Scoring From Behind

Any observer of a match with the modified format of under 10's cricket on the Gold Coast would notice the significant number of runs scored from behind the wicket, and more often than not without the bat.  It is common place to have a wide or wayward delivery go for four runs.  In fact, anything that gets past the keeper usually results in four runs.

This situation is the logical outcome of the modified format as it stands with the combination of undersized fields, reduced player numbers and mandated fielding positions.

Cricket should be a game where there is a natural balance between the bat and the ball.  I believe that this balance is particularly difficult to strike with the less skilful players in the younger ages of junior cricket where outcomes are often (not always, and never solely) determined by the quality or lack of quality of the bowlers.  The modified rules for Under 10's achieves a fair balance, except that a team is excessively disadvantaged for any poor bowling, and outcomes can be determined by which team has the fewer poorly bowled overs on the night.

Prior to the modified rules teams would have a fielder at third man, and sometimes at deep backward square leg, or better, at fine leg (once in a while you would even see a player at long stop where the bowler was particularly quick or the keeper inexperienced).  Setting a field with these positions greatly reduced runs scored from misfielding and poor bowling - arguably characteristics of under 10's cricket.  It restored some balance to the game.

I would recommend that the scoring on anything between the arc between gully and leg gully or third man and fine leg be limited to one run which must be run unless the ball reaches the boundary - this would apply to deliveries that are hit, byes, leg-byes and overthrows.  Within that arc wide and no-ball deliveries should accrue no additional runs, only the established penalties themselves (bearing in mind that the no-ball already receives a free hit).

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.