Declaration and forfeiture
In the sport of cricket, a declaration occurs when a captain declares their team's innings closed and a forfeiture occurs when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings without batting. Declaration and forfeiture are covered in Law 15 of the Laws of Cricket. This concept applies only to matches in which each team is scheduled to bat in two innings; Law 15 specifically does not apply in any form of limited overs cricket.
Declaration
The captain of the batting side may declare an innings closed, when the ball is
Frank May proposed at the Annual General Meeting of the Marylebone Cricket Club on 2 May 1906 that in a two-day match, the captain of the batting side has power to declare their innings closed at any time, but such declaration may not be made on the first day later than one hour and forty minutes before the hour of drawing stumps. After some discussion the resolution was passed.[2]
A captain considering declaration must balance the risks of declaring too early (thus setting too low a target for the opposing team) against those of declaring too late or not at all (thus making it easier for the opponents to force a draw preventing the completion of the match).
The first captain to declare was
Before declarations were made legal, batsmen of a team that wanted to get the other team to bat again would deliberately get themselves out, leading to some farcical situations, where the fielding side would make no attempt to dismiss a batsman who was trying to be dismissed. [citation needed]
Forfeiture
Under the current Laws, a captain may forfeit either of their side's innings.[1] A forfeited innings shall be considered as a completed innings. Usually this happens in shorter competitive two-innings matches, where captains need to agree with each other how to set up the match so that there is a reasonable chance of a result. Winning a game gains a team considerably more points than drawing it, so captains are often willing to risk giving the opposition an opportunity to win that they otherwise would not have had as long as they are getting a similar opportunity in return.
In August 2020, in a rain-affected match between Durham and Leicestershire in the 2020 Bob Willis Trophy, both teams agreed to forfeit an innings in an attempt to produce a result.[4]
Test cricket
Only one innings has been voluntarily forfeited in
That was until Hansie Cronje, the South African captain, entered into a deal with his English counterpart, Nasser Hussain, that South Africa would continue batting till they reached about 250 and then declare. England and then South Africa would then both forfeit an innings, leaving England approximately 250 to win (in the event the target was 249). At that time, the laws only permitted a side to forfeit its second innings,[5] so England's first innings was treated as having been declared at 0 for 0 after 0 balls. England went on to score 251 for 8 and win by 2 wickets.[6] Many of the South African team[who?] criticised Cronje at the time for setting too low a target.[citation needed]
It later emerged that Cronje had been approached by a bookmaker, and asked to ensure the game would end with a positive result.[7] Nasser Hussain and the England team were not aware of this at the time, taking the South African request at face value.
References
- ^ a b "Law 15 – Declaration and forfeiture". MCC. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
- ^ "Wisden - Obitauries in 1907". ESPNcricinfo. 30 November 2005. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ "Scorecard of the game in which Wright became the first captain to declare an innings closed". Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ^ "Durham and Leicestershire Forfeit An Innings Each To Set Up A Result". NDTV. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
- ^ MCC (1980). "Law 14 – Declarations". Laws of Cricket 1980 Code. Cricinfo. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
- ^ "Scorecard of 2000 RSA vs ENG Centurion Match in which Cronje & Hussein forfeited innings". Aus.cricinfo.com. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ^ Stone, Simon (16 June 2000). "Cronje admits $100,000 in bribes". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 September 2010. Retrieved 22 March 2010.