England batter Hamza Shaikh was given out for ‘obstructing the field’ against Zimbabwe in the ICC U-19 World Cup in South Africa. The incident occured in the 17th over of the contest, Shaikh defended a ball and it remained down by by his feet. Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Ryan Kamwemba started to step forward from behind the stumps to collect it. Then, with the ball stationary, Shaikh bent down to pick it up and passed it back to the fielders – which is a practice employed by many batters.
However, in this case, Kamwemba and the bowler, Ryan Simbi, started to appeal and it was sent to the third umpire Nigel Duguid by on-field officials Donovan Koch and Masudur Rahman. After a careful look, Duguid gave it out.
Previously it would have been construed as handling the ball, but that mode of dismissal was combined with obstructing the field in 2017 with MCC saying they were effectively the same thing.