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In the sport of cricket, a wide is one of two things: - The event of a ball being delivered by a bowler too wide or high to be hit by the batsman, and ruled so by the umpire.
- A run scored by the batting team as a penalty to the bowling team when this occurs.
To be ruled a wide, the umpire at the bowler's end must judge that the batsman is unable to play a normal batting stroke at the ball from his normal batting stance. The umpire signals a wide by holding both arms out horizontally.
A wide does not count as one of the six balls in an over, nor does it count as a ball faced by the batsman.
When a wide is bowled, a number of runs are awarded to the batting team, the number varying depending on local playing conditions in force. In Test cricket the award is one run; in some domestic competitions, particularly one-day cricket competitions, the award is two runs. These runs are scored as extras and are added to the team's total, but are not added to any batsman's total.
A batsman may not, by definition, be out bowled, leg before wicket, or caught off a wide. He may be stumped.
If the wicket-keeper fumbles or misses the ball, the batsmen may be able to take additional runs safely, and may choose to do so. The number of runs scored are scored as wides, not byes.
If the wicket-keeper misses the ball and it travels all the way to the boundary, the batting team immediately scores four wides, similarly to if the ball had been hit to the boundary for a four.
If a ball qualifies as a no ball as well as a wide, the umpire will call it a no ball instead of a wide, and all the rules for a no ball apply.
Wides are considered to be the fault of the bowler, and are recorded as a negative statistic in a bowler's record.
Wides are not uncommon. A typical number occurring in a game might be in the range 5-20.
A rough analogue of a wide in baseball is the wild pitch.
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