5 Strange cricket rules you probably don't know

The game of cricket is always known as a gentleman’s game in spite of multiple rules and regulations. The players always come up with a good intention to play the game. But apart from that, there have the events or incidents that became a cause of some of the new rules and setup of guidelines for the game.

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For the time being, there have been some rules added to cricket which was initially alien to cricket fans. They could only know about those when they were applied at any instance.

So, here we’ll have a look at five cricket rules for those fans who didn’t know that these kinds of rules even exist.

Withdrawing Appeals

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Cricket Law 31.8 states that the skipper of the fielding side can withdraw an appeal with the consent of umpires. It means, that even though the umpires have declared a batter out, the fielding captain still has the right to request him to resume his or her batting after permission from the umpire.

There is an instance that recalls this rule, India was playing England in a test match in 2011. In that match, everyone was assured English batter Ian Bell got declared run out by the third umpire due to his ignorance from Bell. But later on, when the match resumed after the break, Indian skipper MS Dhoni asked Bell to resume his batting and the former also withdrew the appeal of the Indian team.

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The batter can’t hit the ball twice

It has been always a question in cricket if batters would have got permission to retry their shot if they failed somehow in the first attempt. But it was restricted and stated that a batter can hit the ball only once. He or she will be deemed out if they purposefully hit the ball for the second time with their bat.

Although, there are some exceptions to this rule as the batter would be deemed to be in the game if he hits the ball a second time to protect the wickets from hitting the ball. Other than this, he or she can touch or hit the ball a second time towards the fielder with permission.

Hitting The Spider-Camera

A ball in cricket is a dead ball if the batter strikes it into the spider cam moving on the ground. Nothing is considered valid including a catch or six if it has happened after touching the spider cam.

It had happened with the senior Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell when he hit the ball and it went on to hit the spider cam. Later on, the umpires declared it as a dead ball.

Kicking The Ball Over The Boundary

One of its kind, this rule is still quite a bit debatable. According to this regulation, a batting side receives five runs as a penalty if a fielder intentionally kicks or moves the ball over the boundary line. The people have already commented on it that kicking the ball had already given four runs to the batting team, it is enough punishment.

India was playing a Test match against South Africa. The match was in a very crucial situation. South Africa had already lost nine wickets and unbeaten centurion Hashim Amla was struggling to save the match with number 11 batter Morne Morkel. To compel Morkel to be on strike, Sehwag kicked off the ball outside the boundary line to make things easy for India. Umpired gave South Africa a five-run fine.

Ground Obstacles Are Boundaries

This is something we hear in Gully Cricket, it’s a bit of a strange thing but it’s written in the rule book of the cricket’s governing body. The law states that “Any obstruction on the ground is regarded as a boundary if both captains agree to it prior to the toss.”

Although, the shot from the batter is not considered a boundary if it has been obstructed by a dog or bird.

It is required mutual consent from two captains and the umpires to overcome these kinds of immovable obstructions.