Wicket keeper
The wicket keeper is a player on the field team in cricket . He stands behind the striker and its wicket . The wicket keeper is comparable to the catcher in baseball .
protective gear
The wicket keeper is the only player on the field team who is allowed to wear safety gloves and outer leg guards . In addition, he regularly wears an abdominal protection ( box ).
Nowadays, wicket keepers often wear a helmet when they stand directly behind the wicket, although this severely restricts the player's mobility.
tasks
The main task of wicket-keepers is Runs to prevent by balls stops by the batsman ( batsman were not beaten).
He is also often involved in dismissals . On the one hand, the ball is often caught by the wicket keeper if it has just touched the batsman's bat. A stumping is when the wicket-keeper the wicket destroyed on regular fair and the batsman at this time before his punch line ( popping crease is) trying to achieve not Run. After all, the wicket keeper often catches discards from the field, which will result in a run out if the batsman trying to get a run fails to get behind his striking line in time.
For a quick launcher ( Fast Bowler ) the wicket-keeper is sitting some distance from the wicket, to have sufficient reaction time. With a slow bowler , especially with throwers who use the spin of the ball, he crouches directly behind the wicket (see picture).
He is therefore not comparable to a goalkeeper in football because his job is not to protect the wicket.
Position in the team
Each team has only one wicket keeper in their line-up. It is a highly specialized task that requires intensive training.
In recent decades, however, the wicket keeper has increasingly been expected to have sufficient skills as a batsman. This is especially true for one-day internationals . It is not uncommon for wicket keepers / batsmen to be deployed there whose skills as wicket keepers are slightly weaker than those of a pure wicket keeper, but who have particular strengths as batsman.
As a pitcher ( bowler ) the wicket-keeper is only used in very exceptional cases because then another fielder his duties must take.
In contrast, it does happen that a wicket keeper takes on the task of the captain, who is of particular importance in cricket during fielding . Since he is involved in every throw, the wicket keeper usually has a special overview of the game, which he benefits from.
Famous wicket keeper
The most famous wicket keeper is Adam Gilchrist , who was not only the wicket keeper, but also the opening batsman of the Australian national team until the beginning of 2008 . The wicket keeper of the Pakistani national team, Kamran Akmal , is also a good batsman. The South African wicket keeper Mark Boucher , on the other hand, was more of a specialist.
Famous wicket keepers who have since retired from active sport are Ian Healy (Australia), Rod Marsh (Australia), Jeffrey Dujon (West Indies) and Alan Knott (England).