Crease (cricket)

In cricket, a crease is a white line painted or chalked on the field of play, that defines the area within which the batters and bowlers operate.

[2] Law 7 of the Laws of Cricket governs the size and position of the crease markings, and defines the actual line as the back edge of the width of the marked line on the soil, i.e., the edge nearest to the wicket at that end.

For the fielding side, the crease defines whether there is a no-ball because the wicket-keeper has moved in front of the wicket before he is permitted to do so.

This rule was replaced by a requirement that the bowler's front foot in the delivery stride must land with some part of it behind the popping crease (see below).

[3] Sometime during the early part of his career, Alfred Shaw suggested that the creases be made by lines of whitewash and this practice was gradually adopted during the 1870s.

[5] Although it is considered to have unlimited length (in other words, running across the entire field) the popping crease need only be marked to at least 6 feet (1.8 metres) at right angles to, and on both sides of, the middle of the pitch.

To avoid a no-ball, the bowler's back foot in the delivery stride must land within and not touch the return crease.

[1] Though the relatively small size of the crease is such that they limit the degree to which a batsman or a bowler can alter where they stand to face or deliver a ball, there is a degree of latitude afforded whereby both can move around the crease as long as they remain within the aforementioned confines.