West Indian Softball Association
Softball Cricket ‘Pelting’ Partially Resolved

By Darshan Chickery
September 10, 2008
On August 21, 2008, I briefly brought to the fore an issue that was and still continues to be of great concern to softball cricket in New York. Cricket International and newyorkcricket.com ran the story titled “30 Overs – Championship Weekend. In that article I briefly touched on the issue of pelting. I said, “I hope the umpire associations and the all the leagues in New York and beyond address this issue which is of great concern”.

Coincidence or not, it appears that the relevant parties in the West Indian Softball Association (WISA) and the umpires they are affiliated with have taken steps to resolve the issue of pelting. On Saturday September 6, 2008, WISA and the Umpire Association affiliated with the organization circulated a memorandum pertaining to pelting.

The memo titled, “Bowling Actions” described pelting, as “At the point of delivery, the bowler should not release the ball from above the waist”. The memo laid out the penalty system for violators and set an implementation date of September 7, 2008. I personally think pelting in softball cricket should be described with its universal definition of, “Bending of the elbow when the delivering the ball”.

The two bodies have promised in their joint memo to “sit down and analyze the effect of the new rule” at a later date. This may occur after the completion of WISA’s 20/20.

Since this issue is, one of great concern to players and cricket purists. It’s been written and ‘blogged' about a lot. For information on this topic, you can Google “pelting in softball cricket”.

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