Long Stop: Cricket's Forgotten Fielding Position
Long stop is a fielding position directly behind the wicketkeeper — no longer used in professional cricket but historically important and still used in club and junior cricket. This article explains what long stop was, why it was retired, and when it might still be useful.
What Long Stop Was
Long stop was a fielding position placed directly behind the wicketkeeper — standing 15-25 metres behind the stumps, in line with the pitch: its specific role was to stop byes (balls that went past the wicketkeeper's reach) from reaching the boundary; in the earliest eras of cricket (18th and early 19th century), wicketkeeping was performed without gloves — the keeper's catching was far less reliable than modern wicketkeeping, and long stop was an essential position to prevent the frequent ball-past-keeper from becoming a boundary bye; long stop also backed up run-outs (when the throw from the outfield went past the keeper's end, long stop was there to collect and relay); and the position was so important in cricket's early history that it was considered a prestigious fielding role — the most reliable fielder in the team would sometimes be placed at long stop to minimise byes from a struggling keeper.
Why Long Stop Disappeared from Professional Cricket
Long stop's disappearance from professional cricket was driven by wicketkeeping improvement: wicketkeeping gloves were standardised and improved through the mid-19th century — a gloved keeper can stop balls that a bare-handed keeper could not; the professionalisation of cricket through the 19th century produced specialist wicketkeepers who trained extensively in stopping the ball reliably — the professional keeper's technique became sufficiently advanced that long stop was no longer needed to backup; and the fielding positions freed by removing long stop could be used more productively elsewhere — placing a long stop removes a fielder from an active scoring zone for the marginal benefit of backing up the professionally reliable keeper. Long stop's last regular professional appearance was approximately in the 1880s; it effectively disappeared from first-class cricket by the 1890s.
When Long Stop Is Still Used
Long stop continues to be used in specific cricket contexts: junior cricket (youth cricket with young, developing wicketkeepers who regularly allow balls past their gloves — long stop prevents multiple byes from each missed ball); informal club cricket (social matches where the wicketkeeper may not be a specialist — any fielder pressed into keeping service benefits from a long stop backup); and adapted cricket formats (beach cricket, garden cricket, indoor cricket variants where specific rule modifications allow or encourage the position). In competitive professional cricket, long stop is not used — any professional keeper who required a long stop would face immediate replacement as it signals fundamental keeping inadequacy. The position remains in the Laws of Cricket as a legal fielding position despite its obsolescence in the professional game.
Frequently asked questions
Is long stop allowed in modern cricket according to the Laws?
Yes — long stop is allowed under the Laws of Cricket: there is no Law that specifically prohibits placing a fielder behind the wicketkeeper; fielding restrictions (such as the 30-yard circle in limited-overs cricket) apply to the long stop position the same as any other fielder — in the non-powerplay overs of T20 cricket, a long stop positioned more than 30 yards from the stumps would count as one of the 5 permitted outfield fielders; and in Test cricket, where no fielding restrictions apply, a captain could legally post a long stop without restriction. The reason long stop isn't used in professional cricket is tactical rather than legal — a professional keeper's reliability makes the position wasteful; any professional team using long stop would be conceding a fielding position to the backing-up role at an unacceptable cost.
Has any professional team used long stop in a modern match?
No modern professional cricket match at the international or first-class level has used a long stop since approximately the 1890s in England. Some lower-level competitive matches in club cricket occasionally see improvised long stops when an inexperienced keeper is in the XI — not as a deliberate tactic but as a pragmatic response to the keeper's difficulties. The closest modern equivalent to long stop is the 'third man' position — a fielder posted in the fine-off area behind the batsman on the off side. Third man isn't long stop (it's positioned square rather than straight behind the keeper) but it serves a similar boundary-protection function for balls that beat the keeper and go toward fine off rather than straight behind.
What does 'long stop to a mistake' mean in English?
The phrase 'long stop' in English (and other languages influenced by cricket terminology) means a person or process that catches errors before they cause serious damage — the 'last line of defence': 'serving as a long stop' means being the final backup that catches mistakes other systems or people missed; the expression derives directly from the cricket fielding position's role as the backup behind the wicketkeeper — catching byes that the keeper couldn't stop; common uses: 'the legal department serves as a long stop for contracts'; 'the quality control process is the long stop that catches production errors before they reach customers'; and 'the treasury function acts as long stop for financial errors'. The phrase entered English business and management vocabulary directly from cricket terminology — one of many cricket expressions that became general English idioms.