ON a couple of occasions my umpiring colleagues have mentioned incidents where the ball has been hit straight back at them and they need to get out of the way immediately.

This can cause players a little concern as it is possible to miss a touch of the ball by the bowler onto the stumps with the non-striker out of his ground.

Safety is of prime concern for umpires and sometimes it’s impossible to give the batsman out as you are too busy getting out of the way.

It’s not only the umpire who is getting out of the way but sometimes the non-striker as well.

At a recent match the ball actually hit the non-striker on the hip, ballooned up into the air and was caught by the bowler. There was an appeal and quite rightly the batsman was given out as the ball had not touched the ground.

Then the questions came. What happened if it had hit the non-striker on the helmet? What about if it hits the umpire?

Well on both occasions, providing the ball had not touched the ground, the batsman would be out caught.

If the ball had touched the ground then obviously there’s no catch but just because the ball has hit either the non-striker or the umpire, the ball is not automatically dead and play can continue.

However if either umpire thinks a serious injury has been caused then a call of dead ball would stop any further action from being taken and play would stop to attend to the injured party.

What it cannot do is rebound off a fielder’s helmet and be caught but that looks like being changed next season in the rewrite of the laws.

What would happen if the ball was lodged in the clothing of a player or umpire? Is the batsman out?

If lodged in the player's clothing then he can be out caught, but not if lodged in the umpire's clothing.

If the ball lodges in the wicketkeeper's pads then he is out but not in the batsman’s pads.

Many times you see players make a dive to get the ball out of the batsman’s pads and appeal but that ball is automatically dead once lodged there.

There have been cases of the batsman deflecting the ball from his bat onto the stumps which then flies into the air to be caught at slip. Usually he would be out bowled as that takes precedence, however in the unlikelihood the bails weren’t removed, then he would be out caught.

There’s a lot to think about in confirming a catch is allowed.