‘Fun, engaging, quick’: indoor cricket could be due for a global revival

Its popularity has waned since the likes of Mike Gatting played it but indoor cricket boasts some rising numbers at last

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.

The England and Wales Cricket Board runs two competitions: a girls’ indoor competition for under-13s and under-15s, and an Indoor National Club Championship. Both fall within the general sports hall category.

The ECB took over the running of the girls’ competition from the Lady Taverners. It is open to all schools, and is played from January through to Easter. The county winners compete in five regional venues across the country, then the five regional winners play at Lord’s in the national finals in the week before May half-term.

There has been a generous increase in the number of schools entering, with 1,903 signing on the dotted line for 2024, an increase of 400 since 2015.

“It is really encouraging,” says Sue Laister, the ECB’s competitions manager for the women and girls’ game. “As well as being an easy game to play, the fact that it is eight overs a side means that it can be played within 45 minutes to an hour, which is the usual length of a school lesson or a lunchtime.

“It is easier for schools to organise compared to outdoor cricket, as schools usually have access to a gym or sports hall, and you need less specialised equipment.” The teams use a plastic bat and there is one innings, no lbws, two overs maximum per bowler, and players have to retire once they reach 15 – though if the rest of the team are out they can bat again.

“It is a really good introduction to the game,” says Laister. “Everyone gets involved, it’s a fun, engaging, quick format.”

Approximately 500 teams around the country then play in the ECB-run Indoor National Club Championship. The winners of each county competition play in a regional final, with a national final in March, again at Lord’s. This is a six-a-side competition, with 12 overs a side (maximum three overs per bowler) and matches are completed in around an hour.

Separate from that are the Bucs (British Universities and Colleges Sport) indoor cricket leagues, which are very popular, partly due to the nature of university terms, which leave little time for outdoor university cricket in the summer. In fact, the University of Kent won the ECB’s Indoor National Club Championship in 2023, beating the University of Sheffield in the final.

Jen Barden is the cricket development manager for the Lancashire Foundation. She remembers indoor cricket carrying on through the winter 20 years ago and recognises that there is a bit of a gap in provision now, but there is a reason for that: “It is a high-cost activity. In an hour only 16 kids will have taken part and you need to hire a venue and have an umpire as well.” Lancashire don’t generally run competitions but they are happy to lend advice and equipment to anyone who wants to. “It depends a bit on who has the bug in a particular area.” Barden remembers a purpose-built tension net indoor cricket centre in Rochdale, “but now the nearest one is in Birmingham”.

Which brings us to Action Indoor Cricket England and its chairman, Duncan Norris. Norris is the England delegate to the World Indoor Cricket Federation, and Action Indoor Cricket, based in Birmingham, is in charge of domestic, national and international teams and tournaments.

“In the 80s and 90 there were over 60 cricket centres with tension nets and there was huge participation,” he says. “People like Mike Gatting and Asif Din all started out playing the format as an additional form. Unfortunately, the commercial model is very tricky to make work in this country with high rates and the activity being very seasonal. So gradually most of those centres closed.” There are now only four tension net centres left in the country – all Midlands based – in Derby, Nottingham, Leicester and Birmingham.

Norris’s involvement came when he bought the Bristol indoor cricket centre (which later closed after the financial pressures of Covid) from administrators in 2009 and reinvested in it. He was then brought in as a consultant by the ECB before “in 2014 the ECB asked my company to govern, manage and develop the game and we signed a memorandum of understanding”.

He is a huge believer in the tension net version of indoor cricket – both as a way to develop cricketers and as a participation sport.

“It’s a very pressured competition and everyone has to bat, bowl and field, there is no hiding place. In the last 30 years cricket has changed dramatically, it has got shorter and more dynamic – and you see indoor skills on outdoor pitches more and more. In the indoor format the fielding skills are electric.”

Between September and March, at the Birmingham Centre in Stockland Green, Action Indoor Cricket puts on 24 weeks of evening leagues, Monday to Friday, and 24 weekends of national competitions for all age groups from under-11 to masters (50 plus). He is extremely proud of the numbers of people who come to play the game. “This is approximately 1,000 matches during the winter months, with 16 players involved per match – in the summer, a club will do well to fit in 40-50 games.” The players also come from diverse backgrounds, with 60% of those playing in the local midweek leagues having an Asian background.

Perhaps most noteworthy of all, Norris thinks the game is about to enter a new realm – something that might catch the eye of the ECB and even the International Cricket Council.

“Globally the game is about to explode, he says, “now that the UAE has come to the party with three big centres in Dubai.”

A rematch nobody wants

Remember England’s three-match one-day international series against Australia last November? You’re not alone. It was a slog through pointlessness that started only four days after Jos Buttler’s side had magnificently beaten Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to lift the T20 World Cup.

England’s performance – losing by six wickets, 72 runs, and a record 221 runs – reeked of ennui. Not many fans seemed to care either, only 42,827 turning up over the three matches, with the third game pulling in just over 10,000. The general lack of excitement from players and spectators wasn’t the world’s biggest surprise: Buttler summed the situation up pretty well.

“Lots of people are talking about how you keep bilateral cricket relevant,” he said, “and I think this series is a good example of how probably not to do it.

“Any time England play Australia you want to put up good performances, but it’s just been hard. I’m not fussed at all about the results, to be honest. We’ve got exactly what we wanted from [the tour to] Australia.”

But if that was a warning sign, no one listened. For this Thursday, exactly four days after the 50-over World Cup final in Ahmedabad, the finalists – battered, bruised and exhausted India and exultant but equally exhausted Australia – take each other on in Visakhapatnam, in the first of a five-match T20 series.

Australia have, just as England did last year, already succeeded in their mission – anything more will be a comedown. By the end of the series, they will have played 26 matches in India in the year. India, you imagine, could do with not seeing a cricket ball again for quite a long time.

Quote of the week

“Take Her Lead was set up to advance equity and inclusion in cricket and increase participation for women and girls” – Isa Guha on her charitable foundation, Take Her Lead, which she set up to honour her mum, Roma. The No Balls Podcast is hosting an online auction to raise funds for Take My Lead on Thursday from 6pm.

Memory lane

The great Imran Khan bows out. His dismissal of Richard Illingworth seals World Cup glory for Pakistan at the MCG in 1992, and it’s his final act as an international cricketer too. Pakistan had seemed down and out midway through the tournament, with only one win from their first five matches before Imran’s men found their flow and proceeded to defeat England in the final by 22 runs. Pakistan have failed to win a 50-over World Cup since, while England weren’t to lift the trophy until 2019.

Still want more?

Cricket World Cup 2023 awards: our writers pick their matches, moments and players of the tournament, while Ali Martin names his tournament XI.

World Cup final analysis: Geoff Lemon on how Pat Cummins made all the right calls for an Australia team that grew into the tournament while Barney Ronay picks over the heartbreak felt by India’s hitherto invincibles on losing in Ahmedabad.

Ali Martin says the 50-over World Cup has proved its worth and is more vital than ever.

Wonks, waiters and waffle: Barney was also treated to a bewildering, overwhelming glimpse into cricket’s future at the Cricket Matters conference in Mumbai.

And The Nightwatchman’s Ollie Park writes on the eternal infamy of the dropped catch.

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