If you love cricket but hate the idea of winter nets – the waiting in line, the chilliness, the squeaky-trainered quiet – then perhaps an energetic game of indoor cricket might appeal. But trying to get your head around the different formats of the game and how it exists in the UK is like navigating your way through a particularly tangled bag of damp knitting.
Historically, there are two forms of indoor cricket. The first is played in a general sports hall, with the idea of roughly recreating outdoor cricket – but inside. Sometimes matting is laid down but there are no specific laws and no particular formats, with the game often springing up on an ad-hoc basis. The second is “official” indoor cricket, played with a tension netted court and a pitch 30 metres long, 10-12 metres wide and 4-5 metres high – a format played especially in Australia, but also big in New Zealand and South Africa, with international contests and a World Cup.
