The batsman who is facing the bowling is said to be on strike. Once a batsmen has run safely from one end of the cricket pitch (or wicket) to the other they have scored one run for themselves and also for their team. The batsmen need not run for these boundaries. If it is hit over the boundary it is six runs. If the ball is hit all the way to the boundary (typically a thick white rope, not the fence) it is deemed to be four runs. Although only one batsmen can hit the ball at any one time, both must run and get safely behind their crease. Runs are scored by hitting the ball (made of cork covered with red leather) with a cricket bat (traditionally made of willow-thus the expression "the glorious sound of leather on willow" which sound dirty if you’re thinking of a certain character from Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and running up and down the cricket pitch (or wicket). One batsman is at either end of the cricket pitch (or wicket) defending the stumps (or wicket) and trying to score runs. Two batsmen at a time are on the field (unless one of the batsmen is injured in which case they have a runner and there are three batsmen on the field). The team batting has the job of protecting the stumps (or wicket) and trying to score runs. In pyjama (or one-day) cricket they have one innings each. In test cricket each team has two innings. The two teams take turns fielding and batting. They don’t actually play unless one of the fielders needs to leave the oval for a short amount of time). Two teams of twelve people play (though the position of the twelfth man is that of gofer. In front of these stumps (or wicket) at either end is a white painted line which marks the crease. The stumps are a wooden constuction of three stakes (Buffy would have plenty of weapons available should she have to deal with a nest of vampires while attending a cricket match) impaled in the ground, with two smaller pieces of wood, known as the bails, balanced on top. I think this is going a tad too far.Īt either end of the cricket pitch (or wicket) are the stumps (or wicket). Some afficionados argue that the groundsman is the most important person in cricket. The condition of the oval and pitch has a large effect on whether the cricket played on it will be high or low-scoring. Thus the conditions for playing change over the five days of a test. The wicket (or cricket pitch) is also carefully presided over by the groundsman, but once the game begins grass is left to grow and the wicket to deteriorate. In the centre of the oval is the cricket pitch (or wicket) which is a strip of paler grass. The grass is kept at a specific height by the groundsman. A large expanse of green grass usually surrounded by a white picket fence. To be watched only if there is no test cricket available.įor obvious reasons, I will largely be discussing test cricket.Ĭricket is played on an oval. Loud, noisy, predictable, wholly lacking in subtlety and eye-jarringly colourful.
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It is to test cricket as a bad TV advertisment (wheredyagedit?) is to a superb film. Test cricket is the original and only true form of cricket.Ģ) Pyjama or One-Day cricket-the shortened form. Think of it as akin to the novel with all the running dramas, climaxes, anti-climaxes, intrigues and counter-intrigues of that artform. Nothing simpler.ġ) Test cricket-which takes place over five days. The team which scores the most amount of runs, and gets the other team out, wins. This musing is not for you.įor the rest of you here are the basics of cricket:Ĭricket is a team sport. Run off to your yoga class, go walk your dog, turn back to that book you were reading. Those readers who have zero interest in spectator sports should stop reading now. Plus you have me, the mistress of easy (er, but not in that sense) to teach you how.Ĭricket, of course, is not for everyone. Quite simply it is the world’s greatest spectator sport. Anyone can learn to understand, enjoy, and ultimately, love, cricket. Like the world’s greatest board game, Go, the principles are simple, but the variations endless. It disturbs me that so many of those sad souls labour under the misapprehension that the blessed game is an arcane and difficult one into whose mysteries you must be initiated from birth, otherwise understanding is impossible.Ĭricket is dead easy to understand. It seems to me more than past time to set my simple principles of cricket down for the greater world to enjoy. Here in San Miguel I have lost count of how many times I’ve sat at a bar using glasses for batsmen and coasters for the fielders. People from non-cricketing countries (poor, sad souls) often ask me to explain cricket to them.