Nets, old and new

Cricket nets then...

Summer in a huge school, already large grammar and secondary moderns combined to form one massive comprehensive (that's what they were called back then). Arrive early. Cricket nets. Outdoor, artificial tracks, well worn and none too reliable in terms of bounce, and just short enough to let the bowlers dig a short one in and catch the lip between grass and artificial, with unpredictable and dangerous consequences.

We had two lads with real kit. It cost fortunes then, and you had to be a real player to spend out on it. Until they arrived with pads and gloves the batters had nothing in the way of protection, other than their eyes and their reflexes. We only had real cricket balls, in various stages of wear and tear, but again, none were new enough to have any sort of reliable behaviour, through the air or off the deck.

Bowling consisted of trying to terrify the poor kids in the batting cages, and actually trying to cause the maximum physical harm if they refused to get out, cry and want their mum, or, worse still, actually have the temerity to put bat through ball and look for scoring shots. My favourite was the skip down the wicket, the big swing, and watching the ball disappear long and high over the bowler's head. At least he'd have to go fetch. Temporary reprieve. Too often it was a skip down the wicket, expansive waft, and painful crack on the unprotected shin form the little cannonball skidding off the worn-out matting.

Were the bowlers fighter pilots, they would have had little bandaged head batter logos on their kitbags for every one they sent off to A&E for running repair. I don't think helmets were compulsory for motorbikes in those days, let alone invented for the summer sport.

...and now

Everyone batting has gloves, box, pads, and (optionally, over sixteen, and compulsory, under sixteen (it may even be eighteen)) a helmet. That's not enough, though. We now have to use pretend cricket balls.

This does not render the exercise useless. Not by a long chalk. The pretend balls have extravagant swing and bounce: a challenge to the bowlers in terms of control and to the batters in terms of dealing with bounce and swing. We all get an hour of cardio we'd otherwise not get. However, we're all ageing, and much of the bowling (although still challenging) isn't exactly the quickest, and most teams we'll be playing soon have at least one or two bowlers with some pace.

The health and safety thing, apparently, is not so much to do with the batters, padded and protected as we now are, but with everyone else at risk of being hit by us clobbering a ball back where it came from.

Two things here:

1. Peer pressure. If the batter is regularly smashing you back putting everyone at risk, then you get told (or should get told, jokingly, at first) to sort yourself out and start giving him something to think about.

2. Keep your eye on the ball. All ball sports. All the time. Concentration. Harder when you're tired. A critical, crucial, core ability if you're going to succeed. If you get hit on the head in nets (controlled channels, relatively straightforward) what chance do you stand in the longer, much more concentration sapping and random-event outdoor season?