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54 of anything more drastic being proposed, and very likely it is a wise policy for the M.C.C. to proceed cautiously, but I do not think it goes far enough. The late Mr. Pardon in the 1924 Wisden said that umpires complained bitterly of the way in which present-day batsmen hide all three stumps with the legs, and a well-known umpire said the same thing to me, but wickets are so easy now that batsmen would still stand in front and play the ball with the bat. If to the giving of the benefit of the doubt to the bowler and not to the batsman were added an instruction to umpires to ignore the custom which Colonel Trevor rightly con­demns, of making the batsmen immune from l.b.w. because he has just touched the ball without perhaps turning it an inch, some benefit may ensue, but drawn matches in hot summers will still be too many unless something more drastic is done.

Colonel Trevor's article is well worth reading, and he is the first, as far as I know, to advocate the abolition of the custom that any touch of the ball by the bat, ipso facto, makes the batsman immune from l.b.w.