Fine points from the greatest minds
How to play cricket.
Cricket can feel hard. It is actually simple, then it gets technical, then it becomes simple again. This is the simple part, written down, with the people who said it best standing behind every idea.
Written for my son, who is twelve. Useful for anybody.
What happened out there?
Tap the one that fits. Three or four questions from here to why it keeps happening, whether you got bowled or you cannot put a name to it yet.
Nothing gone wrong? Then start at the beginning. Ten ideas, in the order they actually happen to you, from the drive to the ground to the last ball of the day. Read it once and you have been through a whole game.
One innings, start to finish
Five moments, ten ideas. Nothing here is out of order, because the order is the point.
- 1
- 2
Walking out to bat
- StanceToes lined up with middle stump, feet either side of the crease, about shoulder width. Relaxed but alert. Same every ball, so your eyes get the same view of the world every ball.
- GripToo round and you close the face, too open and you slice it. You want the biggest part of the bat facing the ball. Top hand steers, bottom hand hits. Hold it firmly, because a bat that moves in your hands at contact costs you power and control at the same time.
- Know where off stump isThe most useful piece of geography in batting. If you know it, you know what to leave, and leaving well buys you the time to score later.
- 3
The first ball
- Watch the seam, not the ballWatching the ball is vague. Watching the seam spin is specific, and specific is what your eyes need. Then follow it all the way onto the bat, not to a metre in front of it. If you missed it, this is usually why.
- Point the front shoulder down the pitchOne cue, and if you only take one thing from this page take this one. The front shoulder aims at the bowler. Not the chest, not the hips, the front shoulder. Everything else lines up behind it on its own, which is why it is worth more than four separate instructions.
- 4
Once you are in
- Hit straight, and hit it a lotA bat is much longer than it is wide. Swing it straight and you present the whole long face. Swing it across and you present the thin edge. That is not opinion, it is the shape of the thing in your hands.
- Play to score, alwaysEvery ball, work out how to score off it first, and only defend if you genuinely cannot. Adam Gilchrist played the same way at the start of the day and at the end of it: whatever the ball merited.
- 5
When they bat
- Rhythm before effortBowling is rhythm. If your feet, legs, arms and head are in good positions it takes half the effort and gives you double the accuracy. Stand tall, run in on a straight line, and look at your target over the front shoulder.
- Walk in with the bowlerEvery ball, from every position. You arrive moving forward instead of flat footed, which is worth about two metres of range and turns a lot of ones into dots.
The whole thing, by subject
155 ideas across five subjects, in as much depth as you want to go. The first one is not a skill. It is a way of thinking, and it sits underneath all the others.
The mindMind
What you can control, what you cannot, and how long the present actually lasts.
01BattingBatting
Three questions, one box, a still head, and the courage to swing.
02BowlingBowling
Rhythm first. Then make the ball do something the batter did not order.
03Fielding & keepingFielding
The half of cricket nobody films. Also the half that wins close games.
04For my sonMy son
The section I keep for my son. His match log, his cues, and what comes next.
Looking for something else? five ways to search the whole thing: the five questions, by moment, by word, by what keeps going wrong, or by what just happened.