Hitting a six means out! One of UK’s oldest cricket clubs bans batters from hitting maximums

Hitting a six in gully cricket in India can get you out, but one of the world’s oldest cricket clubs in England has also implemented the same rule. Those who may have played gully cricket would be well aware of the rule that hitting a six will lead to dismissal as due to paucity and space and the danger of damaging things around the field of play, the batters are banned from hitting the shot that fetches the highest run on a single ball in cricket.

The Southwick and Shoreham cricket club players have also been banned from hitting sixes for almost the same reason.

In cricket, you are awarded six runs from a single shot if you send the ball over the boundary rope without it touching the ground. However, hitting the maximums, as they are called, has proved to be expensive for the Southwick and Shoreham Cricket Club, which is situated near Brighton in West Sussex, and plays its cricket at The Green.

The batters at the club which was formed in 1790 have been asked not to hit sixes as neighbours complained about damage to their property and threatened to call the police.

As per the new rule, the first six will not be counted and a better one will be deemed out after the second six.

“Hitting the bowler for a six is part of the glory of the sport. How can you ban it? It’s ridiculous. To take that away removes the joy of it. I don’t agree that the rules should be tinkered with in this fashion,” a batter told MailOnline.

It’s not only the damage to the property of the people living near the ground but also “costly insurance claims” and “legal actions” that have forced the club into taking the decision.

“Everything is about health and safety these days and insurance companies are charging a fortune to indemnify sports clubs against accidental damage or injury to bystanders,” another batter said.

“If you buy a house next to a cricket ground then you’ve got expect a few cricket balls in your garden.”

‘Very small ground’

The 80-year-old Mary Gill who lives alongside the Green feels the ground if not for the “testosterone-fuelled young men”.

“It’s a very small ground and can’t accommodate the testosterone-fuelled young men who come along and just want to hit the ball as far as they can,” she told the Mail.

“My parents and grandparents lived in this house before me and cricket balls were always sailing over and causing damage.”

“One time – probably in the 1940s – my baby brother was outside in the garden and my mother found a cricket ball in his pram. Over the years we’ve had tiles smashed off the roof, windows broken and all sorts of damage.”