Fair and Unfair Play - Distracting The Opposition

Distracting The Opposition

If a member of the fielding side deliberately distracts or attempts to distract the batsman on strike while he is preparing to receive or receiving a delivery, the umpire immediately declares the ball to be dead. The umpire also informs the fielding captain of the incident. The batsman may not be dismissed from the delivery, which must be repeated. If this happens again in the innings the same procedure is followed, but the batting team is awarded five penalty runs too.

It is also unfair for a member of the fielding side to deliberately attempt to distract or obstruct either batsman after the striker has received the ball by word or action. If this happens a procedure similar to the procedure for the first instance of ball tampering occurs, although the batting side also scores any runs that they have scored before the attempted (or actual) distraction or obstruction.

The case of a batsman obstructing the fielding side is covered by Law 37 of the laws of cricket rather than Law 42. A batsman contravening Law 37 may be given out (dismissed) obstructing the field.