The Cricket Field: Or, the History and Science of the Game of CricketPycroft, James
History
The Cricket Field: Or, the History and Science of the Game of Cricket
Pycroft, James
Cricket
the powers of a bowler and his tactics as against a batsman, on the
places of the fieldsmen, on their insecurity when hurried, and the
spirit it puts into the one party and takes away from the other; and
add to this the runs evidently lost; and, I am confident that the same
Eleven that go out for sixty would, with better running, generally make
seventy-five, and not uncommonly a hundred.”
Attend, therefore, to the following rules:--1. Back up every ball as
soon as actually delivered, and as far as consistent with safe return.
2. When both men can see the ball, as before wicket, let the decision
depend on the batsman, as less prepared to start, or on the elder
and heavier man, by special agreement; and let the decision be the
partner’s when the ball is behind the hitter. 3. Let men run by some
call: mere beckoning with strangers leads to fatal errors, backing
up being mistaken for “run.” “Yes,” “no,” or “run,” “stop,” are the
words. “Away” sounds like “stay.” 4. Let the hitter also remember that
he can often back up a few yards in anticipation of a ball passing the
fieldsman. 5. Let the first run be made quickly when there is the
least chance of a second. 6. Let the ball be watched and followed up,
as for a run, on the chance of a miss from wicket-keeper or fieldsmen.
So, never over-run your ground. 7. Always run with judgment and
attention, never beyond your strength: good running between wickets
does not mean running out of wind, to the suffusion of the eye and
the trembling of the hand, though a good batsman must train for good
wind. Henry Davis of Leicester was fine as ever in practice, when too
heavy to run, and therefore to bat, in a game. The reason of running
out and losing runs is, generally, the want of an established rule
as to who decides the run. How rarely do we see a man run out but
from hesitation! How often does a man lose his chance of safety by
stopping to judge what is his partner’s ball! Let cricketers observe
some rule for judging the run. There will then be no doubt who is to
blame,--though, to censure the batsman because his partner is run
out, when that partner is not backing up, is too bad. Let the man
who has to decide bear all the responsibility if his partner is out;
only, let prompt obedience be the rule. When a man feels he must run
because called, he will take more pains to be ready; and, when once it
is plain that a batsman has erred in judgment and lost one wicket of
his eleven, he will, if worth anything, make a study of running, and
avoid so unpleasant a reflection for the future. Fancy such a _mem._ as
this:--“Pilch run out because Rash hesitated,” or “Rash run out because
when the hitter called he was not backing up.”
These and many other ideas on this most essential, yet most neglected,
part of the game, I shall endeavour to illustrate by the following
computation of runs which might have been added to an innings of 100.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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