Page:The Crisis in Cricket and the Leg Before Rule (1928).djvu/24

16 have hit it l.b.w." The resolution that was proposed was to alter this rule and substitute the following: "If with any part of his person (except the hand) which is between wicket and wicket, he intercept a ball which would hit his wicket l.b.w."

It is not necessary in these days to say much about this debate except to say that it was carried by a majority of 71, but not passed, two-thirds of the majority not having been got. But the point that was not strongly enough brought out in the debate was that no batsman could be out l.b.w. unless the part of his person hit by the ball was between wicket and wicket. In other words, if the batsman keeps his legs, which are practically the only part of his person that need be considered, clear of the wicket, he cannot be out. But this has not been sufficiently recognized; if it had been the voting would have been different. Nobody ever lived who loved the game more or has done more for it than Lord Harris, yet even he seems not to have known this. I myself in a letter to The Times of the 22nd of July, 1926, suggested that a new l.b.w. rule be drafted, but I carefully added, "it must be remembered that no batsman can be l.b.w. if he keeps his legs clear of. . .the space between wicket and wicket. "Lord Harris, in a letter to The Times of the 24th of July, 1926, called my suggestion novel "because hitherto he and others have advocated such an alteration of Law 24 as would expose the striker to the risk of l.b.w. wherever the ball pitched and whether he was in front or not." My proposal was practically the same as was brought forward in the M.C.C. debate in 1901, and it has never been formally put forward in any other shape.