 In the 1950s and 1960s , the amount of pad @-@ play increased , owing to more difficult and unpredictable pitches that made batting much harder . Critics continued to regard this tactic as " negative and unfair " . In an effort to discourage pad @-@ play and encourage leg spin bowling , a new variant of the lbw law was introduced , initially in Australia and the West Indies in the 1969 – 70 season , then in England for 1970 . Under the re @-@ <unk> law , a batsman would be lbw if a ball destined to hit the stumps pitched in line with the wickets or " outside a batsman 's off stump and in the opinion of the umpire he made no genuine attempt to play the ball with his bat . " This revision omitted the requirement that the impact should be in line with the wickets , but meant that any batsman playing a shot could not be out if the ball pitched outside off stump , in contrast to the 1935 law . The editor of Wisden believed the change encouraged batsmen to take more risks , and had produced more attractive cricket . However , the proportion of wickets falling lbw sharply declined , and concerns were expressed in Australia . The Australian authorities proposed a <unk> to the previous law . A batsman could once more be out to a ball that pitched outside off stump , but a provision was added that " if no stroke is offered to a ball pitching outside the off @-@ stump which in the opinion of the umpire would hit the stumps , but hits the batsman on any part of his person other than the hand , then the batsman is out , even if that part of the person hit is not in line between wicket and wicket . " The difference to the 1935 rule was that the batsman could now be out even if the ball struck outside the line of off @-@ stump . This wording was adopted throughout the world , although it was not yet part of the official Laws , from 1972 and the percentage of lbws sharply increased to beyond the levels preceding the 1970 change . The MCC added the revised wording to the Laws of Cricket in 1980 ; this version of the lbw law is still used as of 2013 . 
