The highest point of the arm

Law 38 is the run-out Law. Its third clause covers the run out that happens before the ball is bowled: the non-striker who leaves the ground early, and the bowler who, instead of delivering, breaks the wicket at that end.

It is filed under Run out. Not under unfair play, not under anything with a name of its own. In the text it is a run out with a time limit.

The window

The bowler may run out the non-striker from the moment play begins until "the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball". The Law then defines that instant: it is when the bowler's arm reaches its highest point in the delivery swing. Not the release itself. The point at which release would normally happen, judged from the arm.

So the window is the run-up and the swing. Once the arm is at the top, the non-striker is free to go, and the bowler cannot, under this clause, do anything about it.

The Law defines the instant by the arm and not by the ball because the arm is what an umpire can see. A bowler who reaches the top of the swing and holds on to the ball has still passed the point. The window is measured on the bowler's body, not on the bowler's intent.

If the ball is not delivered

The clause sets out what happens when the bowler does not bowl. If there is an appeal, the umpire decides whether the non-striker was out of the ground. If there is no appeal, or the appeal fails, the umpire calls dead ball. Either way, the delivery does not count as one of the over.

That last line is the cost the Law attaches to the attempt. A bowler who tries and fails has not bowled a ball. The over is one delivery longer, and the batting side faces one more than it would have.

Dead ball is the Law's way of drawing a line under the attempt. Nothing that happens after the call counts, and the next thing that counts is the next delivery. A failed attempt ends the sequence and starts it again rather than leaving the ball live for either side.

If the ball is delivered

The clause also allows for the bowler who runs through and delivers with an appeal pending. The umpire decides on the appeal. If the non-striker is not given out, play goes on as normal, ball in play, and the delivery counts.

What the clause does not say

It does not say the bowler must warn the non-striker. It does not say the non-striker must be attempting a run. It does not say anything about the spirit in which either party acts. The conditions are a place, the non-striker's ground, and a time, the top of the arm, and the umpire's decision is whether the batter was out of the one at the other.

What it does not say has been the whole of the argument about it. The text has one condition that reads like a concession, the arm's highest point, and it is a concession to the non-striker: leave after that and this clause cannot reach you. Everything before it belongs to the bowler.

Where it sits

Clause 38.3 is a case of the run out. The fielding side is the bowler, the moment is before delivery, the ground is the non-striker's. The Law treats it as the same dismissal with a narrower window, and nothing in the text suggests it regards it as anything else.

The clause has three outcomes and names all three. Out, if the umpire finds the batter out of the ground on appeal. Dead ball, if there is no appeal or the appeal fails. Play on, if the ball was delivered and the appeal fails. There is no fourth, and a bowler who attempts it has committed to one of those.

That is the plainest thing about it and the thing least often said. A non-striker who is out of the ground when the wicket is broken is out. Law 38.3 adds a clock to that sentence. It does not add a qualification.

Law 38, Run out: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code →

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No. 4 in By the Book, a series of 17.

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