is nearly always trouble over the wicket-keeper. Wicket-keeping requires much practice, long continued and properly conducted. This will be explained when the position is criticised in detail. Here it may be mentioned that it is difficult to get proper wicket-keeping practice except in matches, and matches are sometimes few and far between. Perhaps it is a good thing to practise for a short time almost daily at a net while some one is batting. It is not much use practising wicket-keeping without a batsman at the wicket, though this may be done in the very early stage of learning the art. Care must be taken not to overdo practice. Boys should never practise wicket-keeping to fast bowlers on rough wickets. Hard knocks received during practice, without the compensating feeling that they are being incurred in the public service, as in a match, are very liable to bruise any capacity he may possess out of the beginner. It is always advisable in a school to put several boys to keep wicket. At the worst, their fielding will be much improved by it. Indeed, there is no better medicine for a really bad fielder than being made to keep wicket. The instinct of self-preservation will do much to make him use his hands better than is his wont. Besides, he will learn a good deal he did not know about batting and bowling from a fielder's point of view, for he will find out that certain things happen when certain balls are bowled or certain strokes attempted. He will also learn the habit of constant attention, and the desirability of making hand and eye work closely together. Wicket-keepers are always good catchers, because they have learnt the knack of letting the ball come well into their hands.
In arranging fielding practice, great pains should be taken not to overwork boys. Fatigue is fatal to keenness. One often sees boys giving in through sheer exhaustion in matches. Now, the way to gain stamina is not to get tired five days a-week with a view to being able to last on the sixth. The proper way is to have eager practices for very short spells.
There are certain rules which apply to all fieldsmen, viz.:—
- Keep the legs together when the ball is hit straight to you and while you are picking it up.
- Always back up the man who is receiving the ball at the wicket, when it is thrown in, but not too close.
- Always try for a catch, however impossible it may seem.
- Always be on the look-out and ready to start.
- Run at top speed, but not rashly, the moment the ball is hit.
