An Idiot's Guide to Cricket
| 17
|
by user Alex Holowczak
After my snooker guide of a similar name, and the Baseball Team that could be a Cricket XI, I figured this article was required.
Cricket dates back to the 15th century and before, coming from SE England and spreading across the empire. The first County Championship was recognised in 1825, although the 1870s saw the start of the modern version of the game.
Test Cricket is an international version. The first matches were England v Australia. South Africa were next, and now 10 nations play the game at Test Level, although there are many other nations that don't have "Test" Status.
Those types of cricket are played between two teams of 11. The batsman bat in pairs and all of them bat. When one of the pair is out, he is replaced by the next batter in the team. The innings ends after 10 wickets have fallen, (i.e. there are no more batsmen left). Each team bats twice.
A run is scored by the completed action of both players getting from one of the two ends to the other. Both have to get to the other end for 1 run. If the ball goes to the boundary, it is automatically 4 runs, although it becomes 6 if the ball is hit there without bouncing. Runs can also be scored without the batsman hitting the ball, e.g. if a no-ball, wide, leg-bye (it hits the batsmen's legs, then a run is scored, or bye (the ball hits nothing. A good average for a Test Batsman is 40, anything higher is excellent. The highest ever in Test Cricket is 99.94 (4 runs short of 100), by Donald Bradman, but he is nearly 40 runs ahead of the next on the list. A batsman may not be substituted. No-one can bat for him, but someone can run for him if injured. A batsman can achieve feats such as a 50 or a 100, known as a half-century or century. The highest ever score in Test Cricket is 400 not out, by Brian Lara] in 2004 (against England).
The bowlers also bowl in pairs but may bowl as often as they like. They take it in turns to bowl "overs", a collection of 6 balls. After six balls, the next bowler bowls an over from the other end of the ground, and so on. A bowler may, therefore, bowl every other over. A bowler is generally swapped after a 5-8 over spell. There are many types of bowler. There can be fast, medium, swing, off-spin, leg-spin, chinamen, and many other types of ball, that all do different things. The biggest difference to the role of the bowler is that the ball has to bounce once, before passing the batsman. This makes the pitch played on of vital importance. A damp or green pitch will help fast bowlers, whereas a dusty pitch may help spinners. A good bowling average is about 25. Not everybody has to bowl. 5 wickets in an innings is considered brilliant, 10 in a match is even better. The best ever bowling in a match took place almost 50 years ago to the day. Jim Laker took 19 wickets at Old Trafford as England beat Australia.
The bowlers will try to get the batsmen out in a variety of ways:
- Bowled – Hit the Stumps the Batsman will be defending
- Caught – The batsman hits the ball into the fielders hands without it bouncing
- Stumped – The batsman advances down the pitch but misses the ball, and the wicketkeeper takes the bails off the stumps with the ball.
- Leg Before Wicket (LBW) – The most complicated rule in the game. Generally, the ball hits the batsman's legs, which stopped the ball hitting the stumps.
- Run Out – The Ball hits the stumps with the batsman not in their ground.
The bowlers different balls are:
- Fast/Medium/Swing Bowler
- Normal Ball – Fast ball, aimed around the stump furthest away from the batsman (known as the off-stump)
- Slower Ball – Mm… I wonder…
- Yorker – Bowled at the batsman's feet with the idea of getting them lbw or bowled. A good surprise tactic.
- Bouncer – A ball bowled short and fast at the batsman's head
- Off-Spinner/Chinaman Bowler
- Normal Ball – Spins in to a right-handed batsman
- Arm Ball – Looks like a normal ball, but doesn't spin
- Doosra – Spins away from the right-handed batsman
- Leg-Spinner/Slow Left Arm Bowler
- Normal Ball – Spins the ball away from the right-handed batsman
- Googly (or "Bosie", or "Wrong'un")– Spins in to the right-handed batsman
- Slider – Looks like a Normal Ball, but doesn't spin
- Flipper – Top Spinner
One leg-spinner, Shane Warne is a leg-spinner apparently has 12 different deliveries he can bowl, but refuses to let the world know about at least 5 of them. He bowls the Normal Ball, a Normal Ball that doesn't spin as much, a Googly, a Slider, a Flipper and many others. He is the best spinner in the world.
The Game of Cricket is played at strange times. Generally, a first-class game will last for 4 days, and a Test Match will last for 5 days. Play starts at 11am, and will go on until about 6pm each day until the game is finished. Cricket is unique, in that there are formal breaks in play for lunch and tea. Lunch is usually 1pm – 1:40pm, and Tea is 3:40 pm to 4pm. If it rains, the pitch is covered, and the players leave the field. There are NO domes in cricket, each ground is open to the elements. After all that, if the match isn’t over, it is still a draw, even if, e.g. – England 941 all out, Australia 101 and 87 for 9. Even though Australia will lose quickly, the game is still drawn. Part of the skill of cricket is to allow enough time to win the game. To help with this, if a team leads by 200 runs after the first innings, they have the option to force their opponents to bat again. This helps the team with the advantage to win the game quicker. Only three Test Matches ever (out of over 1,800) have been won by a team following on.
Other than these traditions, there are many more:
- Radio commentary is interrupted at 12pm and 6pm for the Shipping Forecast.
- Lunch & Tea – formal eating occasions
- Walking – The Batsman give themselves out if they know they are out (this is sadly declining)
- Socialising – No cricketers hold a grudge – they show great sportsmanship
- Reservation – There are no big egos, the crowd and players never tend to boast
- Good crowd – The crowd always applaud the batsman when he walks back to the pavilion – if he has scored 0 or 400.
- Scoring – Even today, the score is not kept electronically – often the old fashioned scoresheets are still used
- White – In Test and first-class Cricket, white is always worn
- Apologies – If a bowler bowls a bouncer – a ball aimed short into the ground with the aim of hitting the batsman's head, if they hit it they apologise
- Irreverent commentary – The commentators on radio always use great English, brilliant description, of not just the cricket
- No complaining – Players accept the decisions of the umpire(s)
- Pitches play differently wherever you play
- Age – some cricketers play for a long time – Syd Barnes still played competitively at 65 – although the modern game is about 40
- Nightwatchman – At the end of the day, a player towards the end of the batting order will move up the order to protect the better batsman, or the next batsman from getting out. His job is to simply block the ball, and not get out.
- Tailender doing well – If a player at the end of the innings (they bat in order of quality, usually) does well, the crowd cheer ironically. This can be a big momentum shift if a tailender does well.
As you might imagine, cricket is very proud of these traditions.
The grounds are also traditional. Many of today's grounds were founded over a hundred years ago:
There are newer versions of the game. In the late 1960s, One Day Cricket was invented, which is played over 50 overs each, all on one day. There is no lunch or tea, coloured clothing, a white ball (opposed to the red ball in other cricket). There are fielding restrictions. The Cricket World Cup takes this format.
Twenty20 Cricket is a very recent invention, designed to bring new audiences into the game. This has been a success, and is fast paced, and over in three and a half hours. This is a variant of One Day Cricket, with each innings lasting 20 overs.
Traditionally, Test cricket goes at 3 runs per over, and is quite defensive. This has improved to about 4 per over recently. One Day Cricket is scored at about 6 per over (1 per ball). Twenty20 Cricket goes at about 8 to 9 per over.
In terms of a standing, first-class cricket is not that popular, but Test cricket is. It's like the NHL – most don't go out of their way to watch it, but they'd moan if it wasn't there.
As for US Cricket, US started out well. In the 1840s England played the USA, after USA v Canada was the first international cricket match in 1844. However, during the Civil War, some bright spark saw cricket and changed the rules. As a result, baseball became USA's favourite game. It was easier to play in war conditions (you can't arrange a game to last 3 or 4 days as opposed to that number of hours). USA are now average, but are a member of the ICC. They will not play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, but may host a game there, as the tournament is being played in the West Indies.
I've missed a ton of stuff out, but this is long enough. If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments. I'll reply to them all.
To give an indication of the game, Day 1 of a Test Match between England and Pakistan has just finished. England are 347 for 6 in their first innings. Kevin Pietersen scored 104 not out, but he retired hurt on 104 due to an injury. In that case, the next batsman came in (as if he was out), and Pietersen may bat whenever a fall of wicket happens next. Since a wicket fell on the last ball of the day, Pietersen is allowed to go out and bat straight away tomorrow morning.
Date
Fri 08/04/06, 9:30 am EST
