Wicket-keeper's gloves are large

glove A glove is a garment covering the hand, with separate sheaths or openings for each finger including the thumb. Gloves protect and comfort hands against cold or heat, damage by friction, abrasion or chemicals, and disease; or in turn to provide a ...

s used in

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and worn by the

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

of the fielding team, which protect the hands of the wicket-keeper when catching balls bowled by the bowler, hit by a batter or thrown by a fielder.

Construction

Wicket-keeper's gloves have an anterior surface designed for catching the ball, while offering protection to fingers and the palms of the hands from painful impact. Typically, the catching surface is made of rubber and has some traction-enhancing features, such as bumps. The catching surface is yellow-coloured in the image shown above. Soft padding material is placed underneath the catching surface to reduce the impact of the ball. A protective padded cuff covering the wrist area is also present on the anterior surface, but it is typically encased with leather and does not offer a catching surface. This is the green, semi-circular piece on the glove to the right in the picture above. The posterior of the glove, which is not intended for contact with the ball, is made of leather and appears as the green backing of the glove on the left side in the picture shown. Inside the glove, rubber thimbles are used to protect fingertip from injury due to impact from the ball.

Legal specifications

Wicket keeping gloves along with the inner gloves

The

Laws of Cricket The ''Laws of Cricket'' is a code that specifies the rules of the game of cricket worldwide. The earliest known code was drafted in 1744. Since 1788, the code has been owned and maintained by the private Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Lord's Cr ...

as set by

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

dictate the specifications for wicket-keeper's gloves in Law 27.2: "''27.2.1:'' If ... the wicket-keeper wears gloves, they shall have no webbing between the fingers except joining index finger and thumb, where webbing may be inserted as a means of support. ''27.2.2:'' If used, the webbing shall be a single piece of non-stretch material which, although it may have facing material attached, shall have no reinforcements or tucks. ''27.2.3:'' The top edge of the webbing shall not protrude beyond the straight line joining the top of the index finger to the top of the thumb and shall be taut when a hand wearing the glove has the thumb fully extended."

Incidents and anecdotes

In 2008,

Mahendra Singh Dhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian professional cricketer who plays as a right-handed batter and a wicket-keeper. Widely regarded as one of the most prolific wicket-keeper batsmen and captains and one of the greatest O ...

was instructed by the match referee in an Australia-India game at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in the Moore Park, New South Wales, Moore Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australi ...

to change his wicket-keeper's gloves, which were deemed to be in violation of the specifications. Again in 2019, ICC asked Dhoni to remove an Indian army insignia from his gloves. Wicket-keepers have been known to have a special bond with their equipment. Alan Knott, the legendary England wicket-keeper, is known to have worn his gloves in the evening at home to keep them supple. Jack Russell, yet another notable English keeper, allegedly slept with his gloves underneath his pillow. Knott is also known to have reinforced the protection offered by his gloves by taping pieces of

plasticine Plasticine is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. Though originally a brand name for the British version of the product, it is now applied generically in English as a product category ...

to his inner gloves. There are known incidents of some wicket-keepers that used to insert beef steaks inside their gloves for added padding.

Major glove manufacturers

* Gray-Nicolls *

Kookaburra Sport Kookaburra Sport Pty Ltd (or simply Kookaburra) is an Australian sports equipment and apparel company based in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1890 and specialises in manufacturing various equipment used for Australian rules foo ...

Slazenger Slazenger () is a British sports equipment brand owned by the Frasers Group (formerly Sports Direct). One of the world's oldest sport brands, the company was established as a sporting goods shop in 1881 by entrepreneurial brothers, Ralph and Al ...

Sanspareils Greenlands Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) is an Indian cricket equipment manufacturer. The company was founded in 1931 in Sialkot in British India before moving to the current location in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1950. It specialises in manufacturing ...

References

External links