 In his survey of cricket laws , Gerald Brodribb suggests that " no dismissal has produced so much argument as lbw ; it has caused trouble from its earliest days " . Among those who do not follow cricket , the law has the reputation of being extremely difficult to understand , of equivalent complexity to association football 's offside rule . Owing to the difficulty of its interpretation , lbw is regarded by critics as the most controversial of the laws but also a <unk> by which an umpire 's abilities are judged . In his book Cricket and the Law : The Man in White Is Always Right , David Fraser writes that umpires ' lbw decisions are frequently criticised and " arguments about bias and incompetence in <unk> inform almost every discussion about lbw decisions . " Problems arise because the umpire has not only to establish what has happened but also to speculate over what might have occurred . <unk> aspects of lbw decisions include the umpire having to determine whether the ball pitched outside leg stump , and in certain circumstances whether the batsman intended to hit the ball or leave it alone . <unk> are frequently criticised for their lbw decisions by players , commentators and spectators . Historically , trouble ranging from protests and arguments to crowd demonstrations occasionally arose from disputed decisions . For example , a prolonged crowd disturbance , in which items were thrown onto the playing field and the match was delayed , took place when <unk> <unk> was <unk> lbw during a 1996 One Day International in India . 
