Umpire Signals
What’s The Umpire Doing?
Umpires’ signals can be confusing – here’s a quick guide to the two characters in the middle and what they are doing when they wave their arms about?
- In junior cricket we have two umpires, usually a coach from either side.
- One umpire stands behind the stumps at the bowler’s end; the other stands square on to the batsman about to receive the ball – this batsman is said to be ‘on strike’. The fielding position near this umpire is called ‘square leg’ – more on fielding positions later.
- Umpires have to count the number of balls in each over – there should be six. It is easy to lose count so lots of umpires use counters or coins and transfer these between hands for each ball that is bowled.
- Umpires also watch the bowler to check that his bowling arm is straight and that his back heel does not ground over the popping crease – giving a ‘no ball’.
- The umpire checks that the pitch and direction of the ball enables the batsman to play a shot. In some cases he will call a wide if the ball is considered unplayable.
- The umpire also checks that the bowler does not follow through in front of the stumps as this can give the fielding side an unfair advantage.
- Finally, the umpire gives decisions on dismissals when the batsman is out. These include leg before wicket, clean bowled, caught and run out; the square leg umpire also rules on run outs at the other end of the pitch.
The umpires use hand signals to tell the scorers and those playing the game what he or she has decided – some of these are shown on the next page.
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