* Id: Cricket * Revision: 1 * State: submitted * * Log: * Revision 1 1997/10/06 Paul Morrison * Initial submitted version. * * Checked-out 1997/12/23 Aaron Rice * * Checked-in 2000/01/15 Aaron Rice * * Checked-out 2000/01/15 Roel van der Meulen 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456 %t Cricket %n R %s Not As Boring As You Thought %a Paul Morrison (pfm@iafrica.com) %d 19970926 %k Sport %e Cricket is a strange and obscure game, but only if you dont know the rules. The summarised version of the game is this: The team that scores the most runs wins. Of course, that could describe quite a few different sports, not specifically the wonderful game of cricket, so I guess I should expand. First, some history. History ======= No one is really sure where cricket was invented, but the modern game is definitely an English creation. The rules which govern the game throughout the world are drawn up at the Marylebone Cricket Club, also known as the MCC, in London. If what you are playing does not match up with the MCC rules, then what you are playing, as the saying goes, is just not cricket. Cricket, like Footaball, had the honour of being banned in England for keeping people from practicing their archery. Needless to say, this was quite a while ago, and no such restrictions apply these days. Cricket is played mostly by: England, Australia, South Africa, India, Pakistan, The West Indies, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Sri-Lanka. It is also played to a lesser extent in Canada and The Netherlands. The Game ======== Each country which plays the game has its own local competitions and leagues. These are too numerous to mention, so I will describe the international version of the game. There are two main types of international game: The Five-day Test, and the One-day International. The one-day matches can be either played totally in daylight, or half in the day and half at night under floodlights. These are known as day-night matches. Each of the versions of the game abide to the same rules, although there are a few subtle differences between the five- and one-day versions. One-day International matches are a fairly recent addition to the international cricket scene, and many purists do not consider it 'real' cricket. Unfortunately for them, one-day cricket is more popular for the spectators due to its increased speed of play. The Rules ========= The match is contested between two teams of 11 players. It takes place on a large oval field with a rectangular pitch in the middle. The size of the field can vary within certain limits, but rest assured it always seems very big if you are running on it. The dimensions of the pitch are more inflexible, being approxamately 20m by 3m. At each end of the pitch are the wickets. These are made of three upright stumps (wooden poles), approx 70cm high. These are connected at the top by two pieces of wood called bails which ensure that the stumps are approx 10cm apart. They are also used to determine whether or not the ball hits the wickets [1]. Around each set of wickets are a series of white lines drawn onto the ground. These are used to determine such things as whether a valid ball was bowled, or to decide whether a batsman is 'in'. This will be better explained later. I will refer collectively to these lines as the 'crease'. Around the perimiter of the whole field is the boundry, usually marked with a thick piece of white rope. The main tools of the game are the bat and the ball. The bat is a rectangular, flat piece of wood (usually willow), with a straight handle. The ball is slightly smaller than a baseball, but infinitly harder. It is made of cork, wound in twine, and wrapped in hard leather. If you ever get hit in the head by a ball, you would swear it was made of granite. You would also just swear anyway, if you were still conscious/alive. Other various pieces of equipment include pads, helmets and other protective gear, which have many specific and finicky rules regarding their use. I will not go into detail here. Before the match is started, a coin is tossed to dermine which team has the right to choose whether or not they want to bat or field first. The toss can have a large influence on who eventually wins the game, especially in day-night matches. If a side decides to field first, all eleven players go onto the field. A bowler is selected, and the rest of the players take up various oddly-named fielding positions [2]. One fielding position which is constant is the wicket-keeper. This player gets to wear protective gear, which is why I played this position at school. The team that is going to bat first sends its first two batsmen onto the field. These are known as the opening Batsmen. Each batsman stands at one end of the pitch by a set of wickets. The bowler will be at one set of wickets, the wicket-keeper will be at the other, standing behind them to catch the ball if it passes the batsman. The bowler will bowl the ball from his side of the pitch, to the batsman at the other end of the pitch, and he will try to get the batsman out in a number of ways. The batsman will try to hit the ball, and score runs in a number of ways. The batsman who is going to be bowled at is referred to as being 'on strike'. The balls are bowled in groups of six, called 'overs'. After a bowler has bowled his over, another bowler is selected, who bowls an over from the other end of the pitch. The bowlers will alternate until replaced. In a one-day match of 50 overs, each bowler is allowed to bowl only 10 overs, and thus the team must have five bowlers playing. In a five-day match, the bowler may bowl as many overs as he wants, but of course he must stop when he becomes too tired. Scoring is quite simple. If the ball, after being struck by the bat, goes over the boundry without touching the ground, six runs are awarded. If the ball goes over the boundry, but it touches the ground first, four runs are awarded. Scoring is most often accomplished by running. After the ball has been struck (and in some cases even if it hasn't), the batsmen run from one end of the pitch to the other. Every time they do this, a single run is awarded. They are allowed to run more than one run at a time. The batsmen have to stay on the side of the pitch they end up at after running, thus alternating the batsman on strike. Runs are also awarded when the bowling side breaks certain rules. The most common of these is the bowler bowling a 'wide' or a 'no ball'. A wide is when the ball passed more than a certain distance wide of the wickets. More leeway for a wide is given during the five-day matches. The penalty for a wide is that the batting side receives an extra run, and the bowler must re-bowl that delivery. A batsman can be given out on a wide ball. A no ball is awarded if the delivery of the ball is deemed illegal. There are a number of reasons why the delivery could be illegal. The penalty for this is that the batting side receives an extra run, and the bowler must re-bowl that delivery. Other than being run out, a batsman cannot be given out on a no ball. A notable score for a batsman to attain is 50, and an exceptional score is 100. A batsman is considered top class if he has an average of 40 runs or more per innings in five-day matches, and 35 runs or more per innings in one-day matches. While the batting side is attempting to accumulate runs, the fielding side will be attempting to get the batsmen out, or at least slow down how fast they are scoring the runs. There are seven ways the batsmen can be given out. 1. The first is the most common: if the batsman is caught out. This happens when the ball strikes the bat or the hand, and is then caught before it touches the ground. 2. Another way for a batsman to go out is to be bowled out. This happens when the ball strikes the wickets, dislodging the bails, after being bowled by the bowler. If a batsman hits the ball onto his own wickets, he is also given out. 3. One of the more exciting ways a batsman can go out it when he is run out. This happens when the batsmen are running from one wicket to another and the ball hits the wickets, dislodging the bails, while the batsman is outside his crease. The batsman is considered outside his crease if a portion of his body or bat is not touching the ground within the lines marking the area of the crease. In a run out, the batsman running to the wickets which are struck is the only player given out, even if his partner is outside the crease on the other side of the pitch. There are no 'double-plays' in cricket, once a player is out, the ball is considered 'dead' and no more runs may be accumulated, nor players given out. 4. One of the stranger methods for going out is Leg Before Wicket, or LBW. This is when the ball strikes the leg of the batsman, and it was most certainly going to hit the wickets if the leg had not been in the way. If the ball hits any other part of the bat or hand before striking the leg, the batsman cannot be given out LBW. This method of getting a player out is often contravercial as it is not always easy to decide what happened, and a lot depends on the opinion of the umpire. 5. A less common method to go out is to be stumped. This is when the batsman leaves his crease when attempting to hit the ball, misses the ball, the wicket keeper catches the ball and then strikes the wickets, knocking off the bails before the batsman returns to his crease. 6. By far the rarest way to go out is 'hit wicket'. This is when the batsman strikes his own wicket while attempting to hit the ball. It does not matter what part of his body or bat touches the wickets, but if the bails fall off, he is out. This usually happens when the batsman loses his balance and steps back into his wickets. 7. Technically there is a seventh way to go out, but this is more of a preventative measure than a regularly enforced rule. If the batsman hits the ball twice, he can be given out. I guess this is to stop the batsman stopping the ball, and then hitting it as hard as possible. I have never seen anyone go out in this way. A small exception to this rule is that the batsman may hit the ball again if he thinks it is going to hit his wicket. To explain: The batsman hits the ball, and it starts to roll towards his wickets. The batsman then frantically tries to stop the ball rolling into his wickets by hitting it again with the bat. This is usually quite funny to watch, escpecially if the batsman hits the wickets with his bat. A side must stop batting when it has lost ten wickets. That pretty much covers the basic rules of the game. If you ever watch a game, you will undoubtably see something that is not covered here. If so, ask a local, or if you are watching on tv, hope that the commentator explains what is happening. General Info ============ Important games make use of what is known as the Third Umpire. This is a guy who sits at a tv and decides on certain close decisions, primarily run outs. He can only make such a decision if the Umpire on the field indicates that he wants the Third Umpire to make the decision. The result is then indicated by either a red or green light. A green light means that the batsman is not out, and of course a red light means that the batsman is out. The five-day game is the traditional international version of the game. Each team has two innings [3], which are alternated, to score as many runs as possible in the five days. If both teams have not completed two innings by the end of the fifth day, the match does not have a result, and this is effectively a tie. If the side batting has scored a high enough total for the captain of the side to decide that he will probably win the match, and not all of the batsmen are out, he may 'declare' the innings. This ends his sides turn to bat, and allows the other team on to bat. The captain must beware of setting an impossible target, as then the opposition will just try to stay in until the five days are up, resulting in a draw. If, however, the captain sets an attainable target, the other team will try to score the runs, and the chance of them losing all of their wickets increases. Roughly 50% (my made up statistic) of five-day matches have no result. I have only ever seen one five-day match which ended in a genuine draw, with both teams finishing with the same total of runs. One-day cricket is different in that there is almost always a result. Each team has one innings, usually 50 overs long, and occasionally 45 overs. Crowds prefer one-day cricket because the game is shorter, and the entire emphasis is on scoring as many runs as quickly as possible. When the score is given, it is usually in the format of runs scored for wickets lost. For example, 57/2. Which is 57 runs, 2 wickets lost. Of course as with all rules there are exceptions, and some commentators say it the other way round. Usually this is easy to notice, as a score such as 3/62 can only be deciphered as 3 wickets for 62 runs. The fun comes in when the score is someting like 1/3. If you turn on the telly and your team has this score, you will hope and pray that it is being shown in the wickets/runs format. Thats it! You now have a rudimentary working knowledge of the game of cricket. [1] If the bails fall off, something hit the wickets. Simple. If the ball strikes the wickets and the bails do not fall off, the player is not out. [2] Such wonderful names as: Silly mid-off; Slip; Mid-on; Gulley; Sweeper; Long off; etc. [3] A team has its innings when it has its chance to bat. %e *EOA*