Leg before wicket (lbw) is one of the ways in which a batsman can be
dismissed in the sport of cricket. The umpire may rule a batsman out lbw
if the ball would have struck the wicket but was intercepted by any part
of the batsman except his bat. The umpire's decision, however, will
depend on a number of criteria, including where the ball pitched,
whether the ball hit in line with the wickets and whether the batsman
was offering a shot. Lbw first appeared in the laws in 1774, as batsmen
began to use their pads to prevent the ball hitting their wicket. Since
the 1990s, the availability of television replays and, later, ball-
tracking technology to assist umpires has increased the percentage of
lbws in major matches. However, the accuracy of the technology and the
consequences of its use remain controversial. Owing to its complexity,
the law is widely misunderstood among the general public and wrong lbw
decisions have sometimes caused crowd trouble. Since the law's
introduction, the proportion of lbw dismissals has risen steadily.
Statistics reveal that the probability of a batsman being dismissed lbw
in a Test match varies depending on where the match is played and which
teams are playing.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leg_before_wicket>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1800:
Lord Wellesley, Governor-General of the British Raj, founded
Fort William College in Fort William, India, to promote Bengali, Hindi
and other vernaculars of the subcontinent.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_William_College>
1913:
The air temperature in California's Death Valley reached 134
°F (56.7 °C), the highest reading ever recorded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley_National_Park>
1942:
An American naval airman discovered a downed Mitsubishi A6M
Zero on Akutan Island, Alaska, US, which was used to devise aerial
tactics against it.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akutan_Zero>
1973:
John Paul Getty III, grandson of American oil magnate J. Paul
Getty, was kidnapped in Rome.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Getty_III>
2011:
After 168 years, the final edition of the News of the World was
published as the British tabloid newspaper shut down over allegations
that it hacked the voicemails of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler,
victims of the 7/7 attacks and relatives of deceased British soldiers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacking_scandal>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
badinage:
Playful raillery; banter.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/badinage>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the
urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve
others at whatever cost.
--Arthur Ashe
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Ashe>