This is the Friends of History Debating Society. I'm John Batchel with my good friend Jeremy Zackas.

He's in New South Wales. And Jeremy's been teaching me cricket the last years. And he sent me a puzzler this week.

It's called a no-ball incident. No-ball is hyphenated. This is a match in the India Premier League.

These are big boys.

They're very good.

They swing hard.

They play hard.

Very big.

And the game was nearing its close and something happened called a no ball incident.

What is that, Jeremy?

Well, John, at its crux, a no ball is effectively when a ball is

bowled down the pitch to a batter, but the bowler or the fielding team has done something that

effectively may give them a small advantage, though they may have bowled the ball a bit too wide

down the pitch out of effectively a place where the batter can bat it properly or there might be

a fielder that's coming too close so when it's called no ball anything that happens after that

doesn't count so for example if the ball goes through and hits a wicket that player is not out

if say the ball is hit by the batter and is caught because it was called a no ball that is basically

it's not counted whatsoever so what really happens in the tally was called a no ball, that is basically, it's not counted whatsoever.

So what really happens in the tally sheet is that no balls are, while they're considered

still a match ball, so when you're counting up how many times a ball was bowled, it still comes

up on that tally.

But effectively, any action taken off a no ball is completely wiped.

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