A fielder in the equivalent position on the on side of the wicket-keeper is known as a leg slip; this is considerably less common than the off-side slip, and for a team to employ more than one leg slip is highly unusual. It is illegal to have more than two fielders in the area between square leg and long stop, to prevent the fielding team from making use of bodyline tactics.
Writing in his 'The Cricketers of My Time' (1833), John Nyren of Hambledon hints at the origin of the word 'slips' when he describes the function of a long stop as a fielder who 'is required to cover many slips from the bat, both to the leg and the off-side.
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