Cricket: Ball Retrieve Fitness

When the batsman (1) calls Yes the coach rolls the ball towards the fielder stood by the stumps.

Fielder (1) runs across, picks up the ball and then tries to run out the batsmen.

Repeat with the next fielder and batsman.

Each batting team has a certain number of wickets (eg. 3 wickets). The teams change over once the batting side have lost all their wickets.

The drill starts when the batsman calls Yes. At this point the batter must run with the bat in hand and try to complete two runs.

However, the batter is racing against the fielders.

Fielder 1 rolls the ball out to the player waiting in line who must then use a two handed pick up before returning the ball over the stumps to the wicket-keeper. After the ball is thrown player 1 joins the back of the queue and player 3 takes their place on the cone.

After this the race can start again, this time repeated on the other side for the fielding team.

For this game you need two teams of between 6-10 players on each side.

One team tries to see how many catches they can do in a specified time, whist the other team sees how many people they can get to run around the cone and back.

10-18 players required. (Note diagram for accurate lay-out of drill.) Five stumps required for drill. Three stumps are set up on a diagonal line, 10m apart from each other. The other two stumps are 20m away from these, again on a diagonal but this time they are 20m apart.

The Coach stands at the top on the middle stump.

The drill begins when coach rolls the ball out as shown. Player 1 must sprint around the first stump, change direction and then underarm pick the ball up, aiming to hit the third stump.

Player 2 must anticipate the ball coming towards them, and moves forward off the cone to back the ball up. Player 2 then throws overarm at the base of the next stump.

Player 3 anticipates this happening, and backs the throw up, before throwing the ball over the top of the final stump.

The next player now returns the ball to the coach, and then continues to run around the first stump.

Drill continues, and players follow the ball, moving clockwise to the next station.