Home » Guide to Cricket: Part 1 – The Basics

Guide to Cricket: Part 1 – The Basics

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After an exciting ODI World Cup which saw Australia crowned champions, women’s cricket has shifted gears to focus on Twenty20 (T20) cricket. The fantastic Fairbreak Invitational tournament brought together 90 players from 35 countries for a two week competition in Dubai. The 2022 Women’s T20 Challenge highlighted the wealth of talent in India, however the tournament was far too short. The Twenty20 Blaze in the Caribbean has just wrapped up, as has the Charlotte Edwards Cup in England. All of these tournaments will serve as good preparation for the Commonwealth Games, where cricket will feature for the first time in over 20 years.

But what is an ODI? What is T20 cricket? And where do tests fit in to all this? What actually are the rules of cricket? Who are the top players? Our Guide to Cricket will give you all of the answers to impress your friends and family this summer.

This first article in our series covers the basics of the game – field dimensions, equipment, and team composition.

 

Field Dimensions

Cricket is played on a roughly oval-shaped field, with a strip in the middle that is mown much shorter than the rest of the field.

The basic features and dimensions of a cricket field. Not to scale. Off-side/on-side representative of a right-handed batter.

The pitch/wicket: The mown-grass strip in the middle of the field.

The wickets/stumps: The three upright poles at each end of the pitch. 20.12m (22 yards) seperates each set of three. On top of each set of stumps are two more pieces of wood, the bails.

The crease: The line 1.22m (1.33 yards) in-front of the wickets. Batters usually stand on this line, bowlers can’t cross the line when bowling, and the batters must cross the lines to score runs.

The inner circle: In the short overs forms of cricket, ODIs and T20s, a line surrounds the pitch in a 23m (25 yards) circle. A limited number of players are allowed to be outside of this circle at different points in the match.

The boundary: About 50-60m (55-65 yards) from the pitch is another circle painted or marked out with rope, and often covered with advertising padding. Batters score bonus runs if the ball crosses the boundary.

The on-side/leg-side and the off-side: A cricket field is split into two halves. The on-side or leg-side is the half of the field behind the batter. The off-side is the half of the field that the batter faces. Because these terms relate to how the batter stands, the on-side and off-side regularly switch sides depending on whether the batter bats with their left or right hand.

 

Equipment

At its most basic, cricket is a game between bat and ball. Bats come in different sizes and weights, depending on player preference, but willow wood is the primary material.

Cricket balls are made from cork, wrapped in twine, and then covered in leather. A cricket ball is 21-22.5cm in circumference and weighs between 140g and 151g. Balls can be white – for the short formats, red – for test matches, or pink – for day/night test matches. A cricket ball also has a seam of stitches around its circumference.

Cricketers wear a number of items of protective equipment. Batters wear padded gloves, and these are essential for protecting their hands.  Pads are worn by batters and wicketkeepers on their legs to protect themselves from the ball. Batters always wear their pads over the top of their trousers, but as seen in the photo above, wicketkeepers will often wear smaller ones under their trousers. Most of the time batters and wicketkeepers will wear helmets, with fielders occasionally wearing them in certain situations. Wicketkeepers are the only member of the fielding team permitted to wear gloves. Wicketkeepers’ gloves differ from batters’ gloves by having no padding and adding webbing between the fingers, especially the thumb and index finger. Finally, some players will chose to wear additional protective equipment such as arm guards, thigh guards, and chest guards.

Rachael Haynes of Australia bats during the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup Final. Here you can see most of the equipment used in cricket. Photo: ICC/Getty

 

3. Team Composition

Cricket is played by two teams of eleven players. Each team consists of varying numbers of batters and bowlers, and one wicketkeeper. During a cricket match, one team will only have two players on the field at any given moment – they are called the batting team. The other team, known as the fielding team, will have all eleven of their players on the field. This section contains definitions of each type of player and their primary roles in the team.

Batters

At any given time in cricket there will be two batters from one team on the field. Each batter will stand at either end of the pitch. The batter facing the bowler is referred to as being at the ‘striker’s end’. The other batter is referred to as  being at the ‘non-strikers end. A batters primary role in the team is to score runs. There are normally about four or five players who act as batters in one team. Some batters are known for their powerful hitting, while others are known for having great control and placement of where they want the ball to go.

Bowlers

The bowler is the player who is bowling/throwing the ball to batter. Only one player can be ‘the bowler’ at any given time. However, each team will have about four or five players whose primary role is being a bowler. A bowler’s aim is to get the batters out, a.k.a. taking a wicket. They also try to stop the batting team from scoring runs. A bowler is seen as successful if they take wickets or concede few runs, or ideally both. There are two different kinds of bowlers – spin bowlers and pace bowlers.

Spin bowlers: As the name suggests, spin bowlers bowl the ball spinning it. By spinning the ball, these bowlers aim to have the ball move sideways after it has hit the pitch.

Pace bowlers: These bowlers bowl the ball with speed. Pace bowlers also known as seam or swing bowlers, as they often get the ball to move sideways in the air or off the seam.

All-rounders: There are some players who are good at both batting and bowling, known as all-rounders. There is often one or two all-rounders in one team.

Wicket-keepers: There is only one wicket-keeper per team. Wicket-keepers stand behind the stumps and catch the ball when it comes to them. One of the most important players on the team, wicket-keepers are key in preventing runs and taking wickets. They are the only fielders who are allowed to wear gloves. In the past, a player may have been in the team just as a wicket-keeper, but nowadays they are expected to be good batters as well. You’ll see them in action in any of the above videos.

Fielders
Different fielding positions in cricket. Image: ESPNCricinfo

The nine players who are not bowling or wicket-keeping are the fielders. Fielders cover different places around the field to make it harder for the batters to score runs. The graphic above highlights the many different fielding positions the nine fielders can be in. Fielders are also there to catch the ball to get the batters out, as well as prevent the batting team from scoring runs.

That’s the basics of cricket! Keep an eye out for the rest of our Guide to Cricket. Coming soon, Part 2 will cover the rules of cricket. After that, Part 3 will look at some key facts to help you truly impress your friends and family this summer.

Keep up to date with all things cricket by clicking here.

 

Written by Damon Lillis.

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