Cricket for kids A friendly guide

Cricket Fielding Positions

Where everyone stands on the field — and what those funny names actually mean.

The big secret

Cricket has a fielder for nearly every patch of grass on the ground. The names sound tricky at first, but they all share one secret:

Every position is named from where the batter is standing.

That's it! If a left-handed batter comes in to bat, the whole field flips over to match. Once you know a small handful of words, you can work out almost any position by yourself.

The two halves of the field

Pretend you are the batter. You're holding your bat in front of you, looking down the pitch at the bowler. The ground splits into two halves:

Off side — the side your bat is on. Think: bat side.
Leg side — the side your legs are on. (Sometimes called the on side.)

Every fielding position lives on one side or the other. That's the whole secret unlocked.

The naming kit

Most position names are just describing words stuck together. Learn these few words and you can decode almost any name you hear:

FineAt a shallow angle, close to a straight line behind the batter
SquareStraight out to the side, level with the batter (90°)
ForwardIn front of the batter
BackwardBehind the batter
SillyReally, really close (a bit scary!)
ShortCloser in than usual
Deep / LongFar away, near the boundary

So "deep backward square leg" just means: far away (deep), behind the batter (backward), out to the side at 90° (square), on the leg side. A long name — but every word is doing a job.

The field at a glance

Here's the whole field for a right-handed batter. The batter is at the top, the bowler at the bottom. The off side is on the left, the leg side on the right.

Off side positions Leg side positions Batter, Bowler, Keeper

Tap any position to see what it does. Tap again or anywhere else to close.

Meet the fielders

The two that explain themselves

Bowler — bowls the ball, then becomes a fielder near the bowler's stumps.
Wicketkeeper — crouches right behind the batter's stumps, like a goalkeeper for the wicket.

Close catchers (off side, behind the batter)

Slips — line up next to the keeper to catch balls that slip off the edge of the bat. There can be lots of them: first slip, second slip, third slip…
Gully — fills the little channel (the gully) between the slips and point.

The two fans in front of the batter

When fielders aren't right up close behind the batter, they spread out in front in a fan. On each side of the bowler, the fan sweeps from straight down the ground (right by the bowler) all the way round to square (90° out from the batter). The off side and leg side each have their own fan — and they're mirror images of each other.

The off-side fan, going from straight round to square:

Mid-off — closest to straight, near the bowler. Short for middle-wicket off.
Cover — about halfway round. Short for cover point: the fielder who covers (backs up) point.
Point — all the way round to square, where the point of the bat aims when the batter plays a square shot.

The leg-side fan is the same idea, mirrored:

Mid-on — closest to straight, near the bowler. The mirror of mid-off.
Mid-wicket — about halfway round. The mirror of cover.
Square leg — all the way round to square, level with the batter. (It's where the square-leg umpire stands too.)

Tip: that's why mid-on and mid-wicket are different fielders — mid-on is the near-straight one, mid-wicket is further round toward square.

Behind the batter

Fine leg — leg side, behind the batter at a shallow (fine) angle — ready for balls that flick off the pads.
Third man — off side, behind the batter near the boundary, mopping up edges that fly past the slips. Why third? In old field settings, after slip and point, the third extra fielder posted there became "the third man."
Long stop — directly behind the keeper near the boundary. You'll often see this in junior cricket! Grown-ups don't really use it.

Out at the boundary

Long off and long on — the deep (boundary) versions of mid-off and mid-on, way down the ground behind the bowler.
Cow corner 🐄 — the funniest name on the field! It's the deep spot between long on and deep mid-wicket. The story goes that in old village cricket, batters almost never hit the ball there… so cows could happily graze in that corner of the field. The name stuck!

A handy trick to remember the sides

If a position has the word "off" in it, or is called cover, point, slip, gully or third man — it's on the bat side (off side).

If it has "on" or "leg" in it, or is called mid-wicket or cow corner — it's on the leg side.

And remember — everything flips for a left-handed batter, because the names follow the batter, not the ground!

Try it out

Can you work out where these positions are without peeking at the map? Tap each one to check your answer.

1 Deep cover Tap to reveal

Bat side, in front of the batter, near the boundary. Cover tells you it's off side; deep means it's out by the boundary.

2 Silly mid-on Tap to reveal

Leg side, in front of the batter, really close. Mid-on is leg side near the bowler; silly means we've pulled the fielder in scary-close.

3 Short fine leg Tap to reveal

Leg side, behind the batter at a shallow angle, but closer than usual. Fine = shallow angle; leg = leg side; short = closer in than a normal fine leg.

4 Backward point Tap to reveal

Bat side, level with the batter, but a bit behind. Point is square on the off side; backward shifts it slightly behind the batter.

5 Deep backward square leg Tap to reveal

The big one! Leg side, behind the batter at 90°, out by the boundary. Every word does a job: deep (far away), backward (behind the batter), square (at a right angle), leg (leg side).