The name is derived from the opinion that this is the area in which a batsman struggles most to determine whether to play forward or back, or to leave the delivery.
The phrase was popularised by former Yorkshire and England batsman, now commentator, Geoffrey Boycott whilst commentating on England's 1990 tour of the West Indies.
For instance while describing the Brisbane Test of the 1986-87 Ashes in The Age, Peter Roebuck writes of Graham Dilley bowling "down the corridor of uncertainty" and explains that "this American phrase" is used for "bowling on or outside the offstump".
[2] According to Mike Selvey, Dilley in New Zealand a year later, "sent ball after ball relentlessly down the "corridor of uncertainty" just outside the offstump, from which batsmen are drawn into the shot without the security of the leaving option, all to a good length".
In football it is commonly used to describe a cross or pass which is delivered into the area in front of the goalkeeper and behind the last line of defence.