House Rules for Farmhouse Gully Cricket

Gully cricket at a Moinabad farmhouse needs its own house rules because the ground is not a street and not a stadium. There is a pool on one side, a house with windows on another, a garden the caretaker looks after, and players who range from a six-year-old to an uncle who once played for his office. Agree the rules before the first ball and the match stays fun. Leave them vague and you will spend twenty minutes arguing over whether a ball in the pool is a six.

Below is a rulebook you can read out, tweak and adopt. It works on an open lawn, and most of it also applies inside a box cricket net.

Before the toss: set up the ground

• Pick the pitch with the host or caretaker. Ask where you can play. Some farmhouses have a box cricket area; on others, the lawn is fine but the flower beds are not.
• Bat away from the house and pool. Position the stumps so the natural hitting direction is towards an open area or a boundary wall, never towards glass or water.
• Mark the boundaries with slippers, chairs or chalk. Agree what each one is worth.
• Choose the ball for the space. A tennis ball is safest around a house and people. A taped tennis ball travels further and hurts more, so keep it inside a proper cricket box. Leave the leather ball at home.

The core gully cricket rules for a farmhouse

A quick note on the pool rule: whatever you decide, the ball is fished out with a net or a long stick, not by a player diving in mid-match. Many farmhouses have a pool net; ask the caretaker.

Bowling rules

1. Underarm for under-10s batting and for adults bowling to them.
2. No bouncers with a taped ball. A rising ball on a lawn is unpredictable.
3. Overs per bowler capped, so the one fast bowler doesn't bowl all of them.
4. A wide is a re-bowl, not a run, unless your group enjoys arithmetic.
5. Throwing is called by the batting side's captain, and their decision is final. This saves a lot of time.

Batting and running

• Runner allowed for elders and anyone nursing a knee.
• Running on the pool deck is banned. If the pitch runs near the pool, mark the crease well away from the wet edge.
• Retire at a set score, for example after a certain number of runs, so everyone gets a turn. The retired batter can come back if the team runs out of players.
• Bat order by age for family matches: youngest first while they are still keen.

Extra rules when small children play

Young children change the game, and a few tweaks keep them safe and keen. Give under-8s three lives before they are out. Let them bat with a lighter plastic bat. Keep them out of the bowler's direct line and away from the batter's swing when they field close in. Most importantly, have one adult who isn't playing keep an eye on the pool whenever children are on the lawn, because a stray ball rolling towards the water is a magnet for a small child. If you are booking mainly with kids in mind, the kids-friendly farmhouses in Moinabad often have fenced or separate play areas.

Fielding and fair play

Keep fielders off the flower beds and out of the pool. Kids in the deep and elders close in tends to be both safer and funnier. The batting side provides the umpire, and the umpire's call stands. If there is a disputed catch, give it to the batter if the fielder isn't sure: farmhouse cricket runs on goodwill.

A good tie-breaker for a tied match: a one-over super over, bowled by the youngest player on each side.

Weather, timing and night cricket

Play in the morning or late afternoon from March to June, when afternoons are very hot. In the monsoon, a wet lawn is slippery; play barefoot only if the ground is clear, or move to a covered box. If the farmhouse has a lit cricket box, night cricket is a different game, with different visibility issues; our post on night cricket at a farmhouse covers it.

Protecting the property (and your deposit)

Some farmhouses collect a refundable deposit, and broken windows or lights usually come out of it. Rules vary by farmhouse, so read the farmhouse page. Simple habits help:

• Close windows on the batting side.
• Move cars away from the line of fire.
• Keep drinks, especially in glass, well away from the pitch and the pool.
• Pick up the stumps and balls after the match so nobody trips at night.

For more on avoiding accidental damage, see our damage-prevention post.

Find a ground for your match

If cricket is the main event, look at the Moinabad farmhouses with box cricket, where hard hitting is safer inside a net. For a lawn match with family, any farmhouse with an open lawn will do; browse all Moinabad farmhouses and check live dates and prices for your group. For a full family fixture, our post on a cousins' cricket match picks up from here.