MCC Legalises Overarm Bowling — Law 10 Rewritten, June 1864

The trajectory of bowling laws since 1816 had been a steady ratchet upward: underarm to roundarm (1828), roundarm at shoulder height (1835), and now overarm (1864). Each change had followed a public confrontation in which a leading bowler defied the existing limit and umpires were forced into a choice they did not want to make.

The Willsher walk-off of August 1862 had made the issue unavoidable. The 1863 season saw further informal challenges, with several bowlers openly delivering above shoulder height and going uncalled. The MCC sub-committee's draft was circulated in the spring of 1864.

Bowling had been underarm by law until 1828, when Law 10 first permitted the hand to be raised to elbow height — the so-called 'roundarm' style championed by John Willes and William Lillywhite. In 1835 the limit was raised to the shoulder. By 1862 most professional bowlers were already exceeding that limit, and the public no-balling of Edgar Willsher at the Oval in August had made the contradiction between law and practice impossible to ignore. The MCC's response was a sub-committee chaired by Lord Methuen that drafted a new clause for the 1864 season. Approved at the committee meeting of 10 June 1864 and incorporated into the laws printed in time for the rest of the season, the new wording removed any restriction on the height of the bowling hand and instead specified only that the ball must not be thrown or jerked. The umpires were given the duty of judging fair delivery on that basis. The change caused little disruption — most bowlers were already bowling overarm — but it was the most important law change of the nineteenth century. Bowling speeds rose sharply over the next decade; the 'fast' bowler in the modern sense, with a high arm and a long run-up, dates from this moment.

“The ball must be bowled. If thrown or jerked the umpire shall call no ball.”

“Cricket has now become a much more scientific game than it used to be in the days of slow underhand.”

The change passed into use without controversy. Most professional bowlers — Willsher, Wootton, Tarrant, Jackson, Wisden himself before retirement — had already been bowling above the shoulder. The new generation, including James Southerton and Alfred Shaw, built actions deliberately for overarm and accelerated the development of length and seam bowling. By 1870 underarm and roundarm were curiosities seen only in club cricket.