Controversies in 1835

3 incidents documented

MCC Laws Revision — Roundarm Permitted to Shoulder Height, 1835

n/a

1835-05-19

On 19 May 1835 the Marylebone Cricket Club rewrote Law 10 a second time, raising the permitted height of the bowler's hand from the elbow (the 1828 limit) to the shoulder. The change ratified what most leading bowlers — Lillywhite, Broadbridge, the Lillywhite imitators in Kent and Surrey — had already been doing in practice and was the second of three law changes (1828, 1835, 1864) by which underarm cricket gave way to overarm.

#mcc#law-change#1835

⭐Moderate

The Follow-On Rule — Introduced into the Laws, 1835

n/a

1835-05-19

The same MCC laws revision of May 1835 that raised the bowling-arm limit also introduced cricket's first formal follow-on rule. Originally the side that batted second was compelled to follow on if it trailed by a stipulated margin, with no captain's discretion; the threshold and the discretion would be amended several times in later decades.

#mcc#follow-on#1835

🏏Mild

The LBW Law in the 1830s — Existing but Rarely Applied

n/a

1835-08-01

The leg-before-wicket law had existed in cricket's code since 1774 — and had been tightened in 1839 to require the ball to pitch in line — but in the 1830s it was rarely applied. Umpires of the era were generally unwilling to give a batsman out leg-before unless the ball had hit the pad in the most blatant manner; lbw dismissals were a small fraction of those given by modern umpires.

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