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.
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