CHAPTER VI
Reform—(continued)
The alteration of the rule respecting leg before wicket will not, as has been said before, alone suffice to bring down the scoring to a proper level, but it will nevertheless have a far-reaching effect on the game. Mr. Shuter's fear that when players play forward to balls that break from the off and miss them, a large crop of l.b.w.'s will be the result, is not an unreasoning one. I have said before that if batsmen do play forward, they should smother the ball; if they cannot reach far enough forward to do this, it is, speaking theoretically, a proof that they ought to have played back, in which case there is no reason why the legs, or any part of them, should be in a straight line between wicket and wicket, and if
108
