Kids Cricket

For Coaches, Parents and their Kids

Let’s Start with Some Basic Cricket Terms

Hi Guys! In future posts I’ll be explaining the different fielding positions in cricket. We will start with just a few basic cricket terms for kids, before moving on to specific cricket fielding positions.   

Stumps – These are the 3 wooden sticks that are placed at each end of the pitch. Bails are placed on top and together they can be known as wickets. The batsman’s aim is to protect his wickets/stumps.  

Pitch – This is the playing area between the stumps, identified as the lightly coloured strip. It is 22 yards in length, except in kids cricket when it can be reduced to 20 yards depending on age.  

Off Side and Leg Side - This is best illustrated by the pictures. Basically, to a right handed batsman the off side is the half of the field to their right.  Any area of ground to their left is known as the leg side (or on side).  For left handed batsman it is the opposite way around.

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

 

Behind Square - This is any area of the field behind the line of the batsman, see pictures below.   

Covers - In fielding terms this is an area of the field on the off side, as highlighted below. It relates to some fielding positions which will be covered in a later post.   

   

For a closer look at the pictures click on them and they will open up in my Flickr page.

Look out for my posts on cricket fielding positions.