Picture 1, The Wicket

A complete wicket looks something like this:

    == ==
   |  |  |
   |  |  |
   |  |  |
   |  |  |
   |  |  |

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In the centre of the field, and usually aligned along the long axis of the ellipse, is the _pitch_, a carefully prepared rectangle of closely mown and rolled grass over hard packed earth. It is marked with white lines, called _creases_, like this:

 ______|                                  |______   <--- return crease
   |   |                                  |   |            |
   |   |                                  |   |            |
   W   |                                  |   W  <- wicket |
   |   |                                  |   |            |
 __|___|                                  |___|__   <------
       |                                  |
   ^                                          ^
   |   ^--------popping crease------------^   |
   /------------bowling crease----------------/

The popping creases are 17.68 metres (58 feet) apart, the bowling creases are 1.22 metres (48 inches) from the popping creases. The return creases are 2.64 metres (104 inches) apart. The popping creases extend at least 0.51 metres (20 inches) beyond the return creases, and the return creases extend at least 1.22 metres (48 inches) beyond the bowling creases. The W in the centre of the bowling crease represents the position of the wickets (one at each end). The three stumps are in line along the bowling crease.

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Picture 3, The Batting Stance

One batsman stands behind each popping crease, near a wicket. The batsman farthest from the bowler is the _striker_, the other is the _non-striker_. The striker stands before his wicket, on or near the popping crease, in the batting stance. For a right-handed batsman, the feet are positioned like this:

 |______    The 'L' and 'R' are the left and right feet
 |   |      respectively, the 'W' is the wicket. The batsman
 |   |      stands with his bat held down in front of the
 |   W      wicket, ready to hit the ball, which will be
L|R  |      bowled from the other end of the pitch.
 |___|__
 |

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Picture 4, The Fielding Positions

The following diagram shows the rough positions of all of the simply named field positions. In this diagram, the pitch is indicated by three '#' marks; the striker's end is at the top. The bowler is not shown, but would be running upwards towards the bottom end of the pitch. The approximate field positions are marked with numbers or letters, according to the key on the right of the diagram. The three marks: '+', '*', and '~' indicate that the adjective shown at the bottom of the list can be used to describe a modification of that position, as shown in the example.

         ---------------------------------          1  wicket keeper
       /                                   /        2  first slip
      /          e                h         /       3  second slip
     /                                       /      4  third slip
    /                                         /     5  gully +
   /                                           /    6  point +*~
  /                                             /   7  cover +
 /                      2                        /  8  extra cover +
|                     43 1  d                  j  | 9  mid-off +*
|                  5                              | a  mid-on +*
|                6       #        c               | b  mid-wicket +
|                        #                        | c  square leg +~
|                7       #        b               | d  leg slip
|                 8                               | e  third man
|                                                 | f  long off
 /                  9         a                  /  g  long on
  /                                             /   h  fine leg
   /                                           /
    /                                         / +  deep (near boundary)
     /                                       /  *  silly (near batsman)
      /          f                g         /   ~  backward (more 'up')
       /                                   /  eg.
         ---------------------------------   j  deep backward square leg

Other modifiers used to qualify positions:
square: close to a line perpendicular to the pitch, through the batsman;
fine: close to a line straight along the pitch;
short: close to the batsman.

Return to the cricket explanation page at the Fielding section.

Picture 1, The Wicket

Picture 2, The Pitch

Picture 3, The Batting Stance

Picture 4, The Fielding Positions