A wicket keeper is the only player on the fielding side, other than the bowler, who has specific status and rules. The position means that, unlike other fielders, they wear protective gear such as leg pads, along with gloves that make it easier to catch the ball at close range.
The wicket keeper stands behind the batter’s wicket and aims to take close catches, carry out stumpings, and stop a ball that passes the wicket, for example if the batter doesn’t hit the ball and the ball doesn’t hit the wicket. Usually a wicket keeper will stand close to the wicket for a spinner or seamer and further away for a fast bowler. This is partly for safety and partly because this means they have time to cover a wider arc if a ball passes the wicket at high speed.
A team can only have one wicket keeper at a time, but can change the designated wicket keeper at any point with the umpire’s position. Usually this happens if the current wicket keeper is selected to bowl an over. Strictly speaking a side doesn’t have to use a wicket keeper, but the benefits of doing so mean it’s virtually unheard of not to use one.
Several rules, benefits and exclusions from normal rules apply to the wicket keeper, beyond being allowed to wear gloves:
- They are not counted towards the limit of two fielders behind the “square leg line” (behind the batter on the leg side).
- They are allowed to be on the pitch (the rolled grass area in the centre of the field) during the delivery. (However, they must keep all of their body including hands behind the wicket until either the batter has hit the ball, or the ball has passed the wicket.)
- The wicket keeper must not be in a position or take actions that make it “apparent to the umpires” that they cannot carry out the “normal duties of a wicket keeper”. This allows for a lot of discretion but broadly a wicket keeper should be behind, and within a reasonable distance of, the wicket. (For example, they couldn’t stand on the boundary in the back stop position.) In they aren’t in a suitable position, they no longer enjoy the benefits of being a wicket keeper so, for example, using gloves to touch the ball become unlawful.
- The wicket keeper is also the only player who can dismiss a batter by stumping. This is when the wicket keeper breaks the stumps with the ball (dislodging the bails) while the batter is out of their ground (in front of the popping crease), the ball has not been called dead, and they have not attempted a run. It’s a similar principle to a run out, but only the wicket keeper can break the stumps (and no other player can touch the ball first). If the player is attempting a run, it’s a run-out, regardless of who breaks the stumps.
- Unlike with a run out, the bowler gets credit for the wicket with the stumping, while some statisticians also count it as a dismissal for the wicket keeper.