Cricket has been an established team sport for hundreds of years and is one of the most popular sports in the world. It originated in England and is now very popular in countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, the West Indies and South Africa.
Competitive cricket is essentially a bat and ball sport. It is played by two teams on an oval and involves batting, fielding and bowling. There are 11 players a side and a game can last anywhere from several hours to several days.
Cricket can be played both socially and competitively, by males and females of all ages. While competitive cricket is mostly played on a field, cricket just for fun can be played in backyards, parks, streets or on the beach. You only need a couple of friends, a bat, a ball and something that represents wickets.
Health Benefits:
Although there is some standing around, to play cricket you need to be fit and strong, and have good hand-eye coordination and ball-handling skills. Cricket involves sprinting between wickets and running to stop balls, as well as bowling and throwing.
Health benefits include:
- Endurance and stamina
- Balance and coordination
- Physical fitness
- Improving hand-eye coordination.
Other Benefits:
As well as physical health benefits, cricket can also bring other benefits and opportunities such as:
- Team skills
- Social skills such as cooperation, communication and learning how to cope with winning and losing
- Social interaction – it’s a great way to meet new people and make new friends.
Required Equipment
There are certain items that you must have if you want to play badminton. It is by no means one of the most expensive sports to practice, but it is neither running or basketball, where the equipment needed is minimal.
- Tape Ball
Cock balls are strictly prohibited during play at our facility. A tape ball is required for play. It is essentially a tennis ball that is wrapped in an electrical tape. A seam is also presented on it by same or different colored tape. After some smashing, ball requires to be re-taped. There is a taping master in every team who is asked to tape the ball.
The bat used in this form of cricket is usually very light and consists of a longer handle than hard willows.
- Wickets
There are many types of wickets in tape ball cricket. These include normal wooden stumps but without bails, flat stones set-up vertically, iron grill wicket, Pepsi bottle containers and the one made of bricks. Usually, 12 bricks are needed to set up a wicket good enough.
We allow the use of wooden, plastic or metal stumps only that are of standard size.
A wicket consists of three stumps, or stakes, each 28 inches (71.1 cm) high and of equal thickness (about 1.25 inches in diameter), stuck into the ground and so spaced that the ball cannot pass between them. Two pieces of wood called bails, each 4.37 inches (11.1 cm) long, lie in grooves on the tops of the stumps. The bails do not extend beyond the stumps and do not project more than half an inch above them. The whole wicket is 9 inches (22.86 cm) in width. There are two of these wickets, which a batsman defends and a bowler attacks, and they are approximately in the centre of the ground, facing one another at each end of the pitch.
- Cricket Bat
Although any cricket bat can be used but we recommend the use of cricket bats that are designed for tape ball cricket. These bats are much lighter than their standard counterparts and will make your play more enjoyable with the tape ball.