<P> Wides used to be relatively rare, but regulations have been added in many competitions to enforce a much stricter interpretation in order to deter defensive bowling, and the number of wides has increased sharply . In one - day cricket, most deliveries that pass the batsman on the leg side without hitting the stumps are now called as wides . In the semi-finals and final of the first World Cup in 1975, there were 79 extras, of which 9 were wides (11.4%); in the semi-finals and final of the World Cup in 2011, there were 77 extras, of which 46 were wides (59.7%). In the six Tests of the 1970 - 71 Ashes series there were 9 wides; in the five Tests of the Ashes series of 2010 - 11 there were 52 wides . </P> <P> An umpire straightens both his arms to form horizontal, straight line to signal a wide . </P> <P> The conventional scoring notation for a wide is an equal cross (likened to the umpire standing with arms outstretched signalling a wide). </P> <P> If the batsmen run byes on a wide ball or the ball runs to the boundary for 4, a dot is added in each corner for each bye that is run, typically top left, then top right, then bottom left and finally all 4 corners . </P>

When is a ball called wide in cricket