Types of Cricket

Club Cricket

Club cricket is a general term for organised amateur cricket, usually involving multiple teams playing a competition. The highest levels of club cricket are the development and proving grounds for players with the goal of advancing to first class cricket and professional status.

In general, the Test playing nations have numerous amateur cricket clubs, each of which participates in a local competition with clubs located in the same city or otherwise nearby. The competition exists at several tiered levels, often with several sides fielded by each club, spread across the tiers. Players begin in the lower tiers simply by expressing a desire to play for the club, and work their ways up the tiers within the club if their skills are good enough.

The top tier club cricket matches and the players within them are followed by first class selectors, who will choose first class sides from the pool of players available at the top rung of club cricket.

Club Matches

Club matches are generally two-innings each and played over the two days of a weekend, or over two days on successive weekends, since the players are mostly amateurs and have regular jobs. The clubs may also play one-day matches as part of a separate, parallel competition.

Top tier club matches generally use turf pitches prepared in accordance with the Laws of Cricket, but lower tiers may use artificial pitches such as coir matting or astroturf on a concrete slab.

In non-Test nations, cricket clubs are less concerned about playing two-innings matches and frequently play only one-day games.

Organised Modified Cricket

Twenty 20 Cricket

Twenty 20 Cricket is a shortened form of limited overs cricket. It is played primarily in England, and first class sides there play in a Twenty 20 competition. Major rule changes from the Laws of Cricket:

Each side bats one innings of a maximum of 20 overs.
Batsmen may not be out off a no ball or the next ball following.
Bowlers may not bowl more than 4 overs per innings.
Umpires may award a 5-run penalty to the fielding side if they consider the batsmen to be wasting time.

Cricket Max

Cricket Max is a shortened form of limited overs cricket. It is played primarily in New Zealand, and first class sides there play in a Cricket Max competition. Major rule changes from the Laws of Cricket:

Each side bats two innings of a maximum of 10 overs each.
Batsmen may not be out off a no ball or the next ball following.
Wides score 2 extras instead of 1.
Bowlers may not bowl more than 4 overs per match. These may be distributed between the two innings in any way.
The field is marked with trapezoidal "Max" zones, one at each end of the field, beginning 60 metres from the striker's wicket, where the trapezoid is 40 metres wide, and extending to the boundary, where the trapezoid is 50 metres wide. Any ball hit into the Max zone doubles the number of runs scored from that ball, whether by running between the wickets, or a boundary 4 or 6. Fielders may not be in the Max zone as the ball is bowled. Only the Max zone in front of the striker is valid for all these rules.

Sixes Cricket

Sixes cricket is a short form of limited overs cricket played with only six players per side. Sixes cricket is played in a high-profile round robin tournament between major cricket nations in Hong Kong each year. Major rule changes from the Laws of Cricket:

Each sides has six players.
A match is one innings per side, each innings being a maximum of five overs.
Each player on a side is permitted to bowl a maximum of one over.
Wides and no balls score 2 extras each.
If five wickets fall, the last batsman bats on. The last batsman to get out remains on the field as a non-batting runner, and the batsmen swap ends whenever the runner ends up on strike.
A batsman who reaches 31 or more runs must retire "not out". If one of the last pair of batsmen is out, a retired batsman may come in and resume his innings.