Cricket Positions & Rules

Cricket is a simple game for those brought up with it. But newcomers struggle, especially if they keep trying to translate the rules and jargon into another bat-and-ball game, baseball. The official rules from the Marylebone Cricket Club in London use 10,000 words, according to Julian Knight, author of Cricket for Dummies.

  1. Groundsman

    • The groundsman must lay out a pitch with a 9-inch wide wicket (of three 28-inch stumps and two bails on top) at each end, separated by 22 yards. He must mark a bowling crease to run through the wicket for 4 feet either side of the center stump, and a batting crease 4 feet inside the bowling crease and parallel to it. The batsman is safe inside the batting crease. The groundsman must do all this at the other end too, because another bowler will bowl there, after the first bowler's six fair deliveries (called an over).

    Batting

    • Batting rules can be condensed into one sentence: score runs and don't get out. A batsman can get out when his misses the ball and it hits the wicket behind him. If he hits the ball and it's caught, he's out. If he misses a straight ball and it hits his body plumb in front of the wicket, he is out. If he runs to the other to score a single, but does not make it before the returned ball breaks the wicket, he's out. The rules name 10 ways of being out but those are the main ones. Batsmen bat in pairs and both have to run. A hit out of the ground on the full scores six runs and along the ground, four runs. The batsman does not have to run when he hits the ball.

    Bowlers

    • Bowling rules are simple too: bowl straight and don't get hit. If the bowler oversteps the umpire will call "no-ball" which costs one run. Poor direction, a "wide," also means a run to the opposition. Both cases mean the bowler has to bowl another delivery. A fair delivery is called a "ball" but that immediately creates confusion with baseball, where it's the opposite.

    Field Positions

    • The batsman can play shots all around him. The 11 fielders, actually nine when you take out the bowler and wicketkeeper, cannot be everywhere. So the captain sets a field according to his bowler's style and uses the jargon to direct his fielders. The field is split into the "off" and "on" (or "leg") sides. The off side is in front of the batsman as he takes guard and the on/leg side is behind him.

      Close-in positions start with the wicketkeeper, behind the stumps. Next to the 'keeper and two arms' lengths away on the off side is first slip. Second slip will be the same distance and third slip also. This makes the "slips cordon" for the start of the game, when the batsman is likely to hit the ball edgily and to the slips. Moving counter-clockwise, the close-in positions are "gully" at 45 degrees and "point" at 90 degrees. Silly point is close enough to the batsman to need protection (helmet, shin pads, groin cup). Close in on the leg side, opposite silly point is "short leg."

      Mid-range positions are "mid-off" and "mid-on," ready for a straight drive from the batsman on either side of the wicket. Their counterparts on the boundary are "long-off" and "long-on." If the ball gets past point, "cover-point" or "cover" will pick it up and opposite them on the leg side are "square leg" and "mid-wicket." If the ball gets past the 'keeper, "fine leg" and "deep fine leg" will stop it and anything through or over the slips cordon will go to "third man."