 In his 1995 survey of cricket laws , Gerald Brodribb states : " No dismissal has produced so much argument as lbw ; it has caused trouble from its earliest days " . Owing to its complexity , the law is widely misunderstood among the general public and has proven controversial among spectators , administrators and commentators ; lbw decisions have sometimes caused crowd trouble . Since the law 's introduction , the proportion of lbw dismissals has risen steadily through the years . Statistics reveal that the probability of a batsman being dismissed lbw in a Test match varies depending on where the match is played and which teams are playing . 
