Cricket practice net home setup: space, size and anchoring

Measure the yard before you pick a net

A cricket practice net home setup starts with a measuring tape. Measure the clear length, the clear width and the clear height of your yard. Count only open ground. Take off anything a net cannot hang over, such as a water tank, a gas line or a low branch.

For the net most homes should buy, you need 36 ft by 14 ft of clear ground and about 11 ft of clear height. That gives 2 ft behind the net, 2 ft on each side and 4 ft in front, so the person feeding balls can walk in and out.

The 2 ft gap matters more than it looks. A hit ball pushes the net out by a foot or more. If a wall or a car sits right behind the mesh, the ball still strikes it.

Check overhead last. Electric wires above the yard rule out a frame in that spot, and no net size fixes that. Move the net to clear ground or do not build it.

Buy a 30 ft by 10 ft by 10 ft tunnel

A tunnel net has two sides, a roof and a back, and it stays open at the front. For a backyard, choose one 30 ft long, 10 ft wide and 10 ft high.

Each number has a reason. A batter with a full swing needs about 4 ft clear on each side, and the last foot is for the net to give. A height of 10 ft lets a lofted shot rise and drop back without touching the roof too early. A length of 30 ft gives a feeder about 24 ft of throw to a batter who stands 4 ft off the back net.

Do not stretch for a full-length net unless the yard runs past 75 ft. A pitch is 66 ft from stumps to stumps, and a bowler needs a run-up on top of that. Throwdowns from 24 ft give a batter plenty of work on both feet.

If your yard is shorter than 36 ft, drop to a net 15 ft long and use it for short underarm feeds and hanging-ball work.

Choose 3 mm twine and 50 mm mesh

A leather ball is about 72 mm across. A 50 mm square mesh holds it with room to spare, even after the knots loosen with age. Do not buy a wider mesh.

Ask for knotted HDPE twine with UV treatment. HDPE is a plastic cord that takes sun and rain well, and the treatment slows the fading and the brittleness that a hot summer brings.

Twine of 2 mm is enough for tennis and wind balls. Buy 3 mm if anyone in the house may hit a leather ball, now or in two years. A tunnel of this size weighs about 12 kg in 2 mm and about 25 kg in 3 mm, so plan on two people to lift it into place.

Play with wind balls at home

For a home net, use wind balls. They are light, they bounce true enough for throwdowns, and they will not crack a window if one escapes the front of the net.

Keep leather for the days when a parent or coach is feeding and the batter is in pads, gloves and a helmet.

Lay a mat on the ground

Bare ground turns to mud in the rains, and grass kills the bounce. Lay a coir mat 6 ft wide and 20 ft long down the middle of the net. Start it 3 ft from the back net and peg it every 3 ft along both edges, so it stays flat and a foot does not catch on a loose fold.

Anchor the frame in concrete

Use six galvanised iron pipes of 40 mm bore, each 13 ft long. Set three down each side, about 15 ft apart, with the two rows 9.5 ft apart.

Dig each hole 12 inches square and 3 ft deep. Stand the pipe in it, check it with a spirit level on two faces, and fill the hole with one part cement, two parts sand and four parts stone. That leaves 10 ft of pipe above the ground.

Let the concrete cure for seven days before you put any pull on the posts. The corner posts take most of the load, and a post that leans in the first week will lean for good.

On a paved yard, do not break the floor if the slab is at least 4 inches thick. Weld a plate 8 inches square and 6 mm thick to the foot of each pipe, fix it with four 12 mm anchor bolts, and run a stay wire from each corner post to a bolt in the floor.

In a rented home, skip both. Use a freestanding frame, hold each foot down with 40 kg of sandbags, and take the net off when strong wind is forecast.

Hang the net so it stays slack

Fix a ring on each post 6 inches below the top. Run 4 mm galvanised wire rope through the rings along both sides and across the width at each pair of posts, and tighten it with a turnbuckle at one end of each run.

Clip the net to the wire every 12 inches with S-hooks or cable ties. With the wire at 9.5 ft and a 10 ft net, you get 6 inches of spare at the foot. That spare is what stops the ball. A tight net throws the ball back at the batter and tears sooner.

Peg the foot of the side nets every 3 ft so balls do not roll out. Leave the back net unpegged, with its spare lying on the ground, so a ball drops dead behind the stumps.

Take the net down before the monsoon

The pipes can stay up all year. The net should not. Unclip it before the heavy rains, dry it in the shade, fold it and store it off the floor in a sack.

Check it once a month while it is up. Tie off any hole while it is still smaller than a fist, using a length of the same twine, because a small hole grows fast once balls start finding it.

Once the yard is measured, choose your size and twine from the cricket practice nets and order online.