Scoring Symbols

Ahead of the compulsory introduction of cricket scorers into cricket in Switzerland, the Swiss Federation Of Cricket Umpires & Scorers (swissFOCUS) have put their heads together to produce a series of articles for the Cricket Switzerland website, devoted to cricket scoring.

In April, a series of articles will be published, explaining and discussing best practices, all designed to assist cricket scorers generally.

In this first article Alex Mackay explains the internationally recognised standard symbols used in scoring.

Scoring symbols

It is recognised that a dot ball is a fair delivery with no runs scored. However, in the bowling analysis section of the score book, the dot is used in other ways too.

For instance, runs not scored off the bat on a no-ball (in other words byes) are represented by a number of dots in the circle (no ball) – one dot inside the circle is one no-ball, plus one no-ball bye (two no ball extras); two dots inside the circle is one no-ball, plus two no-ball byes (three no ball extras); etc..

This is opposed to runs scored off the bat from a no ball (runs), they are represented by the numerical character inside the circle, i.e. ① represents one no-ball and one to the batsman.

This also applies to Wides. Of course runs can’t be scored off the bat from a wide, otherwise it wouldn’t be a wide, but byes can. And these are again represented by a number of dots, this time in each corner of the cross.

Along with a cross (È) for a Wide (not a W, that is a wicket); and a circle (⃝) for a no-ball (not NB), other internationally recognised symbols are:

• the triangle (r) for a bye (not a B)
• an upside-down triangle (s) for leg-byes (not LB)
• a W is a wicket (not an x or wk) and certainly not a wide

Not forgetting:

• a plus (+) next to a player’s name denotes the wicket-keeper
• a star (*) or asterisk the captain

Anything missing. A run-out perhaps? Well, strictly speaking this doesn’t show in the bowling analysis, afterall a bowler isn’t credited with the wicket!

Refer to the scoring symbols table below for a short explanation of all the internationally recognised scoring symbols used in the bowling section of a score book (also available for download to print and place in your club scorebook):

Cricket scoring internationally recognised symbols

Further infomation on cricket scoring in Switzerland is available from swissFOCUS, but if you have a specific question about cricket scoring, address your question via email to Mira Koshy.