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.