For lack of anything else on TV this evening, I was watching the one-day cricket highlights. Now, I know that if the fielders catch the ball, then the batter is out. If they drop it, he stays in. Nice and simple.
So why do some fielders, having caught the ball, immediately throw it up in the air again? Is that just for show? Do they have to catch it again on its way back down or does it not matter?
Pretty much for show. Celebrate taking a wicket and all. They don’t have to catch it again.
Also, sometimes (pretty rarely, I’d imagine) if they don’t quite get the ball properly and are about to drop it, throwing it up in the air can disguise this, and fool the umpire, so they get the catch.
robin,
Those cases are mutually exclusive because you are either in control of the catch, in which case, you can throw it up and celebrate or you juggle while catching, which is going through a struggle to control the catch. There is no concept of fooling involved here!
That’s cheating! Evil cricketers.
Once they’ve caught the ball and then the umpire’s ruled the batsman (not batter) out, then the ball’s dead and they can do darn near anything they want with it. On the other hand, a fielder might fail to notice that the delivery from the bowler (not pitcher) was ruled a no-ball and thus the batsman can’t be caught out on that delivery. In such cases the batsmen score as many runs as they can!
You can read the Laws of Cricket (yep, Laws, not rules) at http://www.lords.org
But my observation was that they threw it immediately after catching it, and thus they wouldn’t have had time to know whether the umpire has ruled the batsman out.
To further clarify…Qouting from the “Laws of Cricket Code 2000”
"The act of making the catch shall start from the time when a fielder first handles the ball and shall end when a fielder obtains complete control both over the ball and over his own movement"
Even though the umpire has to make a subjective interpretation of control, the law clearly requires the fielder to be in COMPLETE control of the ball and his body. So, holding onto the ball for a fraction of a second, and as it slips out, lashing at it as if you are throwing it up to celebrate would just not work… 
Though a misjudgement can never ever be ruled out, I’d say an erroneous decision stemming from an umpire being fooled is damn near impossible!
Francesca, I know your profile says England, but for all the Americans who just automatically say “cricket! WTF?”, here is a great explanation of cricket for Americans by an American. It’s a well-written page, and will be useful for anybody wishing to learn more about the game, regardless of where they are in the world, although those in the US will find the comparisons with baseball useful.
Francesca, you’d notice that the fielder does have control over the ball… and so it is automatically a catch, and hence he immediately throws it up to celebrate (It’s a tradition you grow up with!). An umpire’s intervention to clarify a catch is usually only when there are doubts as to whether the ball hit the ground first or not. Almost never is there a doubt about the fielder having control. It is just patently clear. There are players who catch the ball and just slowly jog towards their teammates: They are the cool ones!, and then there are some who catch and just throw it back to the keeper as if it was normal play. They are the coolest
That clarifies it for me, litost. Thanks. It was clear that they’d caught the ball and then thrown it, but I had wondered if there was any reason beyond showing off. Oh, those cricketing boys love to grandstand 
I still reckon that on some occasions there’s a masking of the fact that you don’t quite have control…
The sooner you deliberately and in an apparently controlled manner get rid of the ball, the less opportunity there is for you to drop it.
But in 99.9% of cases, it’s just ordinary celebration.
I was at a provincial match in NZ where the fielder threw up the ball immediately and then dropped it. It was ruled by the umpires that he did not have complete control and so the batsman was not out
Throwing specifically ‘up in the air’ is for show, but throwing the ball immediately as they catch it does have a purpose. It’s to show that they do have complete control of the ball; enough control, in fact, to throw it a large distance.
Few fielders just catch the ball and walk in with it, although there isn’t much wrong with that. Most throw it either up in the air, or back to the wicketkeeper.
They throw it up in the air when they know it’s a catch and the batsman’s out. If there’s any doubt in their mind, they usually throw it back to the wicketkeeper, because if it isn’t a catch, then the batsmen can just keep running.
I read somewhere - may have been in Wisden, but it also may not have been - about a cricketer who thought that throwing the ball up in the air was unnecessarily showing off, so, whenever he made a catch, he would demonstrate control of the ball by putting it in his pocket.
I’m sure the OP has been answered more than adequately, so I’ll amuse myself by posting an off-topic apochyphal exchange…
Batsman: That was never out!
Umpire: If you look in tomorrow’s newspaper, I think you will find that it was.
I like your post, all member doing well suggestion, tips and ideas, I like Cricket and play this game more. Highlight Cricket when we watch, many tips and ideas we get. how we won the match, fielding matter s , well bowling, bating how we improve etc. we get many tips and ideas.