Fielding Positions

A guide to where fielders are placed

Cricket Fielding PositionsLearning fielding positions is important whether you are a player or a spectator. Players need to know where they are being placed by the captain and spectators can enhance their enjoyment, particularly if they are listening to Test Match Special on the radio. Only nine fielding positions can be used at any given time since the bowler and wicket-keeper are fixed positions.

List of fielding positions

  1. Wicket Keeper
  2. First Slip
  3. Second slip
  4. Third Slip
  5. Fly Slip
  6. Long Stop
  7. Third man
  8. Gully
  9. Deep Gully
  10. Silly Point
  11. Point
  12. Deep Point
  13. Cover Sweeper
  14. Cover Point
  15. Extra Cover
  16. Deep Extra Cover
  17. Silly Mid Off
  18. Mid Off
  19. Long Off
  20. Straight Hit
  21. Silly Mid On
  22. Mid On
  23. Long On
  24. Forward Short Leg
  25. Short Mid Wicket
  26. Mid Wicket
  27. Deep Mid Wicket
  28. Sweeper
  29. Short Square Leg
  30. Square Leg
  31. Deep Square Leg
  32. Leg Gully
  33. Long Leg
  34. Leg Slip
  35. Short Fine Leg
  36. Deep Fine Leg

Working out the cricket fielding positions

Most of the positions are named roughly according to a system of polar coordinates…

One word (Leg, Cover, Mid-wicket) specifies the angle from the batsman, and is optionally preceded by an adjective describing the distance from the batsman (silly, short, deep or long).

  • Leg refers to the Leg side which is the side of the batsman’s leg
  • On refers to the On side which is batsman’s leg side too
  • Off refers to the batsman’s off side which is the opposite of the leg side

Distances of the fielding positions from the batsman are described as:

  • Silly is very close
  • Short is quite close
  • Mid is a mid point to the boundary
  • Long and Deep are closer to the boundary

The angle from the batsmen are described as:

  • Square is along an imaginary extension of the popping crease
  • Backward behind square and the batsmen
  • Forward in front of square and the batsmen
  • Fine closer to an extension of an imaginary line along the middle of the pitch bisecting the stumps
  • Wide further from an extension of an imaginary line along the middle of the pitch bisecting the stumps