How Long Is A Cricket Pitch (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 20.12 meters

The shape of the pitch is rectangular with a width of 3.05 meters and the length would be 20.12 meters. The pitch is a part of the ground where the batting and bowling are done. The bowling creases make the boundary of the pitch along with an imaginary line. The imaginary line would be as long as to join the center part of the two middle stumps.

The middle stumps on both sides would be parallel to each other. The length of the pitch would depend on the Ground Authority. The Ground Authority would handle the preparation and the sizes of the pitch. Once the match begins, the umpire would be the only person to handle everything about the pitch.

How Long Is A Cricket Pitch?

The length of the cricket pitch would be around 66 feet and 22 yards long. The distance of the pitch is mainly focused to maintain a uniform length between the wickets. The cricket pitch is prepared after taking a lot of measurements of the grounds where the match would be played.

The length of the cricket pitch would affect the stumps, popping crease, bowling crease, and return crease. All these have to be made correctly, therefore, the length of the pitch is fixed for a long time. Everyone should know that the game Cricket is being played for decades now. During that time, the measurement system was not that known.

Therefore, the length of the cricket pitch was measured in yards during the beginning. Now, the length in yards is converted into meters or feet to make it easier for everyone to measure and understand.

The whole length of the cricket pitch including all the extra areas is around 24.6 yards. The metric system is now being used for measuring the cricket pitch, as the meter is one of the best measuring units. Sometimes, people may not find it easy to get all the measuring tools, and people can use the feet measurements.

They can simply use their feet to prepare exactly 66 feet long cricket pitches. For an adult, to complete 20 meters would take around 26 steps. To prepare the cricket pitch, the person has to take complete 26 steps, and these steps should be your walking steps.

Why Is A Cricket Pitch This Long?

Cricket is been played for a long time now. In traditional days, it was very difficult to measure the cricket pitch using a metric system. Therefore, the pitch of cricket was prepared using chains with a measurement of 22 yards. The measurement of the chain was taken as the standard measurement for the pitch.

Now, the similar chain measurement is converted to meters or feet. The cricket pitch is prepared after measuring the elements of the cricket pitch. For example, the stumps should be placed at a uniform distance from each other. There are three types of crease in the cricket field which are marked with white lines. These creases are:

Popping crease
Bowling crease
Returning crease
The length of the returning crease would be around 1.32 meters whereas the length of the popping crease is 1.22 meters. These are the basic dimensional measures of the crease from the stumps.

The length of the pitch is almost in a similar shape for all the cricket matches. There may be some changes in the cricket pitch depending on the elements and materials used for making the cricket pitch. The actual dimensions of the cricket pitch would be the same for both national and international level cricket.

Conclusion

Its always recommended preparing the cricket pitch with a length of 22 yards as this is the actual traditional length of the cricket field. For junior cricket matches, the length of the cricket pitch may be decided by their cricket boards. The law of cricket is responsible to decide the length of the cricket pitch.

These laws and codes are applicable to all the countries in the whole world. The international cricket council plays a vital role in taking major decisions about the game cricket.

References

1. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640414.2019.1606760
2. https://commons.nmu.edu/isbs/vol35/iss1/73/