Before you spend anything
What gear does
my child need?
Personal equipment is bought by families rather than issued by the club, so it pays to buy in the right order. Nothing is needed for a first session, and a coach will tell you what to get next before you spend a dollar.
Session one
Turn up with
what you have
We would rather your child came along in running shoes and decided they liked cricket than that you spent a few hundred dollars on a sport nobody has committed to yet.
Beginners start with soft and modified balls, and early sessions are about catching, throwing, movement and small-sided games. Ask your coach what your child will be doing before their first session so you buy nothing prematurely.
- Shoes
- Any comfortable sports shoe with grip. Cricket shoes come much later, if at all.
- Clothes
- Anything they can run and stretch in. Club whites are for matches, not training nights.
- Water
- A full bottle, plus sunscreen and a cap through the Ohio summer. Sessions are outdoors.
Everything below is about the weeks after that, not the first evening.
Not negotiable
Required before
your child bats
Batting has a fixed equipment requirement and coaches do not make exceptions to it. Four items, all bought by the family, all needed together rather than one at a time.
A helmet with a faceguard
Mandatory for batting and close fielding, at every age. A helmet has to fit the head it is protecting, so buy one that fits now rather than one to grow into — a loose helmet is worse than none, because it moves on impact.
Look for a fixed or locked faceguard with a gap too narrow for a ball to pass through.
An abdominal guard
Required for hard-ball sessions, and for obvious reasons never shared. Inexpensive, sold in junior sizes, and worn inside supportive shorts.
Buy two if you would rather not do laundry on a schedule.
Batting pads
Sized like a bat, by height rather than age. Too long and they catch on the knee when your child runs, which is both slower and more dangerous than pads that fit.
Batting gloves
Protect the fingers, which are the part of a batter most often hit. Handed, like the bat, so get the handedness right before you order.
Our player safety page sets out which ball is used at which age and when a player moves to the hard ball. Beginners start with softer, modified balls, and a coach decides when a child is ready to progress.
In this order
What to buy,
and when
Spread across a season rather than bought in one trip, cricket kit costs a good deal less than it appears to. This is the order we would suggest to any new family.
-
1
Helmet and guard
The two with a deadline attached. Needed before your child bats, and the helmet is the one item never to buy used.
-
2
Pads and gloves
The other half of the batting requirement. Second-hand is perfectly sensible here, and both are outgrown long before they wear out.
-
3
A bat
Sizing matters far more than brand, and it is worth having a coach check the size before you order. See below.
-
4
Trousers
White or navy for training nights. Your membership already covers the match uniform, so this is only about sessions.
-
5
A kit bag
Once there is genuinely enough kit to carry. A sports holdall does the job until then.
-
6
Cricket shoes
Only for a player heading into competitive cricket. Ordinary sports shoes are fine for years.
The thing people get wrong
Sizing a bat
by height
Cricket bats are sized by the player's height, not their age. A bat that is too big is the single most common reason a child struggles to play a proper shot — they end up dragging it rather than swinging it.
Buying one to grow into is a false economy. A child will get two seasons out of the right size and learn properly in both.
Bring your child to a session before you buy. A coach will hand them the right size in thirty seconds, which beats any chart.
-
Roughly 4'3″ to 4'6″
Size 3 — typically our younger U11 players.
-
Roughly 4'6″ to 4'9″
Size 4.
-
Roughly 4'9″ to 4'11″
Size 5.
-
Roughly 4'11″ to 5'2″
Size 6.
-
Roughly 5'3″ to 5'6″
Harrow — the step before a full-size bat.
-
5'6″ and above
Full size, which most of our U19 players use.
Treat these as a starting point rather than a rule. Build and strength matter too, and manufacturers differ slightly. The same height guide works for pads.
Save your money
What to skip
Cricket has a long tail of equipment that looks necessary in a catalogue and is not.
- • A second bat. Nobody in youth cricket needs one.
- • An expensive bat. Above a certain point you are paying for the willow grade, and it makes no difference to a child still learning to middle it.
- • Wicketkeeping gloves, unless your child keeps wicket regularly. Ask a coach first.
- • Thigh guards and arm guards at the beginner stage. These come in with hard-ball competitive cricket.
- • Brand-new everything. Bats, pads and gloves are outgrown long before they wear out, so good used kit is easy to find and sensible to buy.
If you are unsure about a specific item, ask a coach at a session before buying. It costs nothing, and they have watched plenty of families spend money they did not need to.
Common questions
Before you buy
Does the club provide any equipment? +
Not personal equipment. Bats, pads, gloves, abdominal guards and helmets are bought by families, because fit and hygiene make shared personal kit a poor idea in practice. Membership covers coaching, the training and match program, grounds and a CYCC uniform set.
Do we need all of it before the first session? +
No. Come along with sports shoes, a water bottle and clothes they can run in. Ask your coach what your child will be doing in their early sessions, and buy the batting equipment when they are ready to bat rather than in advance of it.
Is second-hand equipment a good idea? +
For bats, pads and gloves, yes — children outgrow gear long before it wears out, and good used kit is easy to find. For helmets, no. A helmet that has taken an impact can be compromised in ways you cannot see, and you rarely know a used one's history. Buy that one new.
Left-handed or right-handed? +
Bats, gloves and pads are handed, so this matters. Confusingly, a child who writes with one hand does not always bat with it, and plenty of players bat and bowl in opposite directions. Let a coach watch them hold a bat before you buy anything handed.
What if we cannot afford the equipment? +
Talk to us. Cost should not be the reason a child does not play, and we would far rather have a quiet conversation than lose a player over kit. Get in touch through the contact page and it stays between you and the club.
Ask before you spend
Come to a session first. Coaches will tell you honestly what your child needs now, what can wait, and how to size it properly when the time comes.