Beach Cricket is a version of traditional outdoor cricket. Beach cricket is usually played as a social version of the sport, played on the beach with fewer players and simplified rules. As with many sports, players find it hard not to be too competitive, and you will find there are occasional more serious beach cricket tournaments.

Beach cricket game at Greens Pool, Denmark, WA Beach cricket game at Greens Pool, Denmark, Western Australia

Social Beach Cricket Games

Beach cricket has been a popular summer social and fun game in Australia, India and possibly other cricket playing nations for a long time.

Some of the idiosyncrasies of beach cricket include

  • A tennis ball is most commonly used
  • Hitting into the water can either be out, or an exciting part of the game where spectacular catches are made.
  • The cricket stumps may be made out of any material, such as washed up sticks and rubbish bins.
  • Bowling often requires full tosses, due to the inconsistent bounce on the sand.

Professional Beach Cricket

In the Australian cricket summer 05/06 there were three beach cricket internationals - between Australia, England and the West Indies.

Some of the rules for these matches included:

  • The matches to be played on plastic matting
  • A beach cricket ball will be used that is loaded on one side to increase swing
  • Each team will include six players

The matches were played in temporary beach stadiums, in Coolangatta (QLD), Scarborough (WA) and Maroubra (NSW). Some of the greats of world cricket made up the teams:

  • Australia: Allan Border (c), Dean Jones, Mark Waugh, Kim Hughes, Damien Fleming, Jeff Thomson, Dennis Lillee.
  • West Indies: Courtney Walsh (c), Desmond Haynes, Richie Richardson, Phil Simmons, Jimmy Adams, Curtley Ambrose, Joel Garner.
  • England: Graham Gooch (c), Robin Smith, Allan Lamb, Graeme Hick, Mark Ramprakash, Adam Hollioake, Darren Gough.