Scoring your cricket practice is not as crazy as it seems.

If your team has a scorer, you are lucky. It’s a thankless task where people only notice when you get it wrong. No wonder everyone tries like mad to give it a swerve in those games where you have nobody to notch.

Why the heck would you score a practice session?

It’s worth the tiny bit of extra effort. I mean, you already have a cricket scoring app. With PV/MATCH you can score and video your games so it’s not hard to extend to midweek practice too.

The benefits are:

1. You try harder: When you know you are on video and your score is kept, you try harder. Cricketers are super-competitive and want to win. Scoring practice fires the competitive spirit.
2. You improve tough skills: Because everyone is trying at game intensity, you get better at hard-to-improve skills like running and fielding in a live situation. Without the video, you take your foot off the gas faster and the challenge reduces.
3. You can review: While you practice you can “just play” which helps you develop good mental strength. After practice, look back at the videos and hunt down your super strengths to reinforce and your weaknesses to hide.

Noticeable improvements in intensity and skill?

Yes please.

Don’t score it all

Scoring practice doesn’t mean just playing a full game though.

We are still practicing, so we still need to focus on the cricket skills we are trying to improve above just playing a full match. The latter is probably impractical anyway.

So, score the game based on the rules you set out.

If a batsman is getting four overs and losing runs for a wicket falling, record it. If you give bonus runs for straight drives, record it. If you reward the bowlers for strings of dots, record it. You don’t need to restrict yourself to full cricket laws. You can play about with the rules as you would in any practice.

Just make sure the score is kept.

I tell you from experience that players who have a “net average” get a lot more serious about practice. We recorded it for a whole winter at my club and it worked a treat.

Yes, it is a little more effort and organising. But give it a try, I guarantee you will not be disappointed.