Roll It - An amalgamation of Cricket and Football

The Roll-it playzone. Diagram showing how the playzone will look.

As an Indian sports enthusiast, most of us are die-hard fans of cricket. We are born cricket lovers, so much so that a victory by the Indian team is celebrated in par with any festival. However, we also boast of a massive fan following for football. We are ardent followers of some of the biggest football clubs – Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Barcelona. So, how fascinating would it be if these two worlds collided to bring us something new? Through this article, I would like to introduce to you a new yet exciting concept known as Roll-it.

The main idea of this concept is to combine the fun that we get while playing or watching a cricket game as well as a football game; which means devising something new containing elements from both sports. While both sports have their advantages, let us borrow from them in such a way so as to make Roll-it an interesting concept. The idea behind Roll-it is to give the youth another reason to hit the grounds running. So, with that let us start with the basics.

Game fundamentals:

First and foremost, there will be 2 teams. One side will be the ‘kicking team’, whereas the other side will be ‘defending team’. Now, the objective of the kicking team will be to make maximum number of runs, while the objective of the defending team will be to restrict the kicking team to a minimum number of runs. The playing ground will be known as the ‘?Playzone’. In the play-zone, the kicking team will have 4 players. There will be 1 kicker, 1 runner and 2 receivers. The defending team will have 8 players in the play-zone. There will be 1 roller, 4 fielders and 3 stoppers. The playzone can be any rectangular ground with a minimum dimension of 40 by 20 meters.

The playzone:

The playzone area is divided into three sections. The first section will have the kicker, the runner, 2 fielders and the roller. The second section will consist of the 2 receivers and 2 fielders, while the last section will have 3 stoppers who will be guarding 3 different goals. All players in each section of the playzone must remain in their respective section. For example, a stopper must remain in the last section; he cannot go the middle or first section. Similarly, a receiver must remain in the middle section. The playzone will contain 3 boundaries: 1 straight boundary and 2 side boundaries.

Player roles:

As explained earlier, the basic concept of the game is to score runs just like in cricket. Team with maximum runs will be the winner. It is first important to know what is expected from each player. So, let us first define the roles of all the players for the defending team.

Roller: This player’s job is to roll the ball along the ground to the kicker. If he wishes, he can also roll the ball with small bounces. Once the ball is kicked, he can also play the part of a fielder in trying to stop the ball going further.

Fielders: The basic aim of the fielders in both the first section and the middle section is to stop the ball and prevent scoring of runs. They may also catch the ball.

Stoppers: Stoppers as the name suggests must stop the ball from entering the goal. They are however, only allowed to use their hands. If a stopper uses his feet to stop the ball, then kicking team will get 15 runs. Each stopper must remain in the goal assigned to him.

Now, let’s take a look at the roles of the kicking team.

Kicker: The kicker’s job is to either kick or pass the ball to his teammates and run along the rolling strip to score runs.

Runner: The runner acts like the non-striker as we have in the game of cricket. Once the kicker has kicked the ball, he also has to run along the rolling strip to score runs.

Receivers: The first role of the receivers is to collect the pass from the kicker. Their second role will be to try and score goals in one of the three goals posts. Also, just like the fielders, the receivers can also catch the ball and in such case they will be allowed to continue with possession. If the receivers catch the ball, then they will get a one on one kick attempt into any of the 3 goals.

Ball to be used for Roll-it.

Game rules:

As all the roles of the various players are defined, it is now time to lay down the rules of the game. Runs can be scored by either the kicker or by the receivers. If a kicker wants to score runs directly, then he can try to score by kicking the ball and running along the rolling strip. Each successful run will count as 1 run scored. He can also kick the ball along the ground and try to score runs if the ball crosses the side boundaries or the straight boundary.

If the ball crosses the straight boundary or the side boundaries in the middle section, then the kicking team scores 5 runs. If the ball crosses the side boundaries in the first section, then the kicking team gets 3 runs. If the kicker kicks the ball directly over the any of the boundaries then the kicking team does not get any runs. Direct kicks into the 3 goals by the kicker are also not allowed.

If the kicker chooses to pass the ball to his receivers, then the receivers must first collect the pass and then they try to score by putting the ball in one of the 3 goals. The receivers cannot score runs by kicking the ball to any of the boundaries. Receivers cannot pass the ball to each other, they can only run inside the middle section and they will get only one shot to try to score in one of the goals.

If a receiver scores in the middle goal, then kicking team will get 7 runs. If they score in one of the side goals, then kicking team will get 10 runs. The size of the middle goal will be as the standard football goal post, whereas the side goals will be slightly lesser in length.

If the fielders from the defending team catch the ball, then 2 runs will be deducted from the kicking team. Each team will get a total of 20 attempts to score runs. At the end of 10 attempts, the kicker and runner will exchange their roles. After one team wins, that will be the end of 1st inning. Each match will be a best of 5 innings match, hence to win the match one of the teams must win 3 innings.

Now that all the rules are in place, it’s time to see if Roll-it can be the next fun sporting activity. Let’s play!