Slip, gully, silly point, deep backward square leg — cricket has one of the richest position vocabularies in all of sport, and for a newcomer it can feel like a foreign language. The PlayerWalk Fielding Positions Explorer turns that vocabulary into something you can see and touch: a bird's-eye field where every position is mapped, named and explained, for both right and left-hand batters, and checked live against the actual laws of the game.
What is a cricket fielding position?
A fielding position is simply a named location on the field where a fielder stands. A captain has nine fielders to place — the bowler and wicketkeeper account for the other two of the eleven — and the names combine a few simple ideas: which side of the wicket (off side or leg side), how square or straight the position is (point is square, mid-off is straight), and how deep it is (silly means very close, deep means near the boundary). Once you learn the logic, the forty-odd names stop being a list to memorise and become a map you can read.
How the field is divided
Every field is split into two halves by an imaginary line down the pitch. For a right-hand batter, the off side is the side the bat faces, and the leg side, or on side, is behind them. This flips entirely for a left-hand batter, which is why the same captain will completely rearrange the field when a left-hander comes to the crease. The Explorer's right/left-hand toggle mirrors the whole field instantly so you can see exactly how a position like third man or fine leg changes hands.
The three families of positions
- Close catchers— slips, gully, short leg, silly point. These stand within a few metres of the bat to catch edges and bat-pad chances. They win matches in a fraction of a second and require nerve and reflexes.
- The infield (run-savers)— point, cover, mid-off, mid-on, midwicket, square leg. Positioned inside the 30-yard circle, these fielders cut off singles and pressure the batter into mistakes.
- The outfield (boundary riders)— long-on, long-off, deep midwicket, third, deep point. Stationed near the rope to turn boundaries into ones and twos and to hold high catches under pressure.
How to use the Fielding Positions Explorer
- Choose whether the batter is right or left-handed — the whole field mirrors to match.
- Tap any position marker to read what it is, which side it sits on, and the shots it guards.
- Load a preset — Test attack, spin bat-pad, ODI middle, T20 powerplay or T20 death — to set a full field in one tap.
- Pick a match format and phase to load the correct fielding restrictions, then watch the legality checker respond as you adjust the field.
The fielding restrictions, built in
Cricket limits where fielders can stand, and the rules differ by format. The Explorer checks your field against them. In one-day cricket, powerplays cap the number of fielders outside the 30-yard circle: in a fifty-over game, a maximum of two are allowed out during overs 1–10, four during overs 11–40, and five during the final ten overs. A T20 innings allows only two outside the circle in the first six overs, then five for the remainder. On top of that, the Laws of Cricket permit no more than two fielders behind square on the leg side — a rule introduced to stop dangerous, negative leg-side bowling — and never more than five fielders on the leg side in total. The Explorer flags each of these the moment your field crosses the line.
Why fielding positions matter more than ever
Modern cricket, especially T20, has turned field-setting into a chess match. Every ball is a negotiation between where the bowler will bowl and where the batter is likely to hit. Understanding positions is no longer just for captains — it helps batters read which scoring areas a captain has left open, and it helps young cricketers watch the game with far more insight. For a player building toward trials, the ability to talk fluently about field placements is a mark of genuine cricket intelligence that selectors notice.
Who this tool is for
- New players and parents learning the game's vocabulary from scratch.
- Young cricketers who want to understand field-setting and captaincy.
- Coaches who need a clear visual aid for explaining positions and restrictions.
- Fans who want to follow the tactical side of a match more closely.
