Creases - Popping Crease

Popping Crease

The odd name of the popping crease refers to the early history of the game of cricket, when batsmen used to have to 'pop' their bats into a small hole that was located in the middle of the crease for a run to count. For a player to run a batsman out, he had to pop the ball into the hole before the bat was grounded in it.

One popping crease is drawn at each end of the pitch in front of each set of stumps. The popping crease is 4 feet (1.22 m) in front of and parallel to the bowling crease. Although it is considered to have unlimited length, the popping crease must be marked to at least 6 feet (1.83 metres) on either side of the imaginary line joining the centres of the middle stumps.

The popping crease is used as one test of whether the bowler has bowled a no ball. To avoid a no ball, some part of the bowler's front foot in the delivery stride (that is, the stride when he releases the ball) must be behind the popping crease, although it does not have to be grounded.