Playing cricket involves sprinting and throwing in short bursts, which is good for improving your cardiovascular health. If you play it regularly, you could also improve your stamina and hand-eye co-ordination.
Playing Cricket
There are many different ways in which people of all ages and abilities can get involved with the game, including club cricket, indoor cricket and other formats of the game. The idea of the game is to score more runs than the opposing side, which the batting team does by hitting the ball with bats and running in-between the wickets – hence scoring ‘runs’.
Meanwhile, the bowling side tries to stop the batting side from scoring those runs as well as getting the batters out – of which there are 11 on each side. Each team takes turns at batting and bowling, with the team that has scored the most runs emerging victorious.
The professional game
In the professional game, there are three different formats of the game. These are: first class, in which games take place over multiple days, with each team playing two innings each. Secondly, there are one day games, which take place over the course of one day, with a limited number of overs per day and with just one innings per team.
Lastly, the shortest and most frenetic form of the game is Twenty 20, which involves each team playing one innings of 20 overs and each game takes approximately three hours.
Most amateur cricket clubs will play mostly one day or Twenty 20 games, which take less time than multi-day first class games and so are more accessible to amateur cricketers who are playing for the fun of it.
Playing with Everyone Active
To find a cricket club near you, visit the England and Wales Cricket Board website at www.ecb.co.uk. Many of our leisure centres have indoor nets allowing them to offer indoor cricket practice sessions, while certain Everyone Active sites include full-sized pitches and playing facilities. To find your nearest centre offering cricket facilities, click here.