A CRICKET law not very often used is that of lost ball.

Some think it shouldn’t be there in the rewrite of the laws, but as the game is still played on park pitches which are often used as football pitches in the winter, then the law has to exist.

Balls have been known to disappear down goalpost holes or even rabbit holes within the playing area and become unrecoverable. What happens then?

Well, the batsmen keep running until a fielder calls lost ball. Note I said the fielder, it’s nothing to do with the umpires unless things get farcical where the batsmen keep running while the fielding side make frantic efforts to recover the ball. Umpires must use common sense in dealing with such a situation.

If it gets to a point where they have to intervene, it will affect the number of runs scored.

Too soon it will disadvantage the batting side, too late will disadvantage the fielding side.

As soon as the fielder calls lost ball the ball becomes dead. If the batsmen have run more than six, they will get the number they have run.

If they have run less than six, then they will get six runs.

So you can see why the umpire has to keep out of it unless it becomes farcical.

If the batsman hits the ball in the first place, he will be credited with the runs; if not then extras will be the beneficiary.

What happens next? The ball has to be replaced with one of similar wear, just like it would for any ball that goes out of play and is lost outside the boundary.

I recall a match where the new ball was lost over the fence after three overs and with four overs left, it was suddenly returned to the umpires.

The umpires refused to allow play to continue with the returned ball as it was now in a better condition than the second ball the team had been using.

If it had been returned almost immediately then play could have continued with the original ball.

That brings into question replacing a ball that had got wet due to ground conditions, being hit out of the playing area, with a dry one.

I did once hear a batsman ask that the replacement ball be placed in a bucket of water before being used.