Katchet Board – Cricket Slip Catching Ramp & Fielding Trainer

You can't practise slip catching by throwing the ball to someone.

A thrown catch arrives on a predictable arc at a predictable speed. A real slip catch arrives off a thick edge — deflected, late, at an angle nobody chose. Which is why so many teams who do catching practice every week still drop the ones that matter.

The Katchet Board fixes that by removing the thrower's control. You throw the ball down at the angled, textured surface and it kicks away unpredictably — fast and flat, high and looping, wide to either side. The catcher doesn't know which until it's off the board. That's the whole point.

Bulletproof Benefits

• Genuinely unpredictable deflections: the engineered angle and textured face throw the ball off on a different line nearly every time, so the catcher reads the ball instead of anticipating the feeder.
• One feeder, one catcher: you don't need a coach with a bat or a slip cradle crew. Two people and a ball is a full session.
• Soft ball or hard ball: run it with an incrediball for juniors and indoor sessions, or a leather ball for senior close-in work.
• Weatherproof polypropylene: impact-resistant and fine to leave out in the wet, which matters for a club that stores gear in a shed.
• Portable: carry it to the nets, the oval or the school hall. No assembly, no frame, no net.
• Pace without effort: the surface transfers speed, so the feeder generates sharp catches with an easy throw rather than wearing their shoulder out.

Used by international teams and club sides alike — because the drill works whether you're preparing for a Test match or a Saturday fourth-grade game.

Specifications

• Type: Angled catching ramp / slip cradle board
• Material: Impact-resistant polypropylene
• Surface: Textured, weatherproof
• Ball types: Soft, incrediball or leather
• Weight: 2 kg
• Use: Indoor and outdoor
• Sold as: Single board

How to Use a Katchet Board

Place the board on the ground with the angled face toward the catcher. The feeder stands a metre or two behind or beside it and throws the ball down onto the surface — the ball kicks off toward the catcher on an unpredictable line. Adjust the difficulty by changing where on the board you hit, how hard you throw, and how far away the catcher stands.

Four Drills Worth Running

• Slip cordon: catcher crouches 2–3 m away in a slip stance. Short, sharp throws onto the board produce the low, quick edges that slips actually get.
• Close-in reflex: move the catcher to 1.5 m and feed faster. Builds the hand speed needed at bat-pad and short leg.
• High ball: throw down harder and steeper so the ball loops. The catcher has to pick it up late and move under it.
• Moving catch: feed wide to alternate sides so the catcher has to move their feet before the hands get involved. This is where most club catches are actually dropped.

Why Reaction Training Beats Repetition

Catching practice where the ball arrives the same way every time trains a motor pattern, not a skill. What a fielder actually needs is the ability to pick up flight early and adjust — and you only build that when the ball does something you didn't expect. A board that deflects randomly forces the eyes and feet to do the work, which is why a few minutes of reaction catching is worth more than an hour of lobbed throws.

Who It's For

Club sides wanting a fielding drill that works with two people and no coach, juniors and school programmes developing catching from scratch, wicketkeepers and close-in fielders sharpening reflexes, and anyone who has spent a season in the slips and knows the difference between a catch you expected and one you didn't.