Youngsters benefit from the indoor experience

FAST, furious and well worth the trip was the reaction to the inaugural tour of a Sarnian side to play indoor cricket. Guernsey Cricket Board development coach Jason Shambrook took an under-15 team to the Midlands for their first encounter with the game.

'We decided to send away the team to the UK to give them experience of different aspects of the sport. It is really important to broaden the horizons of our young players and to have fun trying something different,' he said.

'There are 350 indoor cricket centres in Australia alone despite the climate, which shows how popular the game is overseas.

'Mark and Steve Waugh both played for Australia at international indoor cricket,' Shambrook added.

Indoor cricket is played on a rectangular artificial-grass-surfaced court, which is enclosed in tightly tensioned netting, including a four-metre-high netted ceiling. The pitch and stumps are the same dimensions as for outdoor cricket.

The game consists of two innings, each lasting 16 overs.

With eight players per side, this means that every player bowls two overs and each pair of batsmen face four overs.

Innovative rules demand that the score must change every three balls or a wicket is lost, keeping the game flowing and full of action.

When a wicket goes down, five runs are deducted from the total.

There are seven points up for grabs in a game, three for winning and the remaining four are 'skin' points.

Both team's first partnerships are compared and the higher scoring partnership of either side gains the 'skin' point.

This happens in the same way with regard to the other three partnerships.

With the close proximity of fielders, run- outs are very common and fielding is one of the key elements of the game.

The game is therefore always active and it is rare for there not to be either a score or a wicket on each ball bowled.

In Guernsey's first game played at the Willows Cricket Centre, they fielded brilliantly against a well-drilled Derby under-16 side and restricted the hosts to just 86, winning three of the four skins in a comfortable victory.

The second game at the John Birch Cricket Centre was a real education for the boys as the Nottingham side was made up entirely of under-15 outdoor county players with three of them in the England regional Midlands team.

The GCB performed creditably and their score of 96 looked good, but at that level every wicket-taking opportunity needed to be grasped and the third partnership of 50 put the game beyond Guernsey, which left them ruing earlier missed chances.