[wdvltalk-social] Any Cricket Players?

[Matthew Macdonald-Wallace]

On Tue, 2007-11-06 at 19:00 -0400, Christina Lannen wrote:
> Can someone explain to me in very simple terms how one plays cricket?  Is
> the whole purpose to knock the sticks down? And is that before someone hits
> the ball or if it's in play knock them down before getting "home" (baseball
> vernacular)?

You have two teams of 11 men (plus a "twelfth" man who is there in case
of injury but usually just carries the drinks on and off the pitch).
The teams take turns in either Batting or Bowling. If they are batting,
then two of the Team that are "in" go out to the middle of the pitch,
stand one at each end by the stumps ("sticks") and try to avoid being
"out".

Whilst the team that are "in" are out on the pitch, the other team
spread themselves around the pitch and try and get the team that are
"in", "out" by either bowling them out (ball hits the stumps and
dislodges the bails (small ticks ontop of the large sticks)), catching
them out (ball must be caught by a fielder directly from the bat, glove
or other body part without touching the ground) or running them out (you
can score runs by running from one end of the wicket (green strip in the
middle of the pitch) to the other - if the bails are dislodged before
the batsman makes it to the other end of the wicket, he is out).

Scoring can be done in a number of ways:
1) Running between the stumps at each end of the wicket.  From one end
to the other is one run

2) Hitting the ball over the boundary rope (around the edge of the
pitch) without it touching the ground between the bat and the boundary
is called a 6 and (strangely enough!) is worth 6 runs .  I know nothing
of Baseball, however I'd imagine it's similar to a home run.

3) Hitting the ball over the boundary rope with it bouncing before it
gets there is worth 4 runs and is called...wait for it...yep, you
guessed it - a 4!

4) Various mistakes in bowling can add one run to the batting team's
score.  Some times if there is a bowling mistake and the ball continues
to the boundary before it is stopped, four runs are awarded.  Runs
awarded for bad bowling are generally referred to as "bys", however they
could also be a "wide".

The game is usually played with the following contraints:

1) 2020 - these games comprise of 20 overs per team (6 balls in each
over unless a wide or a by is bowled) and usually last a few hours.
Each team gets one Innings.

2) One Day match - 50 overs per side, one inning each team

3) 5 day (test) match - unlimited overs per side (Joseph and Michael
will correct me if I'm wrong!) and two innings each.

For One day and test matches, the game usually starts around 11am, with
a 40 minute break for lunch at 1pm, and a 15 - 20 minute break for tea
at 3/3:30pm before finishing at 6/7pm. (A very civilised game!)

2020 games seem to be player at night more than anything else these days
and are often referred to as "Pyjama Games" owing to the brightly
coloured kits worn by the teams as opposed to the traditional "whites".

I think that's enough to be getting you started, it gets a whole lot
more complicated from here on in (what is the obsession with the whole
Duckworth-Lewis thing anyway?!!!!) but that's for another time.

Joseph, Michael and I'm sure various others will correct any mistakes
I've made above, however for me the best thing about cricket (and also
the reason why I love rugby and hate football) is that you can turn up
at the ground, take beer/alcohol to your seat, sit next to a supporter
of the opposition for the entire day, poke fun at each other's teams and
leave at 6pm totally wasted and promising that you'll see your new best
friend (the opposition's supporter) "at the next game" before catching a
train home and missing your stop!

Ahh cricket.  Wood, leather, Linseed oil, Sunshine and Beer.  It's got
to be our best export, surely?

Cheers,

Matt (wishing that the football season would hurry up and finish).