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Friday, March 7, 2008

How can a ball be called a ‘no-ball’?


How can a ball be called a ‘no-ball’?

No-ball is a delivery judged by the umpire to be unfair. When a no-ball is bowled, the umpire calls ‘no-ball’ and signals to the scorer by extending one arm horizontally.

A variety of decisive factors is used to ascertain whether a delivery is fair or not. The main ones are:

1. The position of the bowler’s foot when the delivery is made – some part of the front foot, whether in the air or grounded, must be behind the ‘popping crease’ and the back foot must land inside the line of the return crease.


2. The movement of the bowler’s arm-the bowler must not throw the ball, i.e. he must not straighten the arm just before delivering the ball.


3. The mode of delivery-the bowler has to inform the umpire how he intends to bowl-left or right-handed, over the wicket or round the wicket etc. Any change in the mode of delivery made without informing the umpire is deemed as unfair.


Some other factors also constitute to determine whether the delivery is fair, although these are not directly within the bowler’s control. For instance, it is unfair when the wicket keeper is not completely behind the line of the stumps when the ball is bowled or in the case when the field setting rules are ignored. In all these situations, the ball will be considered unfair.

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