Speed Cricket

How To Play Speed Cricket

This game has proven to be a real hit. We play it inside after our bible study has finished. The room does not need to be large. We use a piece of scrunched up paper, a rubbish bin for a wicket and a paperback book for bat. I prefer this because the paper wont go very far and cant be thrown hard and it requires zero preparation.

Rules
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1. Place the wicket at one side of the room.
2. Place a piece of paper on the floor about 4 meters away. This is where they must bowl from.
3. At right angles to the wicket place another wicket. It need only be a couple of meters away.
4. The bowler throws the ball under arm at the stumps.
5. The batter must stop the ball hitting the stumps using the *bat*. If he uses his body he is out.
6. If the batter hits the ball he must run to the second wicket and back again. Sometimes we make them run around the wicket. Other times just touch the wicket.
7. The batter can run whether he hits the ball or not and he can run as often as he wants.
8. Every time he gets to the second wicket and back he gets a point
9. The bowler can bowl the ball at any time as long as she is doing so from the piece of paper on the floor. This is why it is called speed cricket.
10. The fielders should return the ball to the bowler as quickly as possible (preferably while the batter is still running) so that the bowler can easily hit the stumps.
11. When the batter is out (the ball hits the stumps or he hits his own stumps), everyone rotates. So a new batter comes in, a new bowler comes in and all the fielders move around.

Comments
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The boys will want to use a real bat or ball. This poses problems because a real bat can be dangerous (esp inside) and a real ball will go a long way. Just scrunching up a big ball of paper works fine.
Set a maximum score (say 10) so that one batter isn?t in for too long.
Don?t wait for people to fully rotate. It is speed cricket after all. That keeps the game going faster ? the next batter has to get to the wicket quickly.
I have found the girls enjoy this just as much when playing inside. A paper ball isn?t scary. And using a book for a bat is a great equalizer.

Added by
Andrew Rogers
on 18 July 2010