Explain cricket to me.

SoCalian

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I have been trying to figure this sport out for about a year, but haven't been able to make any sense out of it. All I know is that there are some sticks, a ball, a flat wooden bat, and I think tea, and I know that England won the Ashes this year, whatever that is. could someone please explain to me the basics of the game. stuff like objective, scoring, positions, time length, ect.
 
SoCalian said:
I have been trying to figure this sport out for about a year, but haven't been able to make any sense out of it. All I know is that there are some sticks, a ball, a flat wooden bat, and I think tea, and I know that England won the Ashes this year, whatever that is. could someone please explain to me the basics of the game. stuff like objective, scoring, positions, time length, ect.

You don't ask much, do you :)
Here goes. Each team has 11 players. To play the game, one team will bat first whilst one will bowl (pitch) and field. The batting side has two players out on the field at one time. If one of these batsmen is ‘out’ he is replaced by another batsman until all 11 have gone out to bat. That is the end of their innings. That team will then field and the other side has their turn to bat.

The bowler bowls (ie pitches) the ball at the batsman who tries to hit it out into the field to score some ‘runs’. A ‘run’ is scored when the batsman has hit the ball far enough so that he is literally able to run from one set of stumps to the other. (The stumps are the two sets of three ‘sticks’ as you call them, set 22 yards apart in the middle of the field). There is no particular limit to the number of balls a batsman can hit - he will keep hitting until either he is out or the end of the innings.

The winner is the team with the most runs at the end of their innings. Typically, the number of runs scored by each team is something like 300 (although it can range from <50 to 700+ in exceptional circumstances.

Some games have just one innings each and are limited to 300 balls being bowled each. These games will take about 7 to 8 hours to play.
Other games have two innings each and have no limit on the number of balls being bowled but have a time limit instead. The pre-arranged time limits usually range from 3 to 5 days play of 6 hours each day. Each day is split into three sessions of 2 hours each. We break for lunch between the first and second session and then have our tea :) between the second and third session.
In these games you add the runs scored in each innings together to determine the winner.

The game is played in the middles of a large oval shaped field. There are many, many fielding positions as can be seen on this:
http://www.abcofcricket.com/cfb1/cfb2/cfb3/cfb3.htm

As you can appreciate, this barely scratches the surface of cricket.
 
To help, have a look at this site with some cricket clips.

Click on &#8216;Ian Botham 1.1MB&#8216; or &#8216;Geoff Boycott&#8217; to see a batsman playing a shot to score some runs (If the batsman hits it well enough and it reaches the edge of the field, he doesn&#8217;t actually have to physically make a run &#8211; it counts as 4 or 6 automatically, depending upon how hard he hits it.)

Also click on Richard Hadlee to see a batsman getting out (the ball hits his three stumps and this is one of the many ways of getting out).

http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/cricket/
 
well, umm it's still not making much sense, yet. I guess that's my fault for being a stupid american. The only thing I can think of, is how in the world did such a complex and confusing sport become so popular around the globe?
 
Baseball seems pretty complex to anyone who has not watched/played it. As a kid all you need is a dustbin as stumps, a bat and a ball and you have a simple game of cricket.
I personally don&#8217;t think the real game is that complex anyway but kids will always learn the basics very easily once they play it.

The reason it is so popular &#8216;around the globe&#8217; is simply because of the British Empire spreading the gospel of cricket where ever the sun never sets :)
 
Hmm...

Scoring
A batsman hits the ball into the outfield; in order to score he has to run to the other set of stumps* (as opposed to the next base, as in baseball) - everytime he does this he scores 1 run.

If he is able to hit the ball to the boundary then he scores 4; if he clears the boundary (aerially) then he scores 6.

Dismissing batsmen
IIRC, these two dismissals apply also in baseball: caught and run out.

Bowled: the bowler (pitcher) hits the stumps* (with the ball ;)).

If the ball is prevented from hitting the stumps* by the batsman's body (not his bat) then he can be given out ("LBW").

That's the basics. There are other forms of dismissal, but that should do for now. ;)

*Stumps: The stumps are the sticks the batsman stands in front of. There are two sets of stumps: one at each end (i.e. one where the batsman is, one where the bowler - pitcher - is), which the batsmen run between in order to score runs. See the linked pic.

An innings will last: either until the batting team is dismissed, or for a certain amount of balls (pitches). This varies, as games of cricket can last anything from 3 hours to 5 days. :crazyeye:
 
If we'd hung on to the US a little longer, you'd be playing cricket too ;)
 
I've caugth the cricket phenomenon in 1993, during the ashes which were covered on the BBC back then. It was boring summer for me, as I had to catch up some university stuff. I zapped around, and was caught by this incredibly amazing game. Whih is odd, here in NL.

Anyway:
As soemone who was not raised with cricket, I think I have a better view to explain it to others (perhaps?)
The best way to explain cricket, is to forget about all the rules (or rather laws) and make it really simple:

The dude that 'pitches' the ball (the bowler) is the attacker. It is his goal to hit those sticks behind the batsman.
The batsman's first task is to defend the wicket (those three sticks). He is not allowed to do so with his legs (that would be too easy), but only with his bat.


That's basically it!

The attacker needs to 'take the wicket' as soon as possible. the longer it takes, the more runs can be scored by the defender.
The defender can score points, by not only stopping or blocking the ball (with his bat) in order to defend its wicket, but by actually hitting the ball hard.
How this scoring of runs exactly works, comes later. Just like the ten different ways of taking a wicket.
 
The Rules of Cricket as Explained to a foreign visitor!


-You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.

-Each man that's in the side that's in, goes out, and when he's out, he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.

-When they are all out the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.

-Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

-When both sides have been in and out including the not-outs, that's the end of the game.



Howzat?
 
No grass up there. Just ice.
 
Man you guys got to stop telling about boring test matches because one day international is a lot more fun to watch.
 
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