Tennis Ball Cricket Rules
Tennis ball cricket as its name implies is simply cricket played with a soft ball as opposed to a leather ball. Tennis ball cricket was an innovation that originated in the Indian subcontinent and was driven by necessity. Unlike a game of football, formal cricket requires a lot of expensive equipment. Followers of the game want to play it but either cannot afford the equipment needed for a conventional game of cricket or wish to play a simpler version of the game as a form of recreation that does not involve the same risk of injury as a game played with a hard ball.
Contents
Gully Cricket vs Tennis Ball Cricket
For the purpose of this article, we have differentiated between gully cricket and tennis ball cricket. Gully cricket can also be played with a tennis ball rather than a leather ball. However, where gully cricket is different from tennis ball cricket, as seen by the author of this article, is in the location and scope of the game. Therefore, gully cricket is simply a version of the game that can be played anywhere and everywhere by anyone at any time, while we see tennis ball cricket as a substitute for the leather ball game.
Tennis Ball Cricket is More Than Meets the Eye
Thus, in keeping with our definition, tennis ball cricket is likely to be played by an office-goer at a weekend as a simulation of a professional limited-overs game of cricket. Having said that, tennis ball cricket is credited with producing some of the best leather ball professional cricketers the world has seen. Are you, for instance, aware that Sachin Tendulkar honed his game playing tennis ball cricket? So did Wasim Akram. In more recent times, we have seen batsmen struggling to negotiate the deadly yorkers bowled by Indian new-ball bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Guess what?! Bumrah says he owes it to tennis ball cricket!
Common Rules
To begin with, tennis ball cricket is also a form of cricket that is played using standard cricket rules. There is absolutely no difference as to the 42 Laws of Cricket defining runs, wickets, innings and so on. However, any changes in the rules will be driven by limitations relating to the space available for playing and the nature of the equipment, among other things.
Dimensions of the Pitch
While the standard length of a cricket pitch, according to the Laws of Cricket, is 22 yards, in tennis ball cricket, a shorter length of 15 to 20 yards is preferred. The softer ball used is the main reason for preferring a shorter pitch to play tennis ball cricket on. A tennis ball bowler who bowls on a 22-yard pitch is likely to struggle to control the ball in a way he would do it with a leather ball. It is not possible to generate the same kind of pace with a tennis ball. As a result, the batsman in a tennis ball cricket game is likely to enjoy undue advantage if the length of the pitch were 22 yards. Shortening the length of the pitch will allow the bowler to generate better pace and somewhat even out the battle between bat and ball.
<Protective Equipment
Even though tennis ball cricket is unlikely to cause any life-threatening injury, there is still a need for some protection, especially if you wish to attend office on Monday without suffering any loss of physical efficiency. Thus, helmets, groin guards, upper body protectors, batting gloves and wicket keeping gloves are understandably permitted in a game of tennis ball cricket. However, pads are not. There is no risk of fracturing your leg because it got hit by a tennis ball. Helmets can be lightweight, ensuring that they don’t hinder vision or movement. Likewise, gloves should be comfortable and functional.
NumNumber of Overs
mentioned earlier, tennis ball cricket is often played on a Sunday in a limited-overs format. While one day cricket played with a leather ball is a fifty-overs-a-side event, tennis ball cricket can vary from six to 25 overs a side, with the length of overs being the same (six balls).
NumNumber of Players
re is no change in the number of players allowed in a team playing a tennis ball cricket match. A side can have twelve players with no more than eleven to bat or bowl. Moreover, no more than eleven players can be on the field of play at any point in the match. In other words, the twelfth player will literally be a “twelfth man.”
Number of Players
re is no change in the number of players allowed in a team playing a tennis ball cricket match. A side can have twelve players with no more than eleven to bat or bowl. Moreover, no more than eleven players can be on the field of play at any point in the match. In other words, the twelfth player will literally be a “twelfth man.”
Back in 2003 when T20 cricket was first played, nobody knew what to expect from it. It was not like a Test match or a One-Day International. It came to be known as the slam-bang version of the game. And this slam-bang version of the game had slightly different rules. Unlike in Test cricket […]
There are many deliveries in cricket that a batsman may find hard to deal with. A bouncer figures among such deliveries, as does an in-swinging ball or a googly that a batsman may not be able to read. However, there’s one ball most batsmen usually struggle to negotiate. That’s a yorker! What Is a […]
In cricket, as the current Laws specify, an over is defined as a set of six legitimate balls delivered by a bowler. A no-ball or a wide delivered by a bowler is considered illegitimate and is not considered in the six-ball count of an over with the bowler obliged to bowl another delivery instead. In […]
It is a terrible experience for a batsman to get out without scoring a single run in an innings aka scoring a duck. Not only does the batsman not get another chance to bat in the innings but it also feels terribly embarrassed to not having added even a single run to the team’s […]
Test cricket is the oldest format in the history of the game. It was 15 March 1877 that a Test cricket event first took place. Australia and England played the first-ever Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Today, more than 143 years since the first-ever Test match, we would like to take […]
Fielding restrictions have existed in cricket since the 1996 World Cup. The ICC introduced the term “powerplay” only in 2005. The rationale for fielding restrictions was based on motivating batsmen to score more runs. It can be noticed that ODI batting teams have been making more runs on average since 1996 than in the period […]