Polonia Cricket Club:                         The Home of Cricket in Poland


Team Details and Photographs News and Messages Sponsorship Indoor Cricket  Contact

 

Polonia Cricket Club

How Similar are Palant and Cricket (Krykiet)?

The Polish game of Palant and the English game of Cricket have several similarities. They are both played with bat and ball, both involving hitting, running, and catching the ball. One originated in Upper Silesia in what was then Germany, now Poland; the other in England, spreading through the British Empire to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the West Indies, and many other countries. 

The rules of Palant are rather different to Cricket, and might be decribed in a fairly basic way thus;. Palant is played by two teams of ten players, for sixty minutes with a five minute break. The playing field is a rectangle, 50 metres by 25 metres. One of the 25 metre sides is called the "border" line, the opposite side the "nest" line. Players of one team take their places behind the nest line, while the players of the other team stand in the field and behind it. Points are scored only by the team inside the nest. One by one, the team members hit the ball from the nest with the palant, aiming to strike it as far as possible into the field and then run, ideally to the finish, which is near the border line, and back. The striker gains points if he can do this before the "field players" catch the ball and throw it back behind the nest line. If a field player catches the ball and manages to hit with it any of the running players from the nest, he has "handcuffed" the player. The other "nest players" may then run out and try to catch the ball and hit the field players with it. This is called "re-handcuffing". Successful re-handcuffing means that the nest players do not lose the nest. But if they don't succeed, they lose the nest and the teams exchange roles.

You can check the basics of cricket by clicking here.