The logic behind fielding without a wicketkeeper and why the strategy could be more frequently used

Rules in cricket are funny things. On one hand there is a strange rigidity, such as the rule that a batsman cannot be given out lbw if the ball pitches outside leg stump, no matter what angle the ball is released at or how much spin the particular track is offering. And on the other hand is the legend which goes that WG Grace had once hidden the ball in his beard while fielding, only to surprise the running batsmen by suddenly whipping it out and throwing down the stumps.

The spirit of WG Grace’s improvisation has stayed on long after his demise, and the game of cricket is ever so often visited by similar brainwaves – Trevor Chappell’s underarm ball, for instance.

Another such revolutionary sight was on display last week at the County Ground during Worcestershire’s T20 Blast fixture against Northamptonshire. With 67 runs required by the Northants from 30 balls and eight wickets in hand, Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell chanced upon a strategic ploy which exists in a rather grey ethical zone.

As Moeen Ali prepared to bowl the 16th over, wicketkeeper Ben Cox ditched the gloves and pads and positioned himself on the edge of the circle, more or less at the angle of second slip. Worcestershire were fielding without a wicketkeeper!

The umpires, after a brief consultation, allowed it. Only one bye was conceded in the remainder of the innings and Worcestershire ended up winning by 14 runs.

Worcestershire are currently fielding without a keeper off Ali. Ben Cox on the edge of the the circle. 58 off 24. pic.twitter.com/X4OKNs0mSy

— Ciaran Thomas (@ciaranthomas91) June 5, 2015

"In a game when you're trying to stop the opposition scoring, it's a legitimate tactic," Steve Rhodes, the Worcestershire director of cricket and a former wicketkeeper himself, said afterward. He added that the seeds of the idea were sown by the sight of MS Dhoni standing back to the spinners on India’s 2014 tour of England.

Northamptonshire batsman Josh Cobb, who was batting at the time, spoke on the matter with some tone of complaint: "I saw Daryl Mitchell tell Ben Cox to go back and I thought he was going to keep from the edge of the ring. Then I turned around and saw him without pads or gloves on.

“It's in the laws and they've obviously looked into it and there's no law against it. You've just got to question whether it's in the spirit of the game. But that's probably because it's never been done before. When they first come out, these things usually get questioned and left alone."

Cobb, however, was wrong about the ‘never been done before’ part. Teams fielding without wicketkeepers is an old tactic, one that goes back to the 1800s.

Seldom-used but brilliant tactic

In the earliest days of cricket, a ‘longstop’ was routinely employed directly behind the keeper to prevent boundaries, with the unprotected keeper in those days being more concerned with stumpings and run-outs than actually stopping the ball.

There is a very sound logic behind sacrificing a wicket-keeper for a 10th fielder in a specific situation – when saving runs is more important than taking wickets. Not having a keeper allows you to have an extra fielder to save runs; an edge will not run down to the third man boundary with a fielder there to cut it off.

And yet, only a few captains in recent memory have chanced upon this brilliant tactic.

In a match at Lord’s in 1972, Warwickshire captain MJK Smith posted his wicketkeeper to the boundary for the final ball of a limited-overs game against Middlesex, who needed three runs to win. Future England captain Mike Brearley ended up on the losing side on that occasion, but the ploy left a big impression on his mind.

In 1979, England played a day-night game in Sydney against the West Indies, who ended up, like Middlesex, needing three to win off the final ball. So Brearley, showing the same ingenuity he had seen with shock seven years earlier, sent wicketkeeper David Bairstow to field as longstop. England won by two runs.

Brearley, in Art of Captaincy, describes the plan as the ‘perfectly logical conclusion’ of ‘how maladaptive attacking fields are in one-day cricket’.

Turning a draw into a win

In 1988, the ploy was used in a slightly different fashion by the Reverend Andrew Wingfield Digby, captain of Dorset, in a county match against Cheshire. With 11 overs of the two-day match remaining, the Cheshire batsmen had dug into the crease – showing no intention of chasing down the huge target of almost 200. The match seemed to be dwindling down to a tame draw.

So Wingfield Digby asked his wicketkeeper to remove himself from his post, and instructed his bowler Graeme Calway to bowl wides. Calway obliged, bowling 14 wides all running down to the boundary.

With Cheshire needing 53 off 10 overs, their batsmen were tempted to go for the win. Throwing caution to the wind led to a batting collapse in the next few overs and Dorset won the match by 18 runs, with 12 balls to spare.