Cricket Helmet

Cricket Helmet : Safety First To Prevent Head Injuries

There is a lovely joke that goes like this ...

'The first testicular guard (Box) was used in cricket in 1874 and the first cricket helmet was used in 1974.

It took 100 years for men to realize that the brain is also important.'

Surely written by a women.

The cricket helmet was designed to stop serious injury occuring due to being hit on the head by the cricket ball.

The cricket helmet originally evolved as batsmen sought protection from being hit on the head by short fast pitched bowling.

As the game embraced the wider acceptance of helmets by batters, they began to be used as protection by close in fielders and wicketkeepers.

Injuries can still occur for batsmen whilst wearing helmets, cuts and fractures occur at the the highest level of the game when genuinely quick bowlers are operating. 

Boys Helmets: mycricketgame store

The History of the Cricket Helmet

The cricket helmet has been slow to be embraced by cricket as a form of protection, amazingly so, bearing in mind that fast bowlers bowl at speeds upward of 90 miles per hour, 150 kph.

The game which has historically cherished its traditionalism and idiosyncracies finally made the common sense breakthrough in the late 1980's and early 1990's with the broader acceptance of helmets worn by batsmen.

They have though, been worn by cricketers going back to the 1930's , Patsy Hendren the England cricketer wore a homemade helmet with three peaks to protect himself whilst playing against the West Indies.

They have evolved from these early contraptions, players exploring different designs and made makeshift skull caps, Mike Brearley and Sunil Gavaskar were two who spring to mind.

You can see the evolution of the helmet in these photo's, firstly of Sunil Gavaskar with his Skull Cap and then Dennis Amiss with his motorcycle style helmet. 

During the 1970's Dennis Amiss and Tony Greig began to wear cricket helmets modelled on motor cycle helmets as they sought to counter the very real threat posed by the quick bowlers of their generation, specifically in World Series Cricket.

Graham Yallop the Australian cricketer was the first batsman to wear a helmet in a Test match, against the West Indies in 1978.

Mens Helmets: mycricketgame store

Helmet Technology: Recent Advances

The most recent advances into helmet technology have allowed it to be mass produced across the cricket world and for it to become affordable for most young cricketers.

Made from either moulded plastic or man made fibres set in resin, the visor made from steel fits into the helmet by the ears, bolting onto the helmet with re-inforced fittings.

As we can see from the examples in these pictures, two are orthodox helmets and the other a funky 'next generation helmet' allowing greater ventilation to keep the players head cooler.

Things to look for in your choice of helmet are the balance between comfort and safety. The helmet should fit comfortably and the strap should hold the helmet in place, firmly.

Make sure the helmet has adequate ventilation holes, batting in hot weather is tough enough without having to cook inside your helmet.

Check for a safety standards sticker with your purchase to make sure that the helmet conforms to high standards of production.

Fielders and Wicketkeepers Wearing Helmets

Fielders wear cricket helmets whilst fielding close to the batter, typically either at short leg or silly mid off, waiting for the opportunity to take a catch.

Wicketkeepers began to wear helmets whilst keeping in the sub-continent, specifically on wickets which were worn with the ball bouncing and kicking up unpredictably.

It is common place to see keepers standing up to the stumps with helmets on now, keeping to the spinners and medium pacers.

 

Safety Regulations

It is now law for young players under the age of 19 to wear a helmet whilst batting or fielding close to the bat.

See the article on Safety Guidleines from the ECB. 

Best Wicket Keeping Tips

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Top Ten Wicket Keeping Tips

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1. Have a vision for your wicket keeping performance, what your roles are in each format of the game. Set goals for training and for match time. Break down each aspect of your keeping, standing up to the stumps, standing back, catching to both sides, single and both hands.

2. As wicket keeper you're the center point for the team performance in the field. Make sure your set a good tempo for the side.

Get through the overs, keep ahead of the clock with the over rate, particularly with 20 20 Cricket where time is always an issue.

Make your fielders look good, taking wayward throws and balls on the half volley. Affirm them and boost up your players confidence, encouraging them, especially when your side is under pressure.

3. Set your focus for each ball, watch the ball from the bowlers hand. Be present with each ball, you will make mistakes, let them go, re-set your focus and set a goal for the next ball.

breathe and relax between balls to help let go of tension and reset your focus.

4. Go down for each ball, it makes you come up underneath the ball. Keep your hands open and create a big surface area for the ball to come into.

Extend your hands out to the ball to receive its energy, let your hands receive the ball and give with the energy.

You will catch primarily in one hand, so look after your dominant catching hand. Be aware of where your are catching the ball in your hand. Pay attention to closing your hand around the ball when gloving it, this makes your judgement more precise and assists you in watching the ball closely.

5. Elite wicket keepers set the alignment for the slips. The slips take their mark from you - set them around 1 1/2 slips so that you have room to dive and move. When you are going for a catch in this channel, go with total commitment.

6. When diving for the ball, lead with your head, drive your head toward the ball, good head position gives your eyes and ultimately your brain good information to get into position to take your catch.

7. When diving for catches you have two options: having caught the ball, either tuck your elbow under your body and roll so your don't land on it ... or you straighten your elbow when diving low for the catch.

This takes the jarring motion out of your landing. Get the mattress out at home or at your club and practice this till you can master both techniques.

Wear long sleeve shirts to protect your elbows when diving.

8. Practice your focus and watching the ball. Staying down and watching the ball bounce to give yourself a long, good look at the ball. As in batting, judgement of length is critical and needs to be practiced.

Practice this by doing throw downs and work on the bowling machine if you have access to one, consciously pay attention to watching the ball bounce.

Challenge yourself to not move till you have watched the ball bounce.

9. Keep your hands low and your eyes glued to the ball when taking the bouncing ball, allow your arms to stay long so that your hands come up underneath the ball. This stops you having to go back down for the ball.

10. Practice taking the ball up to the stumps and down the leg side, put a chair or long box in the way. You need an obstacle where the flight of the ball is obscured as it passes the imaginary batsman.

Practice your weight transfer and sweeping your weight back to the stumps for the stumping.

To help with this, play with a ball all the time, a tennis ball or bouncy ball.

Throw it into the ground, bounce it off the wall and the ground. Let your brain experience lots of different angles.

Catch with both hands, work on becoming as ambidextrous as possible.

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I hope you have enjoyed these wicket keeping tips, come back and visit regularly as I add more tips and wicket keeping info.

Pass these on to your friends, help them to improve their game with wicket keeping tips to keep them on track.

How To Improve Hitting For T20 Cricket

There are several things you can work on, in this order ...

1. your Batting Game Plan

2. your Batting Technique

3. your Strength and Conditioning for batting

The first part of your game plan to be aware of is 'getting in', like the other 2 formats you still need to give yourself an opportunity to assess conditions and look at the bowlers pace and angles.


Your time frame is anywhere from 6 - 18 balls based upon conditions and opposition.

You are still looking for scoring opportunities, they are based on your strengths though.

Be aware of your favourite boundary areas and where you are looking to play, it's important you play to your strengths, whether it is front foot drives or back foot cuts and pulls.

You also need to rotate the strike, so be aware of knocking the ball into space so you can get your partner on strike as well. This stops the bowler from being able to build up pressure in the over, you are more likely to get a long hop or half volley this way.

The other thing you can look at is to use the crease to counter swing and to disrupt his length.

One of my favourite batters is Matthew Hayden, as you can see in the attached photo, his game plan was to take the initiative from the bowler straight away. He would go out of his crease and take his stance closer to the bowlers length.Pushing the bowler back off his length and making it difficult for him to swing the ball.

In this photo you can see he developed this as part of his game plan for Test cricket

as well.



This is something you can practice, I would suggest you begin by taking your stance 6 inches out of your crease to start with and see how that effects the bowlers' length and what scoring opportunities it presents.

If you like this, make sure you master it first in practice before you try it in a game.

In 20-20 cricket there is always more time than you think, so take your time, keep your normal pre-shot routine, breathe easy, scan the field properly for space, re-set your focus.

2. Batting Technique : there is a very simple drill to improve your power and length in your hitting.

If you are at a cricket club that has a bowling machine, set it on a full length and set the goal to hit the ball dead straight, as if you are hitting it down the ground to hit the sight screen.

Swing easy, don't look to over hit the ball, relax, watch the ball and look to make good contact, with the goal of hitting it at the sight screen.

This allows you to check your bat swing, you can't hit straight without holding the shape of your shot and making sure you are swinging through the line of the ball.

If you don't have a bowling machine, get a friend or coach to throw some balls to you in the middle and work on the drill in the same way.

You may want to get the thrower to wear a helmet, it can be quite dangerous for them when you are hitting the ball cleanly.

Be patient with this, this will improve your bat swing, weight transfer and challenge you to hold the shape of the shot whilst seeking to generate power.

Over time this will benefit your batting, especially when you start to clear the boundary and your confidence grows in your long ball hitting ability.

Strength and conditioning: your physical strength is important in the power you can generate when batting, have a look at Greg King's conditioning pages here at Cricket Fitness, you can begin these exercises without using any weights as your body is still growing, weight till your older, over 18 to begin to work with weights.

Top Ten Cricket Batting Tips .

Top Ten Cricket Batting Tips

Cricket Batting Tip No.1.

Of all the tips, this is the most important and most ignored when a batter is out of form!

The object of your attention is the ball, watch the cricket ball as if you have put a laser beam on it ... don't look for the ball ... watch it and remind yourself to watch it.

As the bowler enters the crease put your laser beam focus on the ball in the bowlers hand, from there you will track it all the way.

Cricket Batting Tip No.2.

Set your head slightly forward in your stance and set your Positive Intent to score. Head forward and still.

Batting is about Intent, the goal is to score runs off each ball.

The only decision you have is to not score.

You want your energy going to the ball.

Cricket Batting Tip No.3.

Look at space, not at the fielders.

Look at space on the field and become aware of areas that you can score runs in.

Cricket Batting Tip No.4.

The journey to a hundred runs is taken one ball at a time.

Set small goals.

Manage your innings.

Be fully present with each ball.

Cricket Batting Tip No.5.

Know how to get off-strike

Know where your singles and rotation areas are so that you can get off strike easily and effectively.

Practice this in the nets, over and over.

Cricket Batting Tip No.6.

Play to your strengths

If you are a ...

Front foot player... play to it

Back foot player ... play to it.

Cricket Batting Tip No.7.

Loss of form

If you have a dip in form, stay calm, go back to basics.

Write down your game plan , remind yourself of your strategy and the structure of your innings.

In practice, get someone to throw to your favourite shot so that you can get the feel of playing your number one stroke.

Practice hitting it till you are executing it really well.

Then work through your next favourite, and your next favourite. Get positive chemistry and emotions flowing back into your game.

Cricket Batting Tip No.8.

KISS

Keep It Simple Sid !

Remember that the goal is to score runs, the goal is not to get caught up in analyzing your batting technique.

Go through your checkpoints in practice to make sure your set up in the crease is good and then get busy with the job of scoring runs.

Cricket Batting Tip No.9.

Small errors can creep into your game from poor body position in the crease.

Check your Set Up: Grip, Stance and Batswing

Check to make sure you are sideways on, you are balanced and that your head is forward.

Check your grip and that you can swing easy through the line of the ball.

Practice your bat swing, visualize your favourite shots, practice shadow batting with a smooth easy swing.

Cricket Batting Tip No.10.

Manage your energy at the crease, have a 'relax - refocus' routine so that you conserve your mental energy for batting.

The subconscious mind wants a routine to rest on.

Step back between balls, breathe easy into your belly, let your focus go soft, clear your mind ... then come back, mark your guard and reset your focus and intent for the next ball.

Batting is as much about managing the space between balls as it is about facing the next ball, practice quietening your mind - rest on your routine at the crease.

Best Technique For Batting .

 Many of you would have heard many people saying some have good technique while some not. You must have also wondered what can a technique do when you have to just hit your bat at the ball coming towards you no matter where you are standing and how you are standing. Well, If you think so then you are probably wrong. Saying all this stuff is simple but a good technique does matter. A good technique means the ability to play the right shots to the right balls. You cannot play a hook shot to a yorker , obviously! If you shot selection is good then one can say your technique is good.

                         Well, I will not show you all the basics here but some tips about your technique. No matter how much you practice before a match, it is always safer to play a few dot balls or singles at the start of your innings rather than playing all your shots in the beginning. But you must also have the right technique to stay in the crease as you might be shaky at the start of your innings. Your eyes must be always on the ball till it hits your bat and deflects. You may be said wise if you leave the balls outside the off-stump at the beginning but keep an eye on the seam position of the ball so that you might not become a victim of an in-swinger! Playing a fast bowler if he bowls a short ball some of the option that will come to your mind will be playing a pull shot, a hook shot or if its outside the off-stump you might play an upper cut. But playing these shots at the start of your innings might be risky so it will be wise to leave some balls. If he bowls a fuller length delivery you might be tempted to play a drive AND THAT IS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE YOU WILL DO! I'm not saying you must not drive a ball at the beginning, but always try to play safe. If the bowler is a swing bowler then he might bowl an out swinger just at or outside your off-stump to tempt you to drive and make a mistake. If you have a good technique you can survive this. He can even bowl an in-swinger or a straighter ball at the same time to surprise you. You must be ready for all the surprises he may offer. In this case fitness matters a lot! Fitness enhances your reflexes. A smaller backlift may help you stay there at the beginning.

                         And if a spinner comes at the start of your innings you might have to change your technique a bit. The most important thing when you play a spinner is having a close look at his hand and his fingers. Watching that you might come to know which ball may spin in, which may go out and which one will be straight. But you must always be ready for surprises because the world does not run as you want it to or as you see it! A spinner may keep bowling consistently in a good line to test your patience. Sometimes you might be tempted to go over the top but that me also be a trick to get you out. When a spinner bowls a short ball you might be right to hit him over the midwicket or if its outside off you might cut it square of the wicket. That might fetch you runs but if you avoid it you might get a life!

                          Once you are set after playing 20-25 balls you can start playing your shots. But remember start with the ground shots.

Outside Off-stump:

1) Fuller length ball: If a bowler bowls a fuller length ball outside the off-stump, adjust your position behind the ball and play a front foot square drive or a cover drive. You must lean forward for better results. Play a little to reduce the possibility of the ball going in the air.

2) Good length ball: If a bowler bowls a good length ball outside the off-stump, Adjust your position behind the ball and play a back foot cover or square drive keeping your body straight and not leaning forward.

3) Short Pitched Ball: If a bowler bowls a short pitched ball outside the off-stump, be ready to play a square cut. All the weight of your body must be on your back foot. If the ball is too high you can play the upper cut if the third man is in or is placed squarer.

On Stump Line:

1) Fuller length ball: Play a straight drive while getting right behind the ball, leaning forward and keeping your balance intact and eyes on the ball. If its on you legs you can play an on-drive or to the fine leg region. You can also play a sweep shot if its a spinner.

2) Good length ball: If a good length ball is targeted on your body try playing a leg glance or play it square of the wicket.

3) Short pitched ball: Play a pull shot by getting on the back foot behind the line of the ball and playing to the square leg region. Play a hook shot if there's no fielder in the deep or you have faith in yourself that you can clear the rope!

                                Well, and after all this if you are still not out, Go and slog all over the place. And here most of the batsmen throw it away! Getting the freedom to hit in the power play overs or at the end of the innings does not mean that you have to hit the ball anywhere. Try hitting the ball in the gaps. You might have seen that in the power play overs when there are just 2-3 fielders placed outside the 30 yard circle, batsmen get out holing a shot straight to them after having such a good start and playing so well. While this might be a bowler's trick but a batsmen must also have an alternative if he thinks that he might be a victim to the bowler's trick. He must try hitting in gaps and is open spaces as far as possible. If looking for a six, look for areas where there's no one in the deep. At this time you have freedom to play all the shots available in cricket. Once again fitness is very important as you can convert ones' to two's in crucial time.

                                So there I am. Will tell more about bowling in my next post, Thank you!

Best Technique For Bowling .

 Hello everyone! Here I am to tell you more about Cricket training methods. This time it is about bowling technique. Well, there is no such thing in this cruel world known as bowling technique. Some will say that the bowler just have to pick the ball up and throw it towards the batsman to get him out! Well, how true is that? You may have heard that there are different types of bowlers- Pace bowlers, Medium pace bowlers, spin bowlers,etc.. What advantage does this difference gives them? Frankly speaking, it's all about angles! The more you try to play with angles, the more successful bowler you are! 

      Now let us begin with pace bowling. If you want to become a successful pace bowler you need to learn mainly all the balls in the book. First of all you need to learn the art of swing bowling. Pace bowlers usually bowls at the beginning of a match when the ball is 

new.

 To take maximum benefit of this situation the bowler has to swing the ball. Now how difficult is that? Well there is nothing easy in this world! The basic thing one must know of swing bowling is the grip. Being a fast bowler you ought to hold the ball with your index finger and the middle finger on either side of the ball. Now for the ball to swing, you have to maintain one side ofthe ball i.e. to keep the shine of the ball. Have you seen bowlers rubbing the ball on their pants? Well they does this on one side of the ball. While one side of the ball is rubbed, the other side becomes shinier than that side. The shinier side shows the direction of the swing. Well, you may be wondering that's so simple! This is just basic of swing bowling! You have to position your wrists in the direction of the shinier side and you need some pace behind it for the ball to do the talking.

 For eg. A right handed bowler is bowling to a right handed batsman. If he wants to bowl an out-swinger then he has to hold the ball with the shinier side towards the index finger and the wrist position towards the first slip. To bowl an in-swinger hold the shinier side towards the middle finger and vice versa. 
                                      In this way you can master the art of swing bowling by rigorous practise. But if you cannot swing the ball as you desire then can you survive as a bowler? Yes, you can! Have you heard bowlers bowling in express speed? What is the role of speed in pace bowling? Well, its all about pace in pace bowling! But not just pace, it's more about line and length in pace bowling. If your line and length are good, you will be a successful bowler. Pace variation is also an important factor, mainly in the death overs or when the batsmen will try to hit at everything on offer. Pace variation makes it difficult for the batsman to time the ball and may lead to edges, the ball may loop in the air or even miss the ball. Some common deliveries used by fast bowlers to bowl slow balls are off-cutters, leg-cutters, back of the hand delivery, etc.. 
                                         While all this was about pace bowling, now lets focus on spin bowling. There are mainly four types of spinners. For Right Handers: Leg break bowlers and off break bowlers and for Left Handers: Slow left arm orthodox and left arm chinaman. While off breakes can also be called left arm orthodox for left handers, similarly, leg breaks can also be called left  arm chinaman for left handers. Now we will talk about off spin and leg spin.

                     

The above image shows us the grip of a leg spin bowler and how the ball goes after being pitched

The above image shows us the grip of a off spin bowler and how the ball goes after being pitched

                                         In an off Spin delivery, for a right handed batsman, the ball is pitched on the off stump line or outside it and the ball spins back towards the middle or leg stump. In a Leg spin delivery, for a right handed batsman, the ball is pitched on the middle or the leg stump and after pitching, the ball spins away towards the off stump or outside it. 

                                           Usually spinners bowl in the middle and the end overs when the ball is a bit softer and easy to grip for spinners, but some tactical captains sometimes use their spinners in the starting overs. Confidence is the key to success for any spinner as he becomes the target of the batsmen to hit runs.

                                             Line and length of a spinner must be in control all the time even if he is getting hit for runs. He must have a couple of variations up his sleeve too! In this modern era of Twenty-20 cricket, it has become very difficult for spinners who doesn't have much variations. A disciplined line and variations help a bowler to outfox the batsman and get his wicket.

Best Technique For Fielding .

                                        'Catches Win You Matches', It is a saying in cricket which is 100% true. Batting and Bowling are the Two main portions of cricket, But Fielding is a part of Cricket where you act as a catalyst to your team's success. Sometimes you win matches because of you fielding alone! Though Batting and Bowling are the areas where players work the most, but a good fielder can be as good as a batsman and a bowler. A fielder can change the course of a match in just a matter of time! He can make a dead match alive for you and can even take the match away from you! Such is the role of a fielder in cricket. 

                                        The first and foremost thing you need to have to field in cricket is a good, strong pair of hands. If you don't have one, you can develop by training hard. Your hand needs to be strong enough to stop the hard cricket ball. You need confidence and have to believe in yourself to become a good fielder. Fitness is the key of a fielder. Remember, a fielder might have to run the ground as much times as the ball is hit. You need to practice throwing the ball from the deep to the pitch. 

                                        One of the major challenges for fielders in cricket is fielding in the slips. A slip fielder is often a catcher and he has to concentrate on every ball being bowled. No matter how good a fielder is, slip catching  is always a challenge to them. Your reflexes need to be extremely fast when a fast bowler is bowling. You need to bend your back all the time which may lead to fitness issues. Slip catching is regarded as the toughest part of fielding. For this reason there have been many players who were regarded as specialist for that role.

                                                Close-In Fielding is also one of the attacking field setting used in mostly test matches to get wickets. The challenge in fielding in this position is getting hit by the ball. Though you have protection, it is very useful to get wickets. You have to be alert all the time in this position and have to react quickly to pounce on a catch. This type of field setting though is not used in One Day and Twenty-20 cricket. 

                                               Fielding in the deep - Usually fast bowlers field here as they have good arm to throw from such a distance. When the ground is a Big one, then throwing techniques such as relay throes are used by the fielders where the fielder in the deep throws the ball to the fielder in the 30 yard circle and the fielder in the circle quickly throws the ball to the wicket keeper or the bowler. Fielding in the deep is a challenge for fielders as they can get high catches which may be sometimes too high that even a blink of an eye can get your positioning wrong and you can end up making a mistake. You need quick legs fielding in this position to reach the ball quickly.