Umpiring in the 1958–59 Ashes series

The England team were very unhappy with the umpiring of the 1958–59 Ashes series, in particular the questionable actions of some bowlers in the Australian team. The televising of Test cricket was in its infancy and the notion of Test umpires using slow-motion replays or other modern techniques was considered absurd. Instead the umpires had to make judgements based on what they saw in a split-second, and honest mistakes were accepted as part and parcel of the game. However, touring teams sometimes felt that there was a natural bias towards the home team which led to some acrimony. Keith Miller thought "Mel McInnes, Colin Hoy and Ron Wright were our leading umpires in the 1954-55 M.C.C. tour of Australia, and I have no hesitation in saying that McInnes gave the finest exhibition of umpiring in a Test series that I have experienced".[1] The England team thought well of him too, but in 1958-59 he lost the confidence of the England players and himself, appeared hesitant and gave some surprising decisions.[2] In the Fourth Test he hesitated to give Ken Mackay out even after the batsman walked after snicking a catch off Brian Statham.[3] Later Colin McDonald should have been run out when Fred Trueman flattened the stumps after his runner Jim Burke ran round the back of McInnes. McInnes gave him out, but then changed his mind and gave him not out as he had not seen whether Burke had made the run or not. On his next ball McDonald sportingly pulled his bat out of the way of the stumps to give Trueman "the easiest Test wicket I have ever taken".[3] Trueman was affected again when he batted, given out caught by Wally Grout off Richie Benaud when he had dropped his bat and missed the ball.[4] The England team became dispirited by the umpiring mistakes and, believing the officials to be against them, lost heart.[5] As Fred Trueman wrote

...the Australian umpires demonstrated as much impartiality as a religious zealot. We just couldn't get favourable decisions and they no-balled England bowlers left, right and centre...one of the umpires consistently no-balled me...It was annoying, especially as this umpire seemed to allow Gordon Rorke to bowl with both his feet over the front line!...I suffered, as did others, from appalling umpiring decisions when batting...It was unbelievable."[6]

Throwing

There was much comment in the Press box as to the legitimacy of this delivery but Meckiff certainly generated a considerable amount of pace. It is always difficult to assess exactly whether a bowler is throwing and it is something of which one must be sure before being too dogmatic. Once a bowler is condemned for throwing his career is finished and it is a great step to take by any umpire, especially so in a Test match...he certainly looks very much like a thrower. The umpires, however, are satisfied that he is all right and they are the judges.

Alec Bedser [7]

In cricket to throw the ball when bowling is illegal and results in a no ball, but until 1960 it was undefined and it took a strong minded umpire confident of the backing of the authorities to call a bowler for this offence.[8] To accuse a bowler of throwing was to call in question his sportsmanship, in effect to call him a cheat, and could result in libel charges by the offended bowler. A bowler who threw the ball increased his pace, from slow to medium or medium to fast, and the whip of the wrist altered the line of the ball, variations that could easily dismiss a batsman.[9] When applied to short-pitched deliveries the speed and inconsistent bounce of a "chucker" could be very dangerous, as demonstrated by the feared West Indian fast bowler Charlie Griffith. Another difficulty for the umpires was that although the upright straight arm was the ideal many bowlers had a slightly bent bowling arm without throwing the ball, and of course leg spinners used a strong wrist action, so it was not easy to sort out the innocent from the guilty. Sir Donald Bradman said "It is the most complex question I have known in cricket, because it is not a matter of fact, but a matter of opinion and interpretation. It is so involved that two men of equal good will and sincerity could take opposite views".[10]

Dragging

...and as for photographic evidence! They produced this of Lindwall once, which showed clearly that his back foot was either over the line or in the air before the ball was delivered, but on the eve of the 1948 tour of England and a pending dispute about Lindwall, in particular, somebody let the story out that Tate and Larwood were also shown once in a film to be over the line before the ball was delivered. As O'Reilly vehemently argues, it is humanly impossible for a ball to be delivered legitimately with the back foot still on the ground and behind the line, and so everybody forgot about that one.

Jack Fingleton[11]

Trying to recall who was responsible for the front-foot law is a tax on the memory. Some will say it was Gordon Rorke. Others would want the privilege shared by Fred Trueman and Frank Tyson and a couple of South Australian pace bowlers, Peter Trethewey and Alan Hitchcox. I am more inclined to lean towards Con Simons and Pat Crawford.

Richie Benaud, 1980 [12]

In modern cricket the bowler is no balled if he bowls without some part of the front foot (either grounded or raised) behind the popping crease and if his back foot is not wholly inside the return crease. In the 1950s the front foot rule had not been written, so the requirement was that one foot be behind the bowling crease. The 1958-59 series was a catalyst towards the change as fast bowlers tended to drag the toe of their rear foot over the bowling crease in order to decrease the distance between them and the batsmen when they released the ball. If they timed it well the delivery was made when the toe was still behind the crease, but sometimes they would drag it over the line and they would be no balled. The dust raised by the dragging foot and the distance between the bowling hand and the dragging foot of some six or seven feet made it difficult for umpires to make the correct decision. As you can see on this old cine film of Ray Lindwall dragging his foot over the bowling crease. See Film on Youtube. It should have been called as a no ball as his rear foot was past the crease when he delivered the ball, easy to see in a slow motion replay, but difficult for the umpire and impossible for the bowler.

Australia

England

References

  1. Keith Miller, Cricket Crossfire, Oldbourne Publishing, 1956
  2. p115, Swanton, 1977
  3. 1 2 p74, Freddi.
  4. p221-222, Trueman
  5. 1 2 p96, Willis and Murphy
  6. p219-222, Trueman
  7. p65, Bedser
  8. p668-669, Swanton, 1986
  9. p131, Brown.
  10. p669, Swanton, 1986
  11. p158, Brown and Company, Collins, 1951
  12. p54-55, Ian Chappell, Austin Robertson and Paul Rigby, Chappelli Has the Last Laugh, Lansdowne Press, 1980
  13. 1 2 3 p68, Freddi.
  14. p79, Swanton, 1977
  15. p147, Bedser
  16. p112, Swanton, 1977
  17. p80, Willis and Murphy
  18. 1 2 p75, Arnold.
  19. p74, Whimpress
  20. p473–478, Coleman.
  21. p297, Swanton, 1986
  22. 1 2 p437, Frith
  23. p131, Brown
  24. p221, Trueman
  25. p59, Frank Tyson, The Cricketer Who Laughed, Stanley Paul, 1982
  26. pp76-77, Miller
  27. Tyson, p166
  28. p668-669, Swanton, 1986.
  29. p147, Freddi
  30. p204-205, Swanton, 1986
  31. p122, Brown.
  32. p218, Trueman.
  33. p219, Trueman.
  34. p288, Arnold
  35. p40, Kelly and Lemmon
  36. p87-89, Willis and Murphy
  37. p221, Trueman.
  38. p76, Miller
  39. Tyson, p211
  40. 1 2 Tyson, p85

Bibliography

Annual reviews

Further reading

External links

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