Village Cricket - A Beautiful Game
Well, if we are going to talk about Village Cricket, we had better define it first. I suppose it is so called because it is normally played on a village cricket ground, usually, but not always, between two village teams. There are other opponents, most notably Old Boys teams and others based on professions, such as Lawyers, while others stem from a common meeting place such as a club or a pub.
Village Cricket differs from League Cricket in these respects:
1. A Village Cricket match is a contest in itself, and provided the weather is good you will have two or three instant results each weekend throughout the summer.
2. League cricket brings with it a certain amount of organisation, regulation and discipline, which are neither necessary nor acceptable in Village Cricket. And instead of getting instant results, you have to play through from May to September and then look at a league table to find out who has won.
I do not wish to take issue with those who play and enjoy League cricket, but it does appear to me that because of weather and other things, cricket does not fit comfortably into a league format in the same way that football does. And I have never been able to understand the complex system of awarding points in the league structure. No, I prefer a simple game where a team bats and makes so many runs, and then the other team bats to try and pass that total, and the result is plain for all to see. But some teams play both types of cricket in the same weekend, so I suppose they manage to live with it.
INTERVALS
Now we have decided what Village Cricket is, let us go on to consider how to play it. Usually a match will start at 2 o'clock or 2.30 with stumps being drawn at about 7.30, and will include a tea interval.
Opinions vary regarding the best way to fix this interval. One school of thought insists on an arbitrary time - say 4.45 or 5 o'clock, and that is deemed to be inflexible. The other side says the tea interval should be between innings. My own view leans toward the latter option - but with a proviso. It does seem logical to synchronise the tea interval with the ten minutes between innings to use all available cricketing time. So I suggest that the tea interval is scheduled for, say, 5 o'clock, but give or take 10 minutes before or after. This allows for a variety of scenarios. For instance:
1. A wicket falls at 5 o'clock, or even within two minutes before 5.00. With the fixed tea interval and under the Laws of Cricket, the bails come off, even if the over is not completed, and tea is taken. Imagine a young batsman on 49 - within one run of his first ever 50 - and unless he bats for a few balls after tea, he won't get it. But at least he would have a chance under the flexible tea rule.
2. The last wicket of an innings falls at 4.46 p.m. With the fixed tea in operation the teams come off, and the other team's opening batsmen play for one or two overs unless a wicket falls, and then they all troop off for tea. What a waste of time! Under the flexible tea rule commonsense would prevail and tea would have been taken when the final wicket fell.
3. Five o'clock arrives and the batting side have not scored as many runs as they would have liked. This could be because of a late start, a shower, an unforeseen incident or injury, or a totally unacceptably slow over rate. Ten more minutes batting will serve the double purpose of adding more runs and depriving opponents of ten minutes of their batting time.
4. Things have gone well and at ten minutes to five the batting captain thinks he has enough runs and would prefer to give his bowlers another ten minutes to dismiss the opposition. So he declares and tea is taken.
And I have no doubt that other people can visualise similar situations where the flexible tea interval would prove to be both helpful and sensible. But all of these scenarios bring us to the fundamental rule of Village Cricket, which reads, “Never upset the tea lady.” So we might as well spend a few moments discussing her vital role. Remember that whatever happens out in the middle, the highlight of her afternoon will be to ensure that the teams and officials have been satisfactorily fed. So all that will be required is to alert her to the possibility that the water for the tea may need to be boiling ten minutes earlier than usual.
And while on the subject of the tea lady, one other thing springs to mind. The visiting captain will have many things on his mind, but one of the niceties he will overlook at his peril is to thank the tea lady. To do so may result, perhaps unfairly, in his being considered to be a thoughtless, ungracious snob. But if he seeks her out and thanks her with a smile on behalf of his team for her sterling efforts, he will have made a friend for life!
TACTICS
Now for a few thoughts about tactics, starting with the toss. You win the toss - what do you do? To my mind there is no need to ponder the question - you bat! This gives you the best situation to control the pattern of the game, and your object will be to score as many runs as possible to enable you to declare at tea. It will then be up to your bowlers and fielders, and you will be able to employ the most suitable type of bowler and set your field according to the tactics employed by the opposition - always remembering that you will have a full 20 overs in the last hour. If you bat first and have no hold-ups, you are
morally bound to declare at tea, but if any unforeseen stoppages occur - showers, injury, etc. - or if your opponents have contrived to bowl an unacceptable number of overs, you are in a position to rethink things. If, on the other hand, you win the toss and put your opponents in, you are committing yourself to bowling them out, and have handed over the initiative to them. And of course every over they continue to bat is one over less your batsmen will have to get the runs. You will have enough opportunities to chase a target on those occasions when you lose the toss without surrendering control when you win it.
"But what about the wicket?” you may ask. Well, we have all seen how often the so-called experts get it wrong on T.V., with their gimmicks of bouncing a ball on the wicket and pushing a key between the cracks. You will not have to ponder the possibility of the wicket taking spin on the fifth day, because from the moment of tossing up, your match - win, lose or draw - will be over in six hours, and any ball which lifts, shoots or turns at 3 o'clock will do pretty much the same at 6 o'clock. The wicket for each match will vary - mainly due to the weather of the preceding few days, and the skill - or lack of skill - of the groundsman. No, if you win the toss, for heaven's sake bat!!
THE SPIRIT OF THE GAME
Now a few words about the spirit of the game, and let me say first of all that in every game of cricket, you play first of all to win, and if that becomes impossible, you play to draw. To play in any other way is to patronise your opponents and prostitute the beautiful game. That is not to say that you should play unfairly. Cricket has many situations which an astute captain can exploit to the advantage of his team. What you should not do is to stray beyond what is considered fair. A few examples. While a captain is at liberty to use the bowlers at his disposal to suit the particular state of the game, i.e. when wickets are required in the last-hour, he may use his slow bowlers and hurry between overs to get in as many as possible, it is not in the spirit of the game when the opposing batsmen are running riot, to have a long conference at the wicket with his fast bowler and adjust the field two or three times in the over - with the subsequent long slow walk back to his mark - so that an over will take seven or eight minutes. That is simply not on!
On the personal level, a batsman who gets an edge and knows it should heed the advice of Lady Macbeth, "Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once!" On the other hand, if there is a doubt whether the ball has carried, the batsman is entitled to await confirmation by the umpire, or for the keeper to show his sportsmanship.
A fielder taking a catch on the boundary will know better than anyone whether he has stepped over the line, and if so, he should acknowledge the fact at once.
In attempting a run-out, it is not uncommon to dislodge the bails accidentally before the arrival of the ball, often with the umpire unsighted. Again, a true sportsman will disclose this fact.
THE OFFICIALS
Now we come to the officials, commencing with the scorers. Most scorers will have done the job many times before and will be very efficient. The main thing is to establish a good understanding with the umpires, that is to say that the scorers acknowledge the umpire's signals, and for the umpire to be sure his signals have been noted. The only real problem is if the tea interval arrives and the scorers have different totals. If the scorers sit together this can never happen, but if they sit apart this can occur. If it does, it is most important that a total is agreed before the other side starts to bat either by trying to find where the error has occurred, or by splitting the difference or whatever. But a definite total must be set.
And now for the umpires. Most players get on well enough with most umpires, but there will always be the odd individual who will regard umpires in the same manner that criminals regard the police, or the ordinary citizen regards the tax-man - they may be necessary - after all someone has to count the balls in the over and signal to the scorers - but you don't have to love them!
Of the many attributes an umpire must possess, by far the most important is to know the Laws of Cricket. He may make an error of judgment on the field and it will not be considered a hanging offence, but if he makes an error through not knowing the Laws he is in trouble. If he is confronted on leaving the field by some smart-aleck with the Laws of Cricket open at the appropriate place to point out his mistake, he will never live it down. The next virtue he must possess is utter impartiality. He is not going to go through his career without making a mistake, and the television replays from allover the world show that he will be in good company, but if he calls everything as he sees it, his conscience will be clear. Above all, he should refrain from using what John Arlott used to call, "the adjuster". This is when, on reflection, he thinks he ought to have given a batsman out, and waits for the next close call to redress the situation. This is merely to compound one possible mistake into two, and is totally wrong. Just stick to umpiring and leave retribution to the Almighty on the Day of Judgment!
The first consideration of the umpire on the field must always be the safety of the players, and he will not allow short-pitched fast bowling in poor light. He need not be officious - a word to the fielding captain will probably suffice. Cricket is a beautiful game, but the result of no game should come before the possibility of injury to a player.
A lot of events on the field are self-evident, and do not call for much action from the umpire, but there are two areas which call for great vigilance, and the first of these concerns catches close to the wicket. Sometimes it is obvious that the ball has found the edge and has been caught. But what about the lifting ball which nips back and forces the batsman to playa hurried shot close to his chest? You can see and hear that it misses the bat, yet there is a deflection which is caught. What did it hit, the glove or the forearm? That is the difference between "Out" and "Not out", and it is not an easy decision.
The second difficult area is, as you will have guessed, the LBW law. Quite a few bowlers are not fully acquainted with the law, and their numerous appeals are because they ask only one question, "Would the ball have hit the wicket?". If only the LBW law was that simple, the job of the umpire would be considerably easier. Unfortunately, before you can even ask the ultimate question, there are many other conditions to satisfy first. Firstly, did the ball make any contact with the bat before hitting the pad? If it did - "Not out". Secondly, did the ball pitch outside leg stump? If it did - "Not out". If the ball pitched outside off stump with the batsman playing a stroke, did the ball hit the pad in line wicket to wicket? If not - "Not out". Only when all other conditions have been met, do you ask the final question, "Would the ball have hit the wicket?" If the answer is, "Possibly" the decision is, "Not out". If it is, "Probably", it is still "Not out". Only when the answer is, "Definitely!" is the answer, "Out". And to be certain of this the umpire has to see the ball pitch and note the direction and height which it moves. When you see a right-handed batsman play forward with his left foot down the pitch, and for the ball to hit the front foot on the full toss, and to be given out LBW, you have just witnessed a very bad piece of umpiring. However straight the ball, with the distance it has to travel to the wicket, the umpire has no right to assume that the ball will not lift or deviate laterally enough to miss the stumps, because he simply has no way of knowing.
My final bit of advice to the umpire is always to remember that the batsman is entitled to the benefit of any doubt, and that is as it should be! The bowler has the opportunity to take his wicket with the very next delivery. He may clean bowl him with an unplayable ball, or he may bowl a near wide which the batsman pulls on to his wicket from well outside the off stump. But the batsman gets no second chance. When you raise your index finger to him, it is every bit as lethal as the downward stroke of the headsman's axe!
CONCLUSION
The Village Cricket season is all too short, and the British weather often does its best to reduce it even further. To see a waterlogged ground after a week of steady rain - or even a heavy storm on the morning of a match is a sad sight - sad, but unavoidable.
But I can tell you of an even sadder sight. That is to see a ground in perfect condition, with the sun shining brightly out of a clear blue sky, and no cricket being played because your opponents have been unable to raise a team, and have cried off on the morning of the match! In my book this is listed as a cardinal sin. If you have any doubt during the week about being able to raise a team, you should notify your opponents as early as possible to give them the opportunity to arrange another fixture. It is the right thing to do, the courteous thing to do, and will probably save your fixture for next year!
In the case of an opponent sustaining an injury or illness, and if they have no spare player, the other captain will unhesitatingly offer a substitute fielder. The captain - in fact, the whole team - will want to applaud an outstanding delivery or a stunning piece of fielding, but he will not wish it to deteriorate to a chorus of, "Well bowled" to every ball which does not get hit to the boundary, which makes a mockery of the whole thing. And it is a nice gesture to applaud an opposing batsman on reaching the traditional landmarks of 50 and 100.
And then there are the minor things which may get missed because everyone leaves it to someone else, ranging from the provision of drinks on the field on a very hot day, to ensuring that the first aid box is topped up with the necessary items, and even whether there is paper in the toilets.
Well, that just about sums up my thoughts on the beautiful game of Village Cricket, and whether you are a player, umpire, scorer, or spectator, I hope your summers will all be bright and sunny.
by Les Powell