- Use both hands whenever possible.
- Do not get nervous if you make a mistake.
- Obey your captain cheerfully and promptly.
- Never be slack about taking up the exact position assigned to you; never move about in an aimless, fidgety manner.
On one point there is a difference of opinion among the authorities. Where should the fieldsman look until the ball is played? At the bowler or at the batsman? The question cannot be answered ofifhand. It depends much upon the position of the fielder, and also to a certain extent upon the face of the bowler. My own opinion is, that the eye should follow the ball all the way from the bowler's hand to the fielder's. But many cricketers have told me that they have no time to do this when fielding near the wicket—at short slip, for instance—especially when a fast bowler is on. Some look at the bowler until he is on the point of delivering the ball, and then transfer their attention to the batsman. Others glue their eyes on the bat until the stroke is made. Both these methods are open to the objection that the eye is taken off the ball, which is the real object that it ought to follow, because the body, hands, legs, and every limb have a tendency to act with the eye when it follows a moving object, and it is just this close co-operation of body and eye which is so necessary in fielding. Every one must work out this problem for himself. If his heart is in the work, if he is fielding in earnest, the best method will come to him naturally.
Another question which requires the attention of fielders is that of backing-up. When ought a fielder to back up, and why is it necessary to do so? Let us suppose that a three has been hit, and that the fieldsman in the country has thrown the ball in towards either the wicket-keeper or the bowler. Granted that the throw be accurate, many things may happen. The ball may bump or shoot so as to beat the man at the wicket, in which case, if no one is behind him backing him up, the ball will travel to the boundary on the opposite side to that towards which it was originally hit. In other words, an overthrow for four will result.
Again, the ball sometimes twists away from the intended recipient, or the latter may make a blunder and miss it. Finally, the throw may be too wide or too high to reach, or difficult to take because of its length—i.e., it may come to the wicket as a half-volley or a "yorker." In all these cases runs are saved by
