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Anytime you play cricket, it's important to be alert. Keep your eye on the ball, and always be aware of what you and the players around you are doing. An advanced cricket ball is very hard and even young batters can hit it at speeds over 150 kilometres per hour!
Important note: RBC Wicket Cricket recommends that you use soft practice balls for physical education classes and drills.
Here are a few safety tips to help keep you in top cricket form:
- Use a practice ball. Practice balls are the same size and weight as cricket balls, but they're softer. These are great for practicing so you can develop the skills you need to play with the hard ball, but without the bruises.
- Dress for protection. Wear a helmet for batting and close-in fielding. When batting, wear thigh pads and a chest pad in addition to gloves and leg pads.
- Tape your fingers. Unlike baseball players, cricketers don't wear gloves when fielding. To help protect your fingers from being bent backwards by a hard-hit ball and to shield your skin, tape your finger joints.
- Drink plenty of water. It's easy to get dehydrated, so try to drink 8 oz (250 mL) of water every half hour when playing cricket. If you prefer, take a sports energy drink providing a healthy balance of sodium, magnesium and phosphates.
- Eat right for energy. Carry an energy bar or dried fruit in your pocket and nibble at it when you get the chance. You're constantly outputting energy, so constantly input too.
- Warm up and stretch. A good warm-up and stretching routine before each practice session and match will help reduce the risk of muscle strain. These RBC Wicket Cricket videos will help you warm up correctly.
- Keep your eye on the ball at all times. When you're out on the field, always pay attention to where the ball is. Fielders throw the ball far and hard, and batters hit the ball far and hard.
- Be a smart batter. When batting, if the ball bounces up toward your head, bend back or duck under it. If the ball comes in toward your chest, keep your eye on it and move out of the way. As a batter, you must always be on your toes!
- Catch with care. When catching, don't point your fingers towards the ball. Do point your fingers toward the sky if catching overhead, or toward the ground if catching low down.
- Keep your bat under control. When batting, aim to hit the ball down towards the ground. If you do angle the face of the bat upwards, trying to hit it in the air, the ball may be deflected into your face. Besides, if you don't hit in the air you're never going to get caught, right?
Illustrations supplied courtesy of England and Wales Cricket Board
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