exemplary one. Today’s decision against Tendulkar says a lot. The whole outside off stump and not offering a shot rule was brought in to tilt the game a little bit towards the bowler. These decisions should be given. But, in the case of such decisions in particular, the benefit of doubt has to go to the batsman – and this comes from a bowler.

It is unfair to give these decisions in favour of the bowler for a very simple reason. A wicket - at test match level and of a good batsman - is equivalent to about 30 runs on average. There will be an opportunity for a wicket every thirty runs on an average. If you argue that these opportunities do not come, then you’re simply not good enough.

The benefit of doubt being given to the bowler in such cases is a very dangerous thing. It will result in a lot more controversy. The batsmen are bound to lose if this goes on. There is one significant question which arises in the minds of the umpires in this kind of a decision and that is whether the batsman has offered a shot or not. If the umpire goes wrong, he could cause a horrible blunder and even inflict a collapse in the batting line up of the team in question.

A lot of thinking has to go into this and it is a very dodgy issue.-BS

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