A Call To Modify The Rules For Under 10s

Here on the Queensland Gold Coast junior cricket plays by a modified rule set, as is no-doubt the case in many other places.  As the age group increases the rule modifications diminish such that the under 10s have the most heavily modified set of rules, and the under 17s have very few modifications at all.

In the past several years the modifications for the under 10s has increased and now includes a a definition of a no-ball extends to a ball that does not pitch on the pitch, a free hit forward of the wicket from a cone for a no-ball, runs scored off of a no-ball are the extra and any runs scored from the bat.

The changes also reduce the number of players on a team to eight (some caveats apply) and stipulate field placement for those players.

I am broadly supportive of these rules, and I believe the changes around the no-ball do much to balance play when bowlers are still trying to learn the basics of their art.

However, I do believe that there is justification for a further, simple, tweaking of the rules which is in some ways an extension of the intent of the no-ball rule where the free hit from the cone must be hit forward of the wicket.  That rule is there because there are no fielders behind the wicket except for the wicket keeper, and so any hit behind the wicket is an almost-certain boundary.

The same goes for leg-byes and byes - with the reduced field size most byes and leg-byes will quickly run to the short boundary for four.

If the first few matches of the season are anything to go by, somewhere in the vicinity of a quarter to a third (I am giving benefit of the doubt and estimating on what I feel is the low side) of all runs scored in a game are scored behind the wicket with the vast majority of those from byes resulting from a wayward delivery or a miss from an inexperienced keeper.

To achieve a better balance and a fairer outcome I would like to see the rules about team size and field placement enhanced by a change that limits the number of runs behind the wicket to those run and a boundary from any reason restricted to one run.

You may download a copy of the current rules for junior cricket on the Gold Coast from here.

Marking The Field

In junior cricket matches are often played on multi-purpose fields in school grounds and parks.  Without use of the dedicated fields that senior grades play on, the juniors are left to mark their fields before start of play - a responsibility of the home team.

In an earlier post I discussed how to determine the size of the field and touched on how to mark the field.  In this post I am going to expand on that field marking.

The field is typically marked with cones instead of a rope, paint or chalk line, or a fence, and this means that the curved portions are not curves but a series of angled lines - often fairly coarse due to the low number of suitable markers available.

Note: umpires should adjudge boundaries based on a straight line between the boundary markers if those markers are not continuous (refer to Laws of Cricket: Law 19 (Boundaries), and players should be advised of this to reduce confusion, dissent, disappointment and inaccurate claims of catches (refer to Laws of Cricket: Law 32 (Caught)).

Field markings with cones - left side has an odd number, right an even number

Boundary markers should be placed on each side and parallel to the pitch, one cone opposite to each wicket and one mid-way between the length of the pitch - that's the first six cones.  Ensure that the cones form a line with the wickets.  the remaining cones are spaced evenly about the arcs of the field - the arcs which are circumscribed (defined) by the rope fixed on one end to where middle stump goes, and marked on the other end with the desired boundary distance.  Walk the arc placing the cones at the desired distance.

Note: Why lines and not the arc?  It is mentally quicker and more accurate to draw a line between two points and determine on which side of that line a third point falls on than to infer the shape of a section of arc from two points as that requires a much larger amount of the arc to be taken in to give the shape of the section before focus then reverts to the smaller section and the third point in question - a decision made this way is unlikely to be very accurate.

I'm going to give you two ways of determining the spacing between the cones - one takes a bit more maths, but if you're quick with the maths it will be quicker than the other method.  Either way you chose, it does not need to be exact.  Of course, the third method is to just get on with it.

Method 1 (more maths)
The two arcs on the ends of the field form a circle, and we're going to use that fact and a little rounding to give us something that's close enough to get on with the work at hand.

Where P is the number of paces between cones, B is the boundary distance, C is the number of cones available, and S is your average step in meters.

Example

With some realistic numbers thrown in to our example above we can see that we should have about ten paces between the cones.

Method 2 (more measuring)
Walk the arc on one side of the field, counting the number of steps.  Divide that number by half the number of cones (minus two).  That should give you the number of steps between cones.

Why bother?
For anyone that has made it this far, you would be doing well to question my sanity ... and I'm not going to claim that I am.  But still, why bother with this, why make it so hard?

Maybe I have a mild form of OCD, I cannot set the field in under thirty minutes by eye.  I agonise over the spacing and placement of the cones.  I check and adjust, compare alignment, observe the shape, fiddle and in general obsess over it.

But it's also about creating a good ground for the players.  We often like to think that they don't really care about it, that they don't notice or that it doesn't make any difference.  It does, though.  It matters to the players that someone is willing to invest the time and care into their experience, and they respect that - and they respect the boundary.  And it matters to the umpires.

Recommendations on field sizing

There is a broad recommendation of a field size of forty meters for under 10's.  This is an increase over previous years where the recommended size was thirty or thirty-five meters; and it is significantly larger than the fifteen meters I have seen on the smallest field set.

The coaches have some degree of autonomy in selecting the size of the field for a match, and I want to put forward a suggestion on how to find that right size.

I believe that a field should be large enough that:

• when the keeper is unable to take a delivery from all but the fastest bowlers that it does not go for four byes (it doesn't reach the boundary with speed)
• only the most powerful batsmen can readily strike boundaries, and few can achieve a six
• players will need to relay the ball when thrown in from the furthest boundaries

and that a field should be small enough that:

• batsmen can still hit boundaries
• bowlers can still reach the boundaries if batsman and wicket keeper miss the delivery
• players can throw in from the short boundaries without need of a relay

Field sizes should be adjusted downwards for wet and/or long grass, and upwards for short and dry grass - I would go with 10 or 15% upwards for each of dry and short, and the same downwards for each of wet and long.

The cricket season itself is effectively made up of two halves - before and after the Christmas break.  I would look at increasing the field size by five meters after the Christmas break - the players are growing, gaining in strength and skill, and this should mean that the boundaries are flowing more freely.

Why this is important?
Setting the field size properly helps to achieve a balance in the game - wayward bowling or misses by a keeper are not unduly penalised; running between the wickets is encouraged; and, playing shots in the air is discouraged.  Also, it allows skill to match power on a more even footing.

Marking the field
Use a string with a loop on one end and a knot or marker at the desired field size.  From each centre stump circumscribe a half arc facing away from the opposite wicket.  Join the two ends of the arcs on either side of the wicket as the side boundaries of the field.

Field boundaries using a string and centre stump

The Batting Order

In Under 10's cricket, particularly at the start of the season, many of the players may not have played together before, and there can be wildly varying degrees of fitness, abilities and experience.

Given the often short time between sign-on and the first match I believe that a reasonable method for determining the batting order would be to mark two parallel lines twenty to twenty-five meters apart.  Line the players up on one of these lines.  Have them run (all either with or without bats) four times non-stop - all this is is running between the wickets for four runs.  Alternatively, line them up and do a one hundred meter dash.

Either way you do it, the finishing order is your batting order.

Why this way?
Simply, one of the frustrations in cricket is having a batting partner who is a complete mismatch with running between the wickets.  It results in run-outs, friction between the players, and lost opportunities as the players doubt their partners ability to complete the runs.

This does not take into account communication, decision making and understanding between the players - but this is an early predictor that can be used to start them off on the right foot when little else is known about the players.