Cricket is a game of rare laws, rules, and regulations which makes it even more unique and different from other sports as the game is practically of eleven players playing against the other eleven with a hard ball. The ball comes to the batsman with a high speed of 140-50kmph with just milliseconds to react and hit by the bat for the batsman
There are injuries, sledging and so much aggression along with sunny-heated days when the temperature rises up to 40 degrees, the athletes stay on the ground for days and play the game which tests their patience, athletic ability, and ability to handle the pressure in the tough conditions.
Rare and Important Laws of Cricket
Mankad (run-out): This is just a normal run-out which was named ‘Mankad’ after the rare incident that happened in 1956 in the Australia vs India Test series. The former Indian player Vinoo Mankad broke the wicket while he was about to bowl the ball when the batsman Brown of Australia at the non-striker end came out of the crease.
Mankad ran him out for stepping out of the crease before the release and according to the law of cricket, if the bowler has not passed the released point of their bowling action and hits the wicket when the batsman is out of the crease, it is a fair dismissal under a type of run-out.
The Australian media took it as an act against the spirit of the game, which in reality was just legal and valid.
Australia’s greatest batsman to ever exist in the history of cricket with an impressive average of 99 runs in Test cricket, Sir Don Bradman. He said that it was honestly just a fair act to dismiss a batsman for not being under the crease, there’s nothing wrong with that.
5 run penalty: This five-run rare penalty is levied on the fielding team when the ball hits any object on the playing field such as a towel, helmet, or water bottle. Usually, the wicketkeeper keeps his/her helmet behind them when they stand near the 30-yard for pace bowling. If by mistake the ball hits the helmet then the batting team gets an extra 5 runs added to their total score.
In a match of Pakistan where Babar Azam was the captain, there were the wicketkeeper’s gloves lying near the pitch as the keeper removed it to catch the ball and hit the stumps. While the keeper ran to throw the ball, Babar Azam wore the glove of the keeper which was an object on the playing field, and caught the ball with his glove. The opposition team benefitted with 5 runs on the board for this act of the skipper of Pakistan.
Timed-out Rule: This rare rule states that after the wicket falls, the next batsman needs to come to take guard on the pitch and be ready to face their first delivery within 3 minutes. This rule was made to cut the delays caused by the batsman to just get ready to be there on the pitch and ready to play
Recently in the 2023 ODI World Cup, Angelo Mathews became the first batsman in history to get dismissed under this kind of rare dismissal. The appeal was made by Bangladesh’s former skipper Shakib Al Hasan, although it was not the batsman’s fault as the helmet of Angelo was not in the proper condition with a broken strap.
Angelo, asked for a different helmet while being present on the pitch but Shakib was not ready to withdraw his appeal and broke the spirit of the game by taking advantage of the law to his team’s benefit.
Dead-Ball: When a batsman hits the ball which accidentally hits any of the cameras, technical equipment, or a pigeon. The ball is declared dead no matter if the fielding team caught the ball after being hit by these things or if it reaches the boundary.
The delivery will be called dead, for instance. In a match of India vs England, Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit a ball on the spider cam towards square leg which was rare and declared as a dead ball by the umpire even though the ball traveled to the boundary. However, on the very next ball, Dhoni hit another six which was even higher and longer than the previous one towards the long-off region.
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