Fielding positions in cricket

The picture below gives a basic depiction of most of the fielding positions.

In addition, many of these positions may be moved toward the batsman, in which case they are called "short" (e.g. "short forward leg"). A fielding position that is moved in the same direction that the batsman is facing is called "forward *position*", so for instance a fielder placed slightly in front of the batsman on the off side would be "forward point", whilst one slightly back from the normal square leg position would be "backward square leg". A fielder who is position so close to the batsman that he is at risk of serious injury is said to be in a "silly" position, e.g "silly mid on" and "silly mid off"). A player near the boundary is fielding "in the deep", for instance "deep point".

This assumes the batsman is right-handed. If he/she is left-handed, the fielding positions are a mirror image of these. The area to the left of a right-handed batsman is called the "Leg side" or "On side", while that to the right is the "Off side".

See also : Cricket