Sri Lanka v England: switch-hit is within the Laws of Cricket, says MCC To give some context, under Law 36.3, a batsman's stance is defined as being right or left-handed at the moment the bowler starts his run-up. Under Laws 42.9 and 42.10, players can be warned for time-wasting but switch-hitting is not mentioned. These Laws can be used to address stalemate situations between batsman and bowler. MCC's Laws subcommittee discussed the matter in detail in 2010. We decided that the batsman may switch his grip or stance once the bowler's back foot had landed in his delivery stride. The International Cricket Council issued a directive to this effect and, under the letter of that directive, Pietersen should have been within his rights to change his grip once Tillakaratne Dilshan's back foot had landed. These matters are constantly up for discussion, with MCC's priorities being to retain a fair balance between bat and ball, and to ensure that the Laws can easily be applied at all ­levels of the game. Switch-hits raise several questions: how should they be defined? Can balls pitching outside the initial leg stump now trap a batsman lbw? How are wides to be adjudicated? Some bowlers - who have to declare if they are bowling left or right-handed - are unhappy with the switch-hit, but so few batsmen are skilful enough to execute the shot like Pietersen and David Warner that MCC feels a batsman should not be prevented from taking this significant risk as long as the switch is not made too early. MCC will continue to review this area in its future meetings.