Cricket captain duties: the club captain’s weekly checklist.

The captain’s week

The trick is doing each job on its day. Selection left to Friday night means a weekend of messages; fees left to the following week means a month of them.

Before the game

Availability

You can’t pick a side from silence. Ask by date rather than by team, set a deadline, and only chase the people who haven’t answered. How to get more players replying.

Selection

Pick in the club’s agreed order with the other captains, following the club’s policy. If your club doesn’t have one, here’s a template. Keep two reserves in mind before you publish.

Publishing the side

• Publish by Thursday evening with the XI, meet time, start time and ground.
• Mark your keeper and any vice-captain.
• Ask every player to confirm, and chase only those who haven’t.
• Tell anyone who wasn’t picked, kindly and privately. “First reserve this week” keeps them answering.

Logistics

• Confirm the fixture with the opposition captain: start time, format, any ground changes.
• Check who’s umpiring and who’s scoring, if your side provides them.
• Sort lifts for away games and teas for home games.

The match-day checklist

1. Arrive early. Check the pitch, the covers and that the scorebook or scoring app is ready.
2. Match ball, spare ball, stumps and bails, boundary markers.
3. Team sheet to the scorers and the umpires before the toss, with your keeper marked.
4. Toss and, if you’re home, offer the opposition the dressing room and teas timing.
5. Organise your side’s umpiring and scoring rota while you bat.
6. Request match fees from the XI, and mark cash paid before anyone leaves the ground.
7. Thank the umpires, the scorers and whoever made the teas.
8. Shake hands, buy a round if it’s your turn, and get the result agreed with the opposition.

One more, if your club runs an MVP table: tally drops and misfields as they happen. They aren’t on a Play-Cricket scorecard, so if nobody records them on the day, they’re gone.

After the game

• Result and scorecard on Play-Cricket by your league’s deadline.
• Fees: anyone who didn’t pay on the day stays on the treasurer’s list. You shouldn’t need to chase.
• A line in the club group: the result, the standout performance, and thanks. It’s what keeps the 3rd XI feeling part of the club.
• Availability for next week is already open. The cycle starts again.

How to stop it eating your weekend

• Share the jobs. A vice-captain who owns lifts and teas halves the logistics.
• Hand money to a system, not your pocket. Pay links mean fewer coins, and cash marked on the spot means no Sunday reconciliation. The treasurer’s side of it.
• Give players a reason to open the app. At Brookweald, players opened it after every game to check their MVP points, so availability and confirmations stopped needing a chase.
• Message less, but better. One clear alert to the XI about a changed start time beats twelve messages in the group.

The captain’s tools in MVP Cricket

Availability once per match day, a private draft for selection, and a publish that notifies every selected player, with one-tap confirm from email and no login. On match day the captain gets fee tools from the team sheet: request fees from the XI, mark cash paid, copy a player’s pay link or waive a fee. Counters for drops and misfields feed the MVP points, and an alert button messages the published side when the ground or start time changes. These are on the Club plan; see how selection works.

Questions captains ask

MVP Cricket is the author’s product.