The Evolution of Cricket (Practice Facilities)

Having worked in the artificial sports turf design industry for some time, I have seen the expectation from those wanting “the very best non-turf cricket facility” rise hugely from pretty primitive beginnings…

Concrete blocks, non-turf ‘islands’ with overgrown grass in between, tiny run ups, short cages, also often without roof net capture, were commonplace examples of what I encountered in my early days visiting clubs and schools as a representative for Notts Sport Ltd.

Today, our offering has raised standards with the aim of ensuring that players of all ages and abilities can be catered for, in a quality and safe environment.

Key Elements

Full Width Surfacing massively reduces seams and eradicates the need for, the often seen, lower quality infill material. As full width surfacing is uniform, dual usage can be achieved and so utilising as a multi-use or training area is now possible.

At the bowling ends, more angled run ins can be accommodated. NottsGrass is a heavy duty material designed to offer superb underfoot grip, even in wet conditions.

 Above - image highlights the Full Width (per lane) material. This surface can be all the same colour or supplied as a two tone offering, as shown here at Lord's, to highlight the ball pitch ‘strip’ area.

Inset Coaching Aid Lines are now almost always chosen to some or all lanes. These are permanently inbuilt within the surface and provide an excellent aid to work on ball pitch, foot placement and danger area coaching.

Above – coaching lines coloured green or white.

Unique to Notts Sport’s ECB Approved NottsBase ‘D’ System, clients may specify a Performance Pad inclusion – this sits below the shock pad and surface - to fine tune pace for variation between lanes.

A net facility offering a “faster track” or a “spinner’s lane” has produced unprecedented feedback of how invaluable this feature is to coaching and player development. 

 Above – Oundle School’s bank of ten lanes consist of 3no. Medium/Fast, 4no. Medium & 3no. Slow/Medium Spinners Lanes.

The Bat Tap Mesh was introduced as standard within Notts Sport's systems to counter the historic problem of guard bat tapping prematurely damaging artificial turf. Because you can’t rotate the batting positions, as you can with natural wickets, such continual impact eventually caused disturbance to the aggregate foundation, creating an undulation that encouraged carpet stress.

Positioned across the pitch width at the popping crease and follow through locations, this extremely robust support mesh reinforces protection at these high traffic locations to prevent base aggregate movement that is still evident with old style shock pad only designs.

Above - a batsman's pre-delivery routine can cause aggregate deviation, extra protection is now employed to counter the affects.

Notts Sport’s non-erosive NottsFilm Envelope technology wraps around the entire hard porous sub base to protect the graded aggregate from contaminantion. This development future proofs your investment by ensuring the performance layers remain reusable long beyond the top surface lifespan.

Above – a pitch cross section diagram showing the NottsFilm Envelope encapsulating the filtered stone.

In my, now long, experience, the enhancements described above really allow us to nail tailoring briefs for individual coaching needs and so have taken cricket practice provision to its next generation, the bar has truly risen.

Former England batsman, now Oundle School’s Director of Cricket, John Crawley, shares his thoughts:

Notts Sport are specialist suppliers of synthetic grass cricket pitch systems for both indoor and outdoor, portable or permanent, solutions, to all levels of the game, including, in 2015, the new non-turf pitch & practice area at Lord’s Cricket Ground. If you have a new build or refurbishment project then please do not hesitate to contact us via email: [email protected] or call: 01455 883730.