Turf Cricket vs Box Cricket vs Gully Cricket: What's the Difference?
Book a ground in Mumbai and they'll call it box cricket. Drive to Bengaluru and the same game is turf cricket. Go to a Delhi colony on a Sunday morning and it's just gully cricket. Are these the same thing? Almost — but the differences matter more than you think.
Gully Cricket: The Original
Gully cricket is informal cricket played in any available space — a lane, a parking lot, a rooftop, a beach. No bookings. No fees. The boundary is whatever you can agree on: the wall, the parked car, the lamppost.
Rules are negotiated on the spot. No LBW (too much argument). One tip one hand out. Lost ball — new ball, previous team's runs count. Six and out if you can't find replacements. The game bends to fit the space.
- Pitch: Any surface — tar, concrete, mud, rooftop
- Ball: Tennis ball (usually) or rubber ball
- Players: 4 to 11 per side, whatever you've got
- Overs: Decided on the day
- Cost: Free
- Booking required: Never
Box Cricket: The Urban Evolution
Box cricket is gully cricket that grew up and got a job. It's played on a small enclosed ground — usually 30x15 metres — with defined boundaries (the nets or walls). You book a slot, pay a fee, and play with standard rules.
Box cricket dominates Mumbai's sporting culture. ISPL (Indian Street Premier League), backed by Sachin Tendulkar, runs its national tournaments on box cricket grounds. The format is standardised: tennis ball, short boundaries, no LBW, max 6 players per side.
- Pitch: Enclosed turf, usually artificial grass, 30x15m
- Ball: Tennis ball — always
- Players: 6 per side (standard) or up to 8
- Overs: 4-6 overs per innings
- Cost: ₹800–₹2000 per hour shared across teams
- Booking required: Yes, usually through apps like Playo or Turf Town
Turf Cricket: The South Indian Name for the Same Thing
Turf cricket is what Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune call box cricket. The format is nearly identical — enclosed ground, tennis ball, booked slots. The name difference is purely regional.
Turf grounds in South India tend to be slightly larger than box cricket courts in Mumbai, and some allow 8-11 players per side with proper overs (10-20). Think of it as the middle ground between gully cricket and proper limited-overs cricket.
- Pitch: Turf ground, artificial grass, 40x25m (approximately)
- Ball: Tennis ball or light leather ball
- Players: 6-11 per side depending on the ground
- Overs: 6-20 overs, depending on agreement
- Cost: ₹500–₹1500 per hour per team
- Booking required: Yes
Side-by-Side Comparison
- Space: Gully = anywhere / Box = enclosed 30x15m court / Turf = enclosed 40x25m ground
- Ball: All three use tennis balls (rubber ball in some gully games)
- Cost: Gully = free / Box = ₹800–₹2000/hr / Turf = ₹500–₹1500/hr
- Players: Gully = flexible / Box = 6 per side / Turf = 6-11 per side
- Rules: Gully = negotiated / Box = standardised (ISPL rules) / Turf = semi-formal
- Booking: Gully = no / Box + Turf = yes, through apps
Which App Works for All Three?
Here's the thing about all three formats: they all need someone to score. And almost every scoring app in existence was built for professional cricket — club matches, league tournaments, 11-a-side games with proper scorers.
Gully Crix was built for these three formats specifically. Flexible over settings (anywhere from 1 to 99). No wicket limit (perfect for when you've got 6 players and a borrowed keeper). Works offline — which matters at a turf with patchy Wi-Fi or a gully behind an apartment building. No account. No signup. Start scoring in under 10 seconds.
Whatever you call the game you play — gully, box, or turf — it's cricket. And it deserves to be scored properly.