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Setting out a cricket pitch correctly is a highly exact exercise.

If you are to the point of setting out the pitch, I will assume a suitable patch of open grass area has been found to place the pitch in. So the first thing you will need is the pitch itself. This can be either a strip of grass, cut short and rolled until flat and hard, or it can simply be a slab of concrete covered with artificial turf. Either way the pitch should be 20.12 metres long and 3 metres wide.

Now that the pitch is in place, it is time to mark the required creases at either end in order to make play possible.

Creases are simply the white lines painted on the pitch to determine the position of the wickets, the legal area for a bowler to deliver the ball from and where the batsmen must cross in order to record a run.

Using white paint or chalk, the first crease to mark is the popping crease. The popping crease is positioned across the entire width of the pitch, 2.44 metres from either end. The width of the crease line is not important as the official crease is the back of each line, usually the crease is around 5 centimetres wide, enough to be visible by both umpires as well as the players.

Next will be the return creases. There are two return creases on each end of the pitch, moving lengthways from the popping crease to back of the pitch. Each line is to be 51 centimetres from the outside edge of the pitch (width ways). Again, this should be repeated at the other end of the pitch.

Finally it is time to mark the bowling crease, it is on this crease that the wicket is to be positioned. The bowling crease joins the two return creases, running parallel with the popping crease. This is to be marked 1.22 metres behind the popping crease (exactly half way between the popping crease and the back of the pitch). This will make the bowling crease 2.64 metres long.

Once the creases have been marked, the final act of preparation for the pitch is to set up the wickets. Each wicket consists of 3 stumps set 71 centimetres high and spread out evenly so that there is a 22.5 centimetre width from the outside of the first stump to the outside of the third. The second stump must be placed at the exact centre of the bowling crease. On top of the stumps will sit the 2 bails, one joining the first and second stumps, the other joining the second and third.

Congratulations, you now have a regulation cricket pitch ready for play. Now all that is left is to enjoy an afternoon in the sun with 21 like-minded souls.

Learn more about this author, Kiall Rowberry.
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