IPL 2020: Why can't the cricket officials keep things simple?

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Sometimes the field umpire seeks the third umpire's opinion even when the batsman is 10 feet out of the crease (IPL)
Sometimes the field umpire seeks the third umpire's opinion even when the batsman is 10 feet out of the crease (IPL)

Dubai - The LBW rule has always confused many cricket fans

By Bikram Vohra


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Published: Mon 28 Sep 2020, 1:22 PM

Last updated: Mon 28 Sep 2020, 3:45 PM

I am going to do this column without checking up the 'why' part of it. Just write it as a normal cricket lover who fails to understand the Duckworth Lewis formula. So I am going to leave myself open to criticism from the experts who might mock my loping ignorance of the subtleties of the modern game. 
I am watching this IPL match and there is an appeal for lbw I think against Wriddhiman Saha of Sunrisers which is denied. The fielding team, KKR, then make all those gestures and the umpire does his TV routine. The ball is literally in the third umpire's balliwick and suffer through the switch from frame to frame, while keeping track of the monologue.
Then on my screen the ball kind of loops down the pitch and hits the outside of the left stump and the bails fly off and there is a moment of profound suspense then the field umpire is told to stay with his decision of not out.
I do not know what I am missing here. The ball hit the stumps, yes, and if the ball hits the stumps and the bails are dislodged he is out, if he is so bowled. Even if the ball nicks the paint or varnish on the stumps and the bails fall it is out. No part of the stumps are sacrosanct.
So when there is an lbw that is given as a not out and the replay shows the ball hitting the stumps albeit thinly on the outside why is it going to the benefit of the umpire and the batsman and not the bowler?
Why is that part of the stumps like Ceasar's wife, suddenly above reproach? I am sure there is a logical 'don't you know your cricket' explanation to it but it still baffles me. This is the same tribe that goes upstairs to confirm a run out by ten feet that even we know is out and here he is being given a break because the ball didn't smack into the stumps but broke the woodwork anyway.
See it from my ignorant perspective.
They went upstairs because it was a 50/50 chance right, so the fielding team used up its precious protest option. That was the whole flipping point. And the ball hit the stumps. Isn't this what they wished to confirm?
And it is still stay with your decision. Okay, fine, will someone tell me why?


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