Buy cricket equipment online

The laws of cricket are quite complicated (note they are called laws and not rules), but there are some funny ‘tea towel’ versions that try and explain the game:

“You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game”

A cricket bat is one of the most important pieces of equipment for a cricket player – with the right kind of bat, with the correct weight and balance, you’ll find that you will be able to find the meat of the bat easier and therefore hit the cricket ball harder and sweeter.

Adidas have only just recently entered the cricket market (surprisingly) and they already have some big name batsmen using their bats, most notably being Kevin Pietersen. This is obviously a huge testament to the quality of Adidas’s bats, and as Pietersen  had a highly successful T20 World Cup tournament, then it looks like he’s pretty happy with the new bat!

Without the trusty old leather cricket ball, there simply wouldn’t be any cricket. This unique ball, famous for the single seam down the middle can be used to produce all sorts of variations of bowling in cricket. Use of the seam is important to produce swing, reverse swing, spin and movement of the pitch.

While you can buy cricket balls cheaply, the better quality the ball the more consistency of bounce you will get making the whole game of cricket a lot safer.

While as a youngster we used to use our school bags as stumps, this won’t go over well in a competitive cricket game. While you would think that you could get away with buying cheap stumps, it’s actually a good idea buy quality stumps.

Firstly, with lower quality stumps, they may not be the same length and therefore it does become difficult to set them up correctly and balance the bails on them. Secondly, if you have some fast bowlers in your team, you’d be very surprised how many times stumps can break.

One of the most important protective pieces of equipment is the batting glove. When I played I was hit on the hands at least once during an innings and therefore I was happy when I had spent a few pound more to get quality batting gloves.

I have always bought Gun and Moore gloves for some reason, and always found them to be very well made and they generally provided very good protection. I preferred the type of glove that fitted each finger, but many might prefer the type where there’s a band of protection over all four fingers.

The most important thing is to get a decent pair of gloves to protect both hands.

 I had the wonderful experience of being the Wicket Keeper once in my cricketing career and I was very glad I had proper Wicket Keeping gloves to protect me. It’s important to get the correct pair of wicket keeper gloves – while most will protect your hands well, some of them can be a little to cumbersome making it very difficult to stop or catch the ball.

They must be well padded, but more importantly they must fit well and be  flexible so that you can ‘grip’ the ball when it goes into the glove.

A batsman in cricket will constantly use his legs; part of this process often involves pushing the ‘front foot forward’ and often ends up with the cricket ball crashing into the leg – luckily there are many forms of padding that can assist the batsman (and wicket keeper who also needs padding).

Leg pads are very important, and not only must they protect you from the hard cricket ball, but they must also not hinder your running – they therefore need to be strong, light and supple.

Thigh pads generally only need to provide protection as they are on the top of the thigh and don’t generally hinder running – not all batsmen use thigh pads, but if you’re playing at a high level against quality bowling then you will need one!

While you may think you could simply use your favorite sneakers or training shoes you really need to invest in a decent pair of cricket boots. Not only do they have a hard ‘cap’ to protect your toes, but they also have studs to ensure you can keep your grip on damp days especially when the cricket field is wet.

Like any shoes, the more you spend the better – if you can afford to get the best, then they will fit better and be far more comfortable.

So you’ve got the bat, pads, gloves and all other pieces of equipment you need (including your whites) so now you need a decent bag to put them all in.  A standard cricket bag is longer than your average sports bag as you often have to fit your bat and pads in it.