After you have finished preparing the ground and before play, have a walk over the pitch, the square and the outfield to check:
- Everything is in place to play the game (pitch, stumps, bails (if not handed to umpire), boundary, sight screens etc).
- You have not left any equipment, posts etc out that could injure a player.
- There is no debris or animal faeces on the field of play that could cause injury.
- There are no new holes since the outfield was last repaired.
- That the ground is in a safe condition to hand over to the umpires (who will need to do their own checks).
These are not necessarily all the responsibility of the grounds manager and may fall to players and coaches depending on your own club arrangements, but someone should be responsible for making these checks before play.
Tweet