The Teesra

Category: cricket

  • "Action stations" – whatever happened to standing still and waiting for the ball?

    As a young batsman, the absolute importance of standing still until the bowler released the ball was drummed into me. And more recently, as I have worked through various levels of the coach education process, the same mantra is still repeated – pick up the bat, yes, think about leading with the dipped front shoulder, but don’t move the feet too early.

    It’s not easy. And when young players see the professionals twitching, shuffling their feet, and generally not standing still, it can be even harder to convince them to stick to the text-book and wait until the ball is released. So I was fascinated to read an article in the Summer issue of the ECB Coaches Association “Coaches Matter”, with Graham Thorpe, now England’s Lead Batting Coach.

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  • “Mental disintegration” – is sledging ever justified?

    I have spent more time umpiring than coaching this season. Not a conscious decision, but it seems to have worked out that way. And it has to be said that you do get a different view of the game when you are wearing the white coat. (more…)

  • You are the umpire…Google to the rescue

    A fast full toss flashes over the top of the stumps, pitches just in front of the wicket-keeper and bursts through his gloves, hits the keeper’s helmet (correctly placed on the ground behind the keeper, in line with the stumps), then careers on to crash into the sightscreen.

    No ball (full toss, above waist height).
    Five penalty runs (ball strikes protective helmet belonging to the fielding side, on the ground)

    …then what? Four (more) no balls?

    I stood in a Colts’ game a couple of weeks ago, when this happened. I am not a qualified umpire; nor was my colleague. We conferred, scratched our heads, thought about running off to find a copy of the Laws…then my colleague pulled out his smartphone, googled “helmet penalty runs”, and got the answer back in seconds.

    I know the professionals (and all qualified umpires) would never need to resort to Google, but it worked for us!

    oh, the answer – the ball was dead as soon as it struck the helmet on the ground (Law 41, paragraph 3), so 1 no ball plus 5 penalty runs (plus a warning to the bowler).