Indoor cricket court dimensions in Sri Lanka
Court sizes, pitch measurements, every crease, and the space to allow around all of it — whether you are booking a cage this evening or working out whether a building can hold one.
Figures checked 12 September 2026
Indoor cricket court dimensions at a glance
The three numbers most people arrive looking for, then the qualification that matters.
How big is an indoor cricket court?
28–30 m long by 10–12 m wide, which is 91.9–98.4 ft by 32.8–39.4 ft. A purpose-built centre is normally set out at 30 × 12 m.
How long is the pitch?
20 m between the middle stumps, or 65.6 ft. Shorter than an outdoor pitch, and a flat 20 rather than 20.12 m.
How much height do you need?
4–4.5 m clear under the roof net — 13.1–14.8 ft. Measured to the lowest obstruction, not to the roof sheet.
Those are ranges, not a single specification, and that is the part most pages about indoor cricket leave out. The Official Rules of Indoor Cricket — the rulebook Cricket Australia is custodian of, reviewed with the World Indoor Cricket Federation — sets a minimum and a maximum for each of the court's three dimensions. A court at the bottom of the range and one at the top are both legal, and they play very differently: 2 m less width means a lot more ball coming back off the side nets.
It also matters that a commercial venue is not bound by any of this unless it is hosting sanctioned competition. Plenty of cages in and around Colombo were fitted into an existing warehouse or upper floor, and their dimensions are whatever the building allowed. If the exact size matters to you — for a league fixture, say — ask the venue before you book.
Interactive indoor cricket court diagram
Every line drawn to scale from the rulebook's measurements. Switch between the smallest and largest legal court, swap metres for feet, and select any part of the court to see what it is for.
Maximum court · 30 × 12 m The largest court the rules allow, and what a purpose-built centre is normally set out to. More room behind the wicket and down the sides.
Tap or hover a part of the court, or use the cards, to see its measurements. Drawn to scale.
Overall playing area
- Court length
- 28–30 m
- Court width
- 10–12 m
- Playing height
- 4–4.5 m
The whole netted box. Unusually for a court sport, the nets are in play: the side and back nets are scoring zones, so the court's dimensions change how the game scores, not just how it fits.
Indoor cricket court measurements explained
What each part of the court is, and what its dimension decides.
Overall playing area
The netted box: 28–30 m by 10–12 m, with 4–4.5 m of clear height. Length is the harder number to find in a building, because it has to include the space behind both sets of stumps as well as the 20 m pitch — on a 30 m court that is 5 m of run-off at each end.
Width is what decides whether a hall holds one court or two. Two 12 m courts plus a walkway between them needs something close to 26 m of unobstructed span, which is a very different building from a 13 m one.
The pitch
The rules define the pitch as the area between both sets of stumps, the bowling return creases, and the offside lines at the striker's end. So it is a slight taper rather than a rectangle: the wicket line is 1.83 m wide at the batting end and 2.47 m at the bowling end, stumps centred on both.
The surface is synthetic turf over a cushioned base, not a prepared wicket, so it plays the same in September as in March — which is the entire commercial argument for indoor cricket in a country with two monsoons.
Batting and running area
The popping crease sits 1.22 m in front of the stumps at both ends, measured from the centre of the stumps to its back edge. At the striker's end it runs the full width of the court and is called the batting crease; at the bowler's end it is the front-foot line, drawn only between the return creases.
The running crease is 11 m from the batting crease and also spans the court. Batters change ends every over and turn every run on it, so it takes more wear than any other line on the floor.
Bowling end, creases and the exclusion zone
The return creases are 1.22 m either side of the middle stump, square to the bowling crease, and are treated as extending back indefinitely. Width of delivery is governed by two more lines: the offside or wide line 0.9 m from the centre stump, and a much tighter legside line at 0.45 m — legside deliveries are penalised, which is why that line is where it is.
The fielding exclusion zone is a 3 m arc from the centre of the batting crease. Nobody but the keeper may be inside it before the striker plays, and the keeper only once the ball is past the stumps.
Indoor cricket court size in feet and metres
The full set, both ways, with what each one determines in practice.
| Element | Metric | Feet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Court length | 28–30 m | 91.9–98.4 ft | Sets the run-up and the space behind each set of stumps. It is the measurement a building either has or does not have. |
| Court width | 10–12 m | 32.8–39.4 ft | Decides how much square-of-the-wicket room fielders get, and whether two courts fit side by side in one hall. |
| Playing height | 4–4.5 m | 13.1–14.8 ft | The clear height under the roof net. A hall with less is not a legal court, and a ceiling far above 4.5 m wastes net and lighting.Measured to the roof net, not to the building's structure. Lights, ducting and beams have to sit above it. |
| Middle stump to middle stump | 20 m | 65.6 ft | The pitch length. It is 20 m flat, not the 20.12 m (22 yards) of the outdoor game — the one number people most often get wrong. |
| Wicket line width, batting end | 1.83 m | 6 ft | Marked in line with the stumps, stumps centred. Narrower than the bowling end because the striker needs less lateral room. |
| Wicket line width, bowling end | 2.47 m | 8.1 ft | Gives the bowler a legal delivery width and, with the return creases, defines the pitch at the bowling end. |
| Popping crease from stumps | 1.22 m | 4 ft | Back edge, measured from the centre of the stumps at both ends. The batting crease at the striker's end, the front-foot line at the bowler's. |
| Return crease from middle stump | 1.22 m | 4 ft | The bowler's back-foot boundary. Marked square to the bowling crease and treated as extending back indefinitely. |
| Running crease to batting crease | 11 m | 36.1 ft | The distance batters actually run — a little over half the pitch, which is why indoor cricket rewards quick singles. |
| Fielding exclusion zone radius | 3 m | 9.8 ft | An arc from the centre of the batting crease that fielders may not enter until the ball is played. It is what keeps the game safe at 20 m. |
| Underarm line from striker's stumps | 7 m | 23 ft | Marked across the pitch. Governs where an underarm return may be made from. |
| Offside (wide) line from centre stump | 0.9 m | 3 ft | Inside edge, each side. Sets the width a delivery can be bowled before it is called wide. |
| Legside line from middle stump | 0.45 m | 1.5 ft | Inside edge. The legside equivalent of the wide line, and much tighter — legside deliveries are penalised in indoor cricket.Extends at least 0.15 m at right angles to the batting crease. |
| Line thickness | 5.5 cm | 2.2 in | Every marking on the court. Worth knowing before a contractor tapes a court out with 50 mm line tape. |
| Stump height | 71.1 cm | 28 in | Top of the stumps above the floor. Indoor sets are spring-loaded rather than driven into a surface. |
| Stump set width | 22.9 cm | 9 in | Three stumps and two bails, the same at both ends, pitched parallel 20 m apart. |
Convert indoor cricket court measurements
Useful when a rulebook is metric and a contractor's drawing is not.
Converted at 1 m = 3.28084 ft. Type in either box.
How much space does an indoor cricket venue need?
The court's dimensions are the smallest of the three numbers a landlord will ask about. Work outwards from them.
- 01
Playing area
28–30 m by 10–12 m, level and square, with 4–4.5 m of clear height and no column inside the footprint. This is the part the rulebook governs.
- 02
Run-off, netting and safety clearance
Space to hang and tension the perimeter nets clear of walls, a safe margin where a player can follow through without meeting brickwork, and access around the court for maintenance. No governing body puts a number on this for indoor cricket — it comes from the building, the net system and your own fire strategy.
- 03
Support areas
Reception, changing rooms, toilets, equipment store, plant and switchgear, circulation, and somewhere the next booking can wait without standing in the run-up. On a 60-minute slot pattern two full teams arrive while two are leaving, every hour.
Total venue footprint
The figure a landlord, a bank or a council will ask for. Work it out from the court outwards, in that order, and check the clear height before anything else — it is the one constraint a building cannot be made to grow into.
How many square metres?
Start from the court and adjust. A 30 × 12 m court is the default below.
This is the rectangular playing area only. It does not include the run-off around the lines, circulation, changing rooms, reception, storage or plant — see how much space a venue needs, above.
Two constraints catch people out. The first is clear height: a building either has 4 m under its lowest duct or it does not, and there is no design that fixes a short one. Measure to the lowest obstruction across the whole footprint, not at the ridge.
The second is columns. A 30 × 12 m clear span is not common in Sri Lankan light-industrial stock, and a single column inside the playing area rules a unit out entirely — it cannot be netted around and it cannot be played around. Walk the floor before you take a measurement off a drawing.
If the building is close but not quite there, the range is your friend: a 28 × 10 m court is fully legal, and two metres in each direction is often the difference between a viable unit and a dead one.
Planning an indoor cricket venue in Sri Lanka
What to settle before anything is ordered. Only the playing area has a governing number — everything else is a decision, and this is the order to make them in.
Playing area
28–30 m by 10–12 m of unobstructed floor, squared and level, with no columns inside the footprint.
Clear height
4–4.5 m under the net. Measure to the lowest obstruction — a beam or a duct, not the roof.
Pitch and creases
A 20 m stump-to-stump strip with every crease marked at 5.5 cm thickness. Line tape sold as 50 mm is the wrong width.
Netting
Perimeter and roof nets on a grid the roof structure can actually carry, with the scoring zones distinguishable.
Flooring
A sprung or cushioned sub-base under synthetic turf. Turf laid straight onto concrete is what ends players' seasons.
Lighting
Even, glare-free light above the net line, with no fitting a ball can reach. Get the mounting height agreed before the net grid is set.
Player circulation
A safe route to and from the court that does not cross another court's run-up, plus a place for the next booking to wait.
Changing and toilets
Enough for two full teams turning over on the hour, which is what a 60-minute slot pattern creates.
Reception and storage
A staffed point for walk-ins and cash, and lockable storage for bats, balls, pads and spare stumps.
Online booking
Per-court availability players can see and book themselves, so the phone is not the booking system.
Own a court? Put its real availability online.
CricBook lists a venue court by court, so each one is bookable on its own schedule rather than as a single block of hours. Pricing, opening hours, closures and blocked slots are all yours to set from the owner console.
Indoor cricket vs outdoor cricket dimensions
Same stumps, different geometry. Almost everything else changes.
Indoor
- Stumps 20 m apart
- Return creases 1.22 m from the middle stump
- Playing area 28–30 m × 10–12 m, netted on all six sides
- Batters run 11 m
- 8 a side, 16 overs, batting in pairs
Outdoor
- Stumps 20.12 m apart (22 yards)
- Return creases 1.32 m from the middle stump
- Pitch 20.12 m × 3.05 m, on an open field
- Boundary 59.43–82.29 m from the centre of the pitch under ICC men's playing conditions
- 11 a side, ten wickets to take
The stumps themselves are unchanged: 71.1 cm tall and 22.9 cm across the set, indoors and out. What changes is everything the game is scored on. Indoors the nets are live and the scoring is net-based, a dismissal costs five runs rather than a batter, and the shorter pitch and 11 m run turn the format into a running game. It is a different sport that borrows cricket's equipment, not a smaller version of it.
Indoor cricket vs futsal court dimensions
The comparison worth making if you are choosing what to put in a building rather than what to play tonight.
| Category | Indoor cricket | Futsal |
|---|---|---|
| Governing standard | Official Rules of Indoor Cricket (Cricket Australia / WICF) | FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game, Law 1 |
| Playing length | 28–30 m | 25–42 m (38–42 m international) |
| Playing width | 10–12 m | 16–25 m (20–25 m international) |
| Clear height | 4–4.5 m, set by the rules | Not set by FIFA — left to each competition's rules |
| Enclosure | Netted on all six sides, and the nets are in play | Open to the lines; a ball over the line is out of play |
| Key markings | Creases, offside and legside lines, 3 m fielding exclusion arc | 6 m penalty arcs, 6 m and 10 m marks, 3 m centre circle |
| Players on court | 8 a side, batting in pairs over 16 overs | 5 a side including the keeper, with rolling substitutions |
| Fits in a smaller building? | Narrower — 10 m of width is enough | Shorter — a 25 m court is legal for non-international play |
| Typical booking length | 60-minute slots per cage | 60-minute slots per court, often booked back to back |
In short: indoor cricket needs length and can live with 10 m of width, while futsal can be squeezed to 25 m of length but wants at least 16 m across. A long, narrow unit suits cricket. A shorter, wider one suits futsal. Full details are in the futsal court dimensions guide.
Indoor cricket courts in Sri Lanka
Why indoor play keeps growing here, and what that means for how courts get booked.
The case for indoor cricket in Sri Lanka is the weather. An outdoor session in the south-west monsoon is a coin toss from May to September, and again in the second inter-monsoon; a netted court under a roof is not. A venue that can sell a 7pm Thursday slot in June is selling something an open ground cannot.
That changes the economics. An indoor centre's revenue is court-hours sold, so utilisation is the whole business — which is why the dimensions on this page matter commercially as well as technically. Two courts in one hall instead of one roughly doubles the sellable hours from the same rent, and the decision is made entirely by the width of the span.
On the demand side, people search the way they travel: by area and by sport. Colombo, Nugegoda, Rajagiriya, Battaramulla, Dehiwala, Maharagama, Negombo and Kandy all behave as separate markets, because nobody drives across the city for a 60-minute slot when there is something closer.
What they then need is honest availability. CricBook lists each venue court by court, with its real hourly rate and live availability, so a 7pm slot that shows as free is free. You can find indoor cricket courts or browse courts by area to see what is near you.
Frequently asked questions
The questions that bring people to this page most often.
An indoor cricket court is 28–30 m long and 10–12 m wide, with a clear playing height of 4–4.5 m under the roof net. In feet that is 91.9–98.4 ft by 32.8–39.4 ft. The figures come from the Official Rules of Indoor Cricket, and they are ranges rather than one fixed size, so two legal courts can differ by 2 m in length and 2 m in width.
Looking for an indoor cricket court near you?
Browse venues on CricBook with live per-court availability and real hourly prices, and confirm the slot online instead of chasing a phone number.
More sports guides
Futsal court dimensions
Why futsal has a size range rather than one size, all of Law 1's markings in metres and feet, and what the laws leave to competition rules.
Read onHow booking a court works
Live per-court availability, what you pay now versus at the venue, and how cancellations are handled.
Read onListing a sports venue
What CricBook needs from a venue, how commission works, and what the owner console does day to day.
Read on