Fielding

To stop, to catch and to throw a ball are the easiest and most natural of cricket activities. No boy –or man-who is not prepared to do his best to become a good fielder has really the right to call him a cricketer. For as fielder, more  even than  as  batsman or bowler, he  is a member of a  team  and  can  not  only determine the  result of a game  by  a catch, run-out or  a saved boundary, but as long as  he is  on  the  field, can  inspire or  depress  his  fellows by  example. Nothing reveals more clearly the spirit of a school team, the  leadership of its captain  and  inspiration of its coach than the  quality of  that  teams fielding: moreover, fine fielding not  only constitutes an  immense reinforcement to  its  bowlers but presents  to  the  opposing  batsmen a  formidable front, psychological as  well as  physical.

Best of all, it will prove a real reinforcement of confidence and loyalty in the team itself. There is  all  the  difference in  the  world between a school  team that  just ‘ takes the field’  and  one  that, on  losing the toss on a hot  day, goes out to  field  meaning to  enjoy itself and  to  win credit into the bargain.

Perhaps the most important of all  cricket truths which a coach can  instill  is that fielding is fun  and  infinitely more  fun  if  everyone tries.

Defensive Fielding

The mental attitude of all fielders must be aggressive but as in batting, their attack must be based on a sound technique of defence. Their first job is to stop the ball.

Quick starting

To stop a ball a  fielder must first get to it, and  this means  he  must  be able to start at  the earliest possible moment: we will say, directly he has  sighted the  line of  the  stroke, for  only  experience  will  enable him  to  anticipate it  and even  then  he may  sometimes be  wrong.

 For quick starting he must:

       (1)    Watch the batsman (unless he is first slip or leg slip when he will watch the ball from the bowler’s hand).

       (2)    Be balanced  on  on the balls of both  feet  with  body  slightly stooped at the waist  and  knees and with hands hanging loosely  at  the  ready in  front of him.

       (3)    Be concentrated in mind, expecting each ball to be played to him.

Stopping the ball
 He must:

       (1)    Get on to the line of the ball as quickly as possible.

       (2)    Get down early and stay down.

       (3)    Watch the ball with complete concentration until it is safely in his hands.

There are two accepted positions for receiving the ball in defensive fielding.

     (a)    Orthodox  position: The fielder  is facing full down the  line of the ball with  knees well bent, seat  well down and the fingers of  both  hands touching the  ground to  from  the  base  of a  triangle in  which  his closed heels  are  the  apex; his  head should not  be  much  more  than  a foot  above his  hands and  his  eyes glued to the  ball as it  comes towards him.

         (b)   The Long Barrier position: The fielder turns sideways to the line of the ball, dropping on his left knee so that his left leg and his body present a maximum barrier to the ball. His  hands will   be  down to  receive the ball in front of his left  thigh, and his head  directly over them and  fully  turned so that  he  watches  the  ball  into them with  both  eyes level (fig. lb).