Calling the men in white coats

Umpires have never been far from the headlines during the past week © Getty Images

I was surprised to see that Darrell Hair had written an autobiography. How many other Aussie umpires have done this? asked George Thompson from Melbourne

Hair's book was called Decision Maker, and came out in 1998. It starts with the story of how he no-balled Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne in 1995-96 ("I feel his action was diabolical," he wrote of an ODI in which he stood earlier that season). Before Hair's book came The Umpire's Story (1972), by Lou Rowan, who stood in the 1970-71 Ashes series Down Under, followed in 1974 by Bodyline Umpire, the memoirs of George Hele, who stood in all five Tests of the fractious Bodyline series in 1932-33. English umpires who have penned autobiographical books include Frank Chester, Frank Lee and David Shepherd ... and of course Dickie Bird, whose 1997 autobiography was a huge best-seller. The New Zealander Steve Dunne has also written a book.

What is the most lbws in a Test match asked David Shorten from Australia

The record for a Test is actually 17, in the first Test between West Indies and Pakistan at Port-of-Spain in 1992-93. For the record, the umpires were Dickie Bird and Steve Bucknor. There have been two Tests with 15 leg-befores, and three with 14 - and the match at Kandy that you mention is one of four Tests which included 13 lbws. The record for a Test innings is seven - five of them by Richard Johnson - inflicted on Zimbabwe by England at Chester-le-Street in June 2003.

During the 1921 Ashes series, Australia's wicketkeeper Hanson Carter apparently advised his captain Warwick Armstrong that the England captain was trying to make an illegal declaration. What was illegal about it? asked Chris France from Australia

This happened in the fourth Test of 1921 at Old Trafford, when The Hon. Lionel Tennyson, captaining England, wanted to declare late on the second day of what started as a three-day match. However, as the first day had been washed out, it had become a two-day match: and under the rather strange regulations in force at the time, any declaration had to be timed so that the side about to go in could have 100 minutes' batting. Prompted by Carter, his astute Yorkshire-born wicketkeeper, Armstrong pointed out to the umpires that the declaration was illegal. After an interval of around 20 minutes, while the matter was discussed (Wisden's match report calls it "an unfortunate and rather lamentable incident"), England carried on batting, and declared first thing next morning. After the break, Armstrong mischievously bowled the next over, having bowled the last one before the interruption too.

What unusual event delayed the start of the fifth Test between South Africa and England in 1930-31? asked Terence Frederick of London

This was the fifth Test of that series, at Durban, and the reason for the delay is one of Test cricket's most unusual ones: the bails were the wrong size, and the umpires had to make a new set! It's not as incompetent as it sounds - not quite, anyway - as the laws had recently been changed to increase the size of the stumps to the current size of 28 inches high by nine inches wide (previously it was 27x8). The stumps at Kingsmead were the right size, but the bails weren't. Gerald Brodribb, in Next Man In, his excellent study of the evolution of cricket's laws, reports that a new set of bails had to be made on the spot, and adds: "England, who had won the toss and put South Africa in on a drying wicket, made a strong protest at this annoying delay."

Inzamam-ul-Haq was out "obstructing the field" against India last winter. How often has this happened in Tests and ODIs? asked Rahul Shetty from Bangalore

Inzamam's unusual dismissal in the first one-dayer against India at Peshawar was only the third instance of a batsman being given out obstructing the field in ODIs. The first was another Pakistani, Rameez Raja, against England at Karachi in 1987-88. He knocked a fielder's return away when trying to complete the second run which would have taken him to 100 from the last ball of the match. Two years later, India's Mohinder Amarnath was the second man to go this way. He kicked the ball away from the bowler to avoid being run out against Sri Lanka at Ahmedabad in 1989-90. The only man to be out obstructing the field in a Test match is England's Len Hutton, against South Africa at The Oval in 1951. Hutton top-edged a sweep against the offspinner Athol Rowan, and the ball looped upwards. Worried that the ball would bounce onto his stumps, Hutton knocked it away, but in doing so prevented the wicketkeeper, Russell Endean, from making a catch. In a weird coincidence Endean, who was making his Test debut at The Oval, was also involved in Test cricket's next peculiar dismissal: he was out "handled the ball" against England at Cape Town in 1956-57.