In the sport of cricket a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture is when a captain choosing to forfeit an innings. Declaration and forfeiture is covered in Law 14 of the Laws of cricket.

Declaration

The captain of the batting side may declare an innings closed, when the ball is dead, at any time during a match. Usually this is because the captain thinks his team has already scored enough runs to win the match, though tactical declarations are sometimes used in other circumstances.

Forfeiture

Under the current Laws, a captain may forfeit either of his side's innings. A forfeited innings shall be considered as a completed innings. Usually this happens in shorter competitive two-innings matches, where captains need to agree with each other how to set up the match so that there is a reasonable chance of a result. Winning a game gains a team considerably more points than drawing it, so captains are often willing to risk giving the opposition an opportunity to win that they otherwise would not have had as long as they are getting a similar opportunity in return.

Only one innings has been forfeited in test match cricket. This was on 18 January 2000 at Centurion, South Africa in the fifth and final test in a series between South Africa and England, which South Africa had already won as they were 2-0 up after the first four matches. After South Africa scored 155 for 6 on the first day, rain washed out the next three days. With only one day remaining, the match was set for a certain draw.

That was until Hansie Cronje, the South African captain, entered into a deal with his English counterpart, Nasser Hussain, that South Africa would continue batting till they reached about 250 and then declare. England and then South Africa would then both forfeit an innings, leaving England approximately 250 to win (in the event the target was 249). At that time, the laws did not permit a side batting first to forfeit an innings, so England's first innings was treated as having been declared at 0 for 0 after 0 balls. England went on to score 251 for 8 and win by 2 wickets. Many of the South African team criticised Cronje at the time for setting too low a target, and later it was discovered that Hansie Cronje had been bribed to come to this arrangement with Hussain, who was completely unaware of this bribery.