An Explanation of CricketAn Explanation of Cricket ContentsBasicsEquipmentThe FieldThe PlayScoring RunsWays of Getting OutOfficialtrasThe Bowling ActionFieldingInjuries and SubstitutionsAdverse Weather ConditionsUmpires SignalsThe Two Forms of CricketFirst Class CricketOne-Day CricketStrategies, Tactics, and TriviaBowling StylesBatsman's ShotsMore Weird NamesStatistics and Good PerformancesTeams Which Play Cricket Basics Cricket is a team sport for two teams of eleven players each. Aformal game of cricket can last anything from an afternoon to several days.Although the game play and rules are very different, the basic concept ofcricket is similar to that of baseball. Teams bat in successiveinnings and attempt to score runs, while the opposing teamfields and attempts to bring an end to the batting team's innings. After eachteam has batted an equal number of innings (either one or two, depending onconditions chosen before the game), the team with the most runs wins.(Note: In cricket-speak, the word ``innings'' is used for both the plural andthe singular. ``Inning'' is a term used only in baseball.) Equipment Cricket Ball: Hard, cork and string ball, covered with leather. A bit like a baseball(in size and hardness), but the leather covering is thicker and joined in twohemispheres, not in a tennis ball pattern. The seam is thus like an equator,and the stitching is raised slightly. The circumference is between 224 and 229millimetres (8.81 to 9.00 inches), and the ball weighs between 156 and 163grams (5.5 to 5.75 ounces). Traditionally the ball is dyed red, with thestitching left white. Nowadays white balls are also used, for visibility in games played at night under artificial lighting. Cricket Bat: Blade made of willow, flat on one side, humped on the other forstrength, attached to a sturdy cane handle. The blade has a maximum width of108 millimetres (4.25 inches) and the whole bat has a maximum length of 965millimetres (38 inches). Wickets: There are two wickets - wooden structures made up of a set of threestumps topped by a pair of bails. These are described below. Stumps: Three wooden posts, 25 millimetres (1 inch) in diameter and 813 millimetres (32 inches) high. They have have spikes extending from theirbottom end and are hammered into the ground in an evenly spaced row, with theoutside edges of the outermost stumps 228 millimetres (9 inches) apart. Thismeans they are just close enough together that a cricket ball cannot passbetween them. Bails: Two wooden crosspieces which sit in grooves atop the adjacent pairs ofstumps.A complete wicket looks like this:  Protective Gear: Pads, gloves, helmet, etc for batsmen to wear to prevent injury whenstruck by the ball. Shoes: Leather, usually with spiked soles for grip on the grass. Clothing: Long pants, shirt (long or short sleeved depending on the weather),possibly a sleeveless or long-sleeved woollen pullover in cold weather. Forgames played with a red ball, the clothing must be white or cream. With awhite ball, players usually wear uniforms in solid team colours. Add a hat orcap to keep the sun off. There are no regulations regarding identifying marksor numbers on clothing. The Field A cricket field is a roughly elliptical field of flat grass, ranging in sizefrom about 90 to 150 metres (100-160 yards) across, bounded by an obvious fenceor other marker. There is no fixed size or shape for the field, although largedeviations from a low-eccentricity ellipse are discouraged. In the centre of thefield, and usually aligned along the long axis of the ellipse, is the pitch, a carefully prepared rectangle of closely mown and rolled grass over hardpacked earth. It is marked with white lines, called creases, like this: The dimensions are in centimetres (divide by 2.54 for inches). The Play The order in which the teams bat is determined by a coin toss. The captainof the side winning the toss may elect to bat or field first.All eleven players of the fielding team go out to field, two players of thebatting team go out to bat. The remainder of the batting team wait off the fieldfor their turn to bat. Each batsman wears protective gear and carries a cricketbat.The game progresses by the bowling of balls. The sequence ofevents which constitutes a ball follows:The fielding team disperses around the field, to positions designed to stop runsbeing scored or to get batsmen out. One fielder is thebowler. He takes the ball and stands some distance behind one of thewickets (i.e. away from the pitch). Another fielder is thewicket-keeper, who wears a pair of webbed gloves designed for catchingthe ball and protective pads covering the shins. He squats behind the oppositewicket. The rest of the fielders have no special equipment - gloves to assistcatching the ball are not allowed to anyone but the wicket-keeper.One batsman stands behind each popping crease, near a wicket. The batsmanfarthest from the bowler is the striker, the other is thenon-striker. The striker stands before his wicket, on or near thepopping crease, in the batting stance. For a right-handed batsman, the feet arepositioned like this: The batsman stands with his bat held down in front of the wicket, ready to hitthe ball, which will be bowled from the other end of the pitch. The batsmanusually rests the lower end of the bat on the pitch and then taps the bat on thepitch a few times as ``warm-up'' backswings.The non-striker simply stands behind the other popping crease, waiting to run ifnecessary. The bowler takes a run-up from behind the non-striker's wicket. Hepasses to one side of the wicket, and when he reaches the non-striker's poppingcrease he bowls the ball towards the striker, usually bouncing the ball once onthe pitch before it reaches the striker. (The bowling action will be describedin detail later.)The striker may then attempt to hit the ball with his bat. If he misses it, thewicket-keeper will catch it and the ball is completed. If he hits it, the twobatsmen may score runs (described later). When the runs are completed, the ballis also considered completed. The ball is considered to be in play from themoment the bowler begins his run-up. It remains in play until any of severalconditions occur (two common ones were just described), after which it is calleddead. The ball is also dead if it lodges in the striker's clothing orequipment. Once the ball is dead, it is returned to the bowler for the next delivery (another name for the bowling of a ball). Between deliveries, the batsmenmay leave their creases and confer with each other.When one bowler has completed six balls, that constitutes an over. Adifferent member of the fielding team is given the ball and bowls the next over- from the opposite end of the pitch. The batsmen do not change ends, so theroles of striker and non-striker swap after each over. Any member of thefielding team may bowl, so long as no bowler delivers two consecutive overs.Once a bowler begins an over, he must complete it, unless injured or suspendedduring the over.Another possibility during a ball is that a batsman may get out. Thereare ten different methods of being out - these will be described in detaillater. If a batsman gets out, the ball is dead immediately, so it is impossibleto get the other batsman out during the same ball. The out batsman leaves thefield, and the next batsman in the team comes in to bat. The not outbatsman remains on the field. The order in which batsmen come in to bat in aninnings is not fixed. The batting order may be changed by the team captain atany time, and the order does not have to be the same in each innings.When ten batsmen are out, no new batsmen remain to come in, and the innings iscompleted with one batsman remaining not out. The roles of the teams then swap,and the team which fielded first gets to bat through an innings. When both teamshave completed the agreed number of innings, the team which has scored the mostruns wins. Scoring RunsWhenever a batsman hits the ball during a delivery, he may score runs. A run isscored by the batsmen running between the popping creases, crossing over midwaybetween them. When they both reach the opposite crease, one run is scored, andthey may return for another run immediately. The fielding side attempts toprevent runs being scored by threatening to run out one of the batsmen.If the batsmen are attempting to take runs, and a fielder gathers the ball andhits a wicket with it, dislodging one or both bails, while no batsman is behindthat wicket's popping crease, then the nearest batsman is run out. Specifically,the batsman must have some part of his body or his bat (provided he is holdingit) grounded behind (not on) the crease.The batsmen carry their bats as they run, and turning for another run isaccomplished by touching the ground beyond the crease with an outstretched bat.The batsmen do not have to run at any time they think it is unsafe - it iscommon to hit the ball and elect not to run.If the batsmen run one or three (or five! rare, but possible), then they haveswapped ends and their striker/non-striker roles are reversed for the next ball(unless the ball just completed is the end of an over).In addition to scoring runs like this, if a batsman hits the ball so that itreaches the boundary fence, he scores four runs, without needing to actually runthem. If a batsman hits the ball over the boundary on the full, he scores sixruns. If a four or six is scored, the ball is completed and the batsmen cannotbe run out. If a spectator encroaches on to the field and touches the ball, itis considered to have reached the boundary. If a fielder gathers the ball, butthen steps outside or touches the boundary while still holding the ball, fourruns are scored. If a fielder catches the ball on the full and, either during orimmediately after the catch, steps outside or touches the boundary, six runs arescored.The batsmen usually stop taking runs when a fielder is throwing the ball backtowards the pitch area. If no fielder near the pitch gathers the ball and itcontinues into the outfield again, the batsmen may take more runs. Such runs arecalled overthrows. If the ball reaches the boundary on an overthrow,four runs are scored in addition to the runs taken before the overthrowoccurred.Runs scored by a batsman, including all overthrows, are credited to him by thescorer. The number of runs scored by each batsman is an important statistic.If, while running multiple runs, a batsman does not touch the ground beyond thepopping crease before he returns for the next run, then the umpire at that endwill signal one short, and the number of runs scored is reduced by one. Ways of Getting Out Here is a full list of the ten different ways of getting out. But first, afew necessary definitions:The wicket is said to be broken if one or both of the bails have beendislodged and fallen to the ground. If the bails have fallen off for any reasonand the ball is still in play, then breaking the wicket must be accomplished bypulling a stump completely out of the ground. If the wicket needs to be brokenlike this with the ball, the uprooting of the stump must be done with the ballin contact with the stump.The field is notionally split into two halves, along a line down the centre ofthe pitch. The half of the field in front of the striker is called the offside, the half behind is called the leg side, or sometimes the onside. Thus, standing at the bowler's wicket and looking towards aright-handed striker's wicket, the off side is to the left and the leg side tothe right (and vice-versa for a left-handed striker). The stumps of thestriker's wicket are called off stump,middle stump, and leg stump, depending on which side they areon.When a batsman gets out, no matter by what method, his wicket is said to havefallen, and the fielding team are said to have taken a wicket.Now, the ways of getting out:Caught: If a fielder catches the ball on the full after the batsman has hit itwith his bat. However, if the fielder catches the ball, but either during thecatch or immediately afterwards touches or steps over the boundary, then thebatsman scores six runs and is not out. Bowled: If the batsman misses the ball and it hits and breaks the wicket directly from the bowler's delivery. The batsman is out whether or not he isbehind his popping crease. He is also out bowled if the ball breaks the wicketafter deflecting from his bat or body. The batsman is not out if the wicketdoes not break. Leg Before Wicket: If the batsman misses the ball with his bat, but intercepts it with partof his body when it would otherwise have hit the wicket, and provided severalother conditions (described below) are satisfied. An umpire must adjudicatesuch a decision, and will only do so if the fielding team appeal thedecision. This is a question asked of the umpire, usually of the form ``How'sthat?'' (or ``Howzat?''), and usually quite enthusiastic and loud. If the ball bounces outside an imaginary line drawn straight down the pitch from theoutside edge of leg stump, then the batsman cannot be out LBW, no matterwhether or not the ball would have hit the stumps. If the batsman attempts toplay a shot at the ball with his bat (and misses) he may only be given out LBWif the ball strikes the batsman between imaginary lines drawn down the pitchfrom the outside edges of leg and off stumps (ie. directly in line with thewicket). If the batsman does not attempt to play the ball with hisbat, then he may be given out LBW without satisfying this condition, as longas the umpire is convinced the ball would have hit the wicket. If the ball hashit the bat before the hitting the batsman, then he cannot be given out LBW. Stumped: If a batsman misses the ball and in attempting to play it steps outsidehis crease, he is out stumped if the wicket-keeper gathers the ball and breaksthe wicket with it before the batsman can ground part of his body or his batbehind his crease. Run Out: If a batsman is attempting to take a run, or to return to his creaseafter an aborted run, and a fielder breaks that batsman's wicket with the ballwhile he is out of the crease. The fielder may either break the wicket with ahand which holds the ball, or with the ball directly. It is possible for thenon-striker to be run out if the striker hits the ball straight down the pitchtowards the non-striker's wicket, and the bowler deflects the ball on to the wicket while the non-striker is out of his crease. If the ball is hit directlyon to the non-striker's wicket, without being touched by a fielder,then the non-striker is not out. If the non-striker leaves his crease (inpreparation to run) while the bowler is running up, the bowler may run him outwithout bowling the ball. Batsmen cannot be run out while the ball is dead -so they may confer in the middle of the pitch between deliveries if theydesire. Hit Wicket: If, in attempting to hit a ball or taking off for a first run, thebatsman touches and breaks the wicket. This includes with the bat or dislodgedpieces of the batsman's equipment - even a helmet or spectacles! Handle The Ball: If a batsman touches the ball with a hand not currently holding the bat,without the permission of the fielding side. This does not include being hiton the hand by a delivery, or any other non-deliberate action. Obstructing The Field: If a batsman deliberately interferes with the efforts of fielders togather the ball or effect a run out. This does not include running a pathbetween the fielder and the wicket so that the fielder cannot throw the stumpsdown with the ball, which is quite legal, but does include any deliberateattempt to swat the ball away. Hit The Ball Twice: If a batsman hits a delivery with his bat and then deliberately hits theball again for any reason other than to defend his wicket from being broken bythe ball. If the ball is bouncing or rolling around near the stumps,the batsman is entitled to knock it away so as to avoid being bowled, but notto score runs. Timed Out: If a new batsman takes longer than two minutes, from the time theprevious wicket falls, to appear on the field.These methods of getting out are listed in approximate order of how commonlythey occur. The first five are reasonably common, the last five quite rare. Thelast three methods are almost never invoked.If a batsman is out caught, bowled, LBW, stumped, or hit wicket, then the bowleris credited with taking the wicket. No single person is credited with taking awicket if it falls by any other method. Officials The game is adjudicated by two umpires, who make all decisions onthe field and whose word is absolutely final. One umpire stands behind thenon-striker's wicket, ready to make judgements on LBWs and other eventsrequiring a decision. The other umpire stands in line with the striker's poppingcrease, about 20 metres (20 yards) to one side (usually the leg side, but notalways), ready to judge stumpings and run-outs at his end. The umpires remain attheir respective ends of the pitch, thus swapping roles every over.If the technology is available for a given match, a third umpire is sometimesused. He sits off the field, with a television replay monitor. If an on-fieldumpire is unsure of a decision concerning either a run out or a stumpingattempt, he may signal for the third umpire to view a television replay. Thethird umpire views a replay, in slow motion if necessary, until he eitherreaches a decision or decides that he cannot make a clear decision. He signalsthe result to the on-field umpire, who must then abide by it. If the equipmentfails, the replay umpire signals no decision. The replay umpire cannot be usedfor any decisions other than run outs and stumpings.Whenever any decision is in doubt, the umpire must rule in favour of thebatsman.If the ball hits an umpire, it is still live and play continues. If it lodges inan umpire's clothing, then it is dead.The game is also presided over by a match referee, who watches fromoutside the field. The referee makes no decisions of relevance to the outcome ofthe game, but determines penalties for breaches of various rules and misconduct.In professional games, these penalties are monetary fines.Arguing with an umpire's decision is simply not tolerated. Anything more than apolite question to the umpires is heavily frowned upon and could attract apenalty from the referee. The most serious misconduct in a cricket match is ofthe order of a rude gesture to an opponent or throwing the ball into the groundin disgust. Such gross misbehaviour would attract large fines and possibly matchsuspensions. Penalties for physical violence can only be guessed at, but wouldpossibly be a career suspension. Extras Extras are runs scored by means other than when the ball is hit by abatsman. Extras are not credited to any batsman, and are recorded by the scorerseparately. The total number of runs for the innings is equal to the sums of theindividual batsmen's scores and the extras. There are four types of extras: noballs, wides, byes, and leg byes.The bowler must bowl each ball with part of his frontmost foot behind thepopping crease. If he oversteps this mark, he has bowled a no ball. Theumpire at that end calls ``no ball'' immediately in a loud voice. The batsmanmay play and score runs as usual, and may not be out by any means except runout, handle the ball, hit the ball twice, or obstructing the field. Further, ifthe batsman does not score any runs from the ball, one run is added to thebatting team's score. Also, the bowler must bowl an extra ball in his over tocompensate. A no ball is also called if any part of the bowler's back foot isnot within the area between the return creases.If the bowler bowls the ball far to one side or over the head of the batsman, somaking it impossible to score, the umpire will signal the ball as a wide. This gives the batting team one run and the bowler must rebowl the ball.The striker may not be out hit wicket off a wide ball.If the striker misses a ball and the wicket-keeper fails to gather it cleanly,the batsmen may take runs. These runs are called byes and are scored atras.If the striker, in attempting to play a shot, deflects the ball with part of hisbody, the batsmen may attempt to take a run. Such runs are called leg byes. If the striker did not attempt to play a shot with his bat, leg byes maynot be taken. The umpire adjudicates by signalling a dead ball if the batsmenattempt to run when, in his opinion, no attempt was made to play a shot.Batsmen may be run out as usual while running byes and leg-byes. If, whilerunning either form of bye, the ball reaches the boundary, four byes (of theappropriate type) are scored. The Bowling Action The bowling action itself has to conform to several restrictions. Thebowler's arm must be straight when the ball is bowled (so no ``throwing'' isallowed). The ball must be bowled overarm, not underarm. The difference between `bowling' and `throwing': When you throw the ball, theelbow is cocked and used to impart energy to the ball by straightening. When aball is bowled, the elbow joint is held extended throughout. All the energy isimparted by rotation of the arm about the shoulder, and possibly a little bywrist motion. For a right-handed bowler, the action goes roughly as follows:After the run-up, the right foot is planted on the ground with the instep facingthe batsman. The right arm is extended backwards and down at this stage. Theleft foot comes down on the popping crease as the bowler's momentum carries himforward - he is standing essentially left-side on to the batsman. As the weighttransfers to the left foot, the right arm is brought over the shoulder in avertical arc. The ball is released near the top of the arc, and thefollow-through brings the arm down and the right shoulder forward rapidly.Bouncing the ball on the pitch is not mandatory. It's usually done because themovement of the ball off the pitch makes it much harder to hit. Unbounceddeliveries, or full tosses are almost always much easier to hit, andmostly they are bowled accidentally. A full toss above hip height is no ball,and an umpire who suspects that such a ball was deliberate will give the bowleran official warning. A warning is also given if the umpire believes the bowleris bowling at the body of a batsman in a deliberate attempt to injure thebatsman. After two warnings a bowler is barred from bowling for the rest of theinnings.If any rule governing the bowling action is violated, a no ball results.Bowlers are allowed to polish the ball by rubbing it with cloth (usually ontheir trouser legs) and applying saliva or sweat to it. Any other substance isillegal, as is rubbing the ball on the ground. Usually one side of the ball ispolished smooth, while the other wears, so that the bowler can achieve swing (curving the ball through the air). It is also illegal to roughen the ballby any means, including scraping it with the fingernails or lifting the seam. Abowler who illegaly tampers with the ball is immediately suspended from bowlingfor the rest of that innings.The bowler may bowl from either side of the wicket, but must inform the umpireand the batsmen if he wishes to change sides. Bowling with the bowling armclosest to the wicket is called over the wicket, and is most common.Bowling with the non-bowling are closest to the wicket is called around thewicket.The bowler may abort his run-up or not let go of the ball if he loses hisfooting or timing for any reason. The umpire will signal dead ball and the ballmust be bowled again. If a bowler loses his grip on the ball during the deliveryaction, it is considered to be a live ball only if it is propelled forward ofthe bowler. If such a ball comes to rest in front of the striker, but anydistance to the side, the striker is entitled to walk up to the ball and attemptto hit it with his bat. The fielding team must not touch the ball until thestriker either hits it or declines to do so.A delivery may also be aborted by the striker stepping away from his stumps, ifdistracted by an insect or dust in the eye, for example. Fielding Field placements in cricket are not standardised. There are several namedfield positions, and the fielding captain uses different combinations of themfor tactical reasons. There are also further descriptive words to specifyvariations on the positions labelled by simple names, so that any position inwhich a fielder stands can be described.The following diagram shows the rough positions of all of the simply named fieldpositions. In this diagram, the pitch is indicated by three '#' marks; thestriker's end is at the top. The bowler is not shown, but would be runningupwards towards the bottom end of the pitch. The approximate field positions aremarked with numbers or letters, according to the key on the right of thediagram. The three marks: '+', '*', and '~' indicate that the adjective shown atthe bottom of the list can be used to describe a modification of that position,as shown in the example. --------------------------------- 1 wicket keeper / \ 2 first slip / e h \ 3 second slip / \ 4 third slip / \ 5 gully + / \ 6 point +*~ / \ 7 cover + / 2 j \ 8 extra cover +| 43 1 d | 9 mid-off +*| 5 | a mid-on +*| 6 # i c | b mid-wicket +| # | c square leg +~| 7 # b | d leg slip| 8 | e third man| | f long off \ 9 a / g long on \ / h fine leg \ / i bat-pad \ / + deep (near boundary) \ / * silly (near batsman) \ f g / ~ backward (more 'up') \ / eg. --------------------------------- j deep backward square leg(This picture will be replaced with an inline image when I have time.)Other modifiers used to qualify positions: square: close to a lineperpendicular to the pitch, through the batsman; fine: close to a linestraight along the pitch; short: close to the batsman.The only restriction on field placements is that, at the time the ball isdelivered, there must be no more than two fielders in the quadrant of the fieldbackward of square leg. (This rule exists mainly for historical reasons - seethe Bodyline section below.)Sometimes fielders close to the bat wear helmets for safety. When not in use,the helmet (or any other loose equipment) may be placed on the field (usuallybehind the wicket-keeper, where it is unlikely to be hit by the ball). If anysuch loose fielding equipment is hit with the ball, five runs are scored, eitherto the batsman who hit the ball or as the appropriate form of byes. The ball isthen considered dead and no further runs can be taken, nor can a batsman be runout.If a fielder is wearing a protective helmet, and the striker hits the ball sothat it bounces off the helmet, he may not be out caught off the rebound. If aball rebounds from any other part of the body of a fielder, he may be out caughtif another fielder (or the same one) then catches the ball before it hits theground. Injuries and Substitutions In case of injury, substitutes may replace any number of fielders. Asubstitute may only field - he may not bowl, nor bat. A substitute may not keepwicket. A substituted player must return to the field as soon as he is able toresume playing without danger.If a batsman is injured, he may retire and resume his innings when fit again, solong as his team's innings is not over. If a batsman is too injured to bat whenno other batsmen remain to come in after a wicket falls, his innings must beforfeited and his team's innings ends. If a batsman is able to bat, but not run,then another player may run for him. The runner must wear the same equipment asthe batter, and performs all his running. The injured non-runner must remainbehind his crease at all times when the ball is in play or risk being run out,even if his runner is safely behind a crease.If a bowler is injured during an over and cannot complete it, another bowlermust bowl the remaining deliveries in that over. The bowler chosen to finish theover must not be the bowler who bowled the previous over, and must not bowl theover immediately following either.A player may not leave the field for injury unless the injury is sustained onthe field. An injured player who takes the field may not leave because of hispre-existing injury, unless it is clearly aggravated further on the field. Adverse Weather Conditions Play is suspended at the umpires' discretion for rain. Light rain is usuallytolerated, though nothing heavier, because of the possibility of damage to thepitch. If the players are off the field, they must remain off until the rain hasstopped completely. During rain the pitch is covered with waterproof material toprotect it. Often the bowlers' run-ups and an area around the pitch are alsocovered.During very windy conditions, sometimes the bails will tend to blow off the topof the stumps. If this becomes a problem, the umpires can decide to play withoutbails. In this case, the wicket does not need to be broken by uprooting a stump,and the umpires must take full responsibility for deciding, in a reasonablemanner, whether the wicket is broken or not. Umpires Signals The umpires signal various events with gestures, as follows:Out: When a batsman is out, the umpire making the decision raises one handabove his head, with the index finger extended. Not Out: There is no formal signal to indicate that a batsman is not out. Theumpire can either shake his head `no' or not signal at all. Four: A four scored by the ball reaching the boundary is signalled by an armextended horizontally and waved briefly back and forth in a horizontal arc. Six: A six is signalled by raising both arms straight over the head. No Ball: A no ball is signalled by holding an arm out horizontally. Wide: A wide is signalled by holding both arms out horizontally. Byes: Runs scored as byes are signalled by raising one arm over the head, palmopen. Leg Byes: Leg byes are signalled by raising one leg and tapping the knee with onehand. Dead Ball: If the umpire has to signal dead ball to prevent the players fromassuming that the ball is still alive, he waves both arms across each other infront of his abdomen. One Short: One short is signalled by touching the tip of one hand to the sameshoulder. TV Replay: If an umpire wishes the third umpire to make a decision based on a TVreplay, he signals by drawing a large square shape in the air with both hands,spreading them out high in the air in front of him, bringing them down, andthen together again. The Two Forms of Cricket Cricket is played in two very distinct forms. The first is limited duration,in which a specific number of hours of playing time are allocated and each teamplays two innings.The second is limited overs, in which each team plays one innings of apre-determined number of overs. First Class Cricket First class cricket matches are the most prestigious games, played at aprofessional level. The top level games are international Test matches,played betwen countries. There are also domestic first class cricketcompetitions. First class matches are of limited duration. Test matches will bedescribed first, then any differences for other first class matches will bedescribed.Test matches are played over five days, with six hours play each day. Each day'splay is divided into three sessions of two hours each, with a 40 minutebreak between the first two session for lunch, and a 20 minute tea break betweenthe last two sessions. A short drinks break is taken once an hour, or more oftenin very hot weather. Play usually goes from 11:00 local time to 18:00, althoughthis may be varied if sunset occurs early. The scheduled close of play time iscalled stumps. Test matches are never played under artificial lighting.Each team has two innings, usually played in alternating order. Each innings isover when either ten batsmen are out, or the captain of the batting side declares the innings closed (for strategic reasons, more later). When all theinnings are completed, the team with the most runs wins. If there is a tie, theresult stands (this is rare - it has only ever happened twice).If by the end of the final day's play all the innings are not completed, thegame is a draw, no matter who appeared to be ``winning''. Thus thestrategic importance of sometimes declaring an innings closed, in order to haveenough time to dismiss the other team and so win the game.The order of the innings alternates except when the follow-on isenforced. This can occur if the second team to bat in the first innings scores200 or more runs fewer than the first team. The captain of the first team maythen ask the second team to follow on, i.e. to bat its second inningsimmediately, and defer his own team's second innings until afterwards.Whenever a change of innings occurs during a session, a ten minute break istaken. If the end of an innings occurs within ten minutes of the end of thefirst or second sessions, the ten minute break is lost and the scheduledinterval is shifted to begin immediately. If the end of an innings occurs withinten minutes of stumps, the day's play ends early.Test matches are played with a red cricket ball. A new ball is used for thebeginning of each innings. The same ball must be used throughout the innings,being replaced only in the following cases: The captain of the bowling team may elect to take a new ball at any time after 80 overs have been bowled with the previous ball. If the ball is lost, it is replaced. If the ball is damaged, either by the stitching coming undone or the ball becoming clearly non-spherical, it is replaced.In cases 2 and 3, the ball must be replaced by a previously used ball ofsimilarly worn condition to the old ball, as chosen by the umpires. If the ballis ever hit so that a spectator gathers it, the spectator must return it so thatplay can continue.On each day of play in a Test match, a minimum of 90 overs must be bowled. Ifthe bowling team has not bowled the required minimum by the scheduled stumpstime, play is extended until the required number of overs have been bowled.Whenever an innings ends, the number of overs to be bowled is recalculated,disregarding the number of overs bowled so far during the same day. The requiredminimum is calculated to be the number of minutes of play remaining, divided by4 and rounded up. On the last day of play, this formula is used up until onehour before stumps, then fifteen overs are added to the result. If extra oversare bowled before the time one hour before stumps on the final day, then therestill must be a minimum of fifteen overs bowled after the time one hour beforestumps. All of these conditions are recalculated for time lost due to poorweather, at a rate of one over per 4 minutes of lost time. If a day's play endsearly because of poor weather conditions, all calculations are reset for thenext day.If there is heavy cloud cover, the umpires may decide that the ambient lightlevel is too low and that the batsmen may be in danger because of difficulty insighting the ball. If so, they offer the light to the batsmen, who mayagree to leave the field or may decide to play on. If the light deterioratesfurther, the umpires will offer again. If the batsmen decide to leave the fieldand the light improves, the umpires make the decision to resume play.If a fielder leave the field for any reason and then returns during the sameinnings, he may not bowl until he has been on the field again for as much timeas he spent off the field.Test matches are played in Series between two of the official Test nations. ATest Series consists of a set number of matches, from one to six, all of whichare played to completion, even if one team gains an unassailable lead in theSeries. Series of three or five matches are most common. Some pairs of nationscompete against one another for a perpetual trophy. If a Series between two suchnations is drawn, the holder of the trophy retains it.Non-Test first class cricket differs from Test cricket in only a few respects. Anon-Test first class match is usually four days long, not five. In a four-daygame, the cut-off figure for enforcing the follow-on is 150 or more runs behindthe first team. The formula used to determine the minimum number of overs bowledin a non-Test first class match may be different to that used for a Test match;there is no standard regulation.Non-Test first class competitions are usually round-robins amongst severaldomestic teams. Other first class matches include single games between visitinginternational sides and domestic first class teams. One-Day Cricket One-day cricket differs significantly from first class cricket. A one- daymatch is played on a single day. Either a red or a white cricket ball may beused, and play under artificial lighting is allowed.Each team gets only one innings, and that innings is restricted to a maximumnumber of overs. Usual choices for the number of overs are 50, 55, or 60. Eachinnings is complete at the end of the stipulated number of overs, no matter howmany batsmen are out. If ten batsmen are out before the full number of overs arebowled, the innings is also over. If the first team's innings ends in thismanner, the second team still has its full number of overs to score the requiredruns. The timing of the innings and the break between them are not regulated.Whichever team scores the most runs wins. A tied score stands. There is no drawresult. If the match is washed out, so that the innings are not played, the gameis declared a no-result.In each innings, each bowler is restricted to bowling a maximum number of oversequal to one fifth of the total number of overs in the innings. Either a singlenew ball is used for each innings, or two new balls which are alternated betweenovers. (This is often done with white balls because they wear much faster thanred balls.) New balls are never taken during an innings, but replacements forlost or damaged balls are taken as in first class matches.In case of rain interruption to the first innings, the number of overs for eachinnings is recalculated so that they will be the same. If rain interrupts thesecond innings, making it impossible for an equal number of overs to be bowled,the number of runs scored by the first team is adjusted to compensate. There isno standard adjustment formula - one is decided beforehand for any givencompetition. There is also a predetermined number of overs which must be bowledin each innings for any result to be considered valid; if this limit is notreached the game is a no-result.Because of the emphasis on scoring runs quickly, wide balls are enforced muchmore strictly in one-day cricket.One-day competitions are played either as Series between pairs of internationalteams, round-robin competitions between groups of international teams, orround-robins between domestic teams. A World Cup one-day competition is playedbetween all the Test nations each four years. Strategies, Tactics, and Trivia All of the rules of cricket have been described above, as well as some otherinformation which is not ``rules'', such as names of fielding positions. Therest of this file is concerned with other information which is useful to know,but not actually ``rules''. Bowling Styles There are two basic approaches to bowling: fast and spin. A fast bowlerbowls the ball as fast as practicable, attempting to defeat the batsman with itspace. If the ball also swings in the air, or seams (moves sideways) offthe pitch because of bouncing on the seam, it can be very difficult to play. Aspin bowler has a more ambling run-up and uses wrist or finger motion to imparta spin to the ball. The ball then spins to one side when it bounces on thepitch, thus also hopefully causing it to be hard to hit. Fast bowlers aregenerally used with a new ball, while spin bowlers get more spin with a wornball. There is also medium pace bowling, which concentrates more on swing andseam than pace.A swing bowler will hold the seam of the ball at a certain angle and attempt torelease the ball so that it spins with the seam at a constant angle. With oneside of the ball polished and the other rough, differential air pressure willcause it to swing in the air.A seam bowler attempts to keep the seam vertical, so that the ball hits the seamwhen it bounces on the pitch and deflects in its path either to the right orleft.A fast bowler can also pull his fingers down one side of the ball as he lets itgo, imparting a small amount of sideways spin to the ball. This can cause theball to move sideways off the pitch. Such a delivery is called a leg-cutter if the ball moves from the leg side to the off side of a right-handedbatsman, or an off-cutter if moves from the off to the leg. A specialistspin bowler can get a lot more spin that a fast bowler bowling cutters, however.There are two types of spin bowling: off-spin, and leg-spin.Imagine holding a ball in your right hand and, for simplicity's sake, throwingit. If you twist your hand in a clockwise direction on release, then the spin onthe ball will be such that when it bounces it will spin to your right. This isessentially off-spin bowling (so called because, to a right-handed batsman, theball spins from the off side to the leg side). The off-spin deliveryitself is called either an off-spinner or an off-break. Anoff-spin bowler will sometimes not spin the ball so much, putting more pace onthe delivery. Such a delivery is called an arm-ball.Now imagine twisting the ball anticlockwise and releasing it from the palm sothat it `rolls' over the base of the little finger. This gives the ball spin inthe opposite direction, so it spins left when it bounces. This is basic leg-spin(because to a right-handed batsman it spins from leg to off). The basic leg-spindelivery is called a leg-spinner orleg-break.The interesting thing about leg-spin is that if you cock your wrist at variousangles you can in fact, with the same basic bowling action, produce spin indifferent directions. With the wrist cocked a little towards the inside of thearm, you can produce top-spinners. Go further and you actually end upproducing spin in the same direction as an off-spinner. A ball bowled in thisway by a leg-spin bowler is called a wrong 'un, or sometimes a googly. Probably trickiest of all is a ball bowled with the hand in the sameposition as a top-spinner, but released from under the hand, therebygaining back-spin. This ball is called a flipper.(Mike Whitaker tells me that a flipper is actually bowled from the back of thehand like a normal leg-spinner, but with the forearm twisted outwards, so theball spins about a vertical axis. I'm not sure which of these is correct, so I'mmentioning both here!)Mike has also kindly supplied a graphic which attempts to show the arm and wristaction of the different leg-spin deliveries. Sorry for those with only ASCIIbrowsers, but this is too difficult to show in ASCII! For those of you withgraphical browsers, the following diagram shows a view of a (right-handed)leg-spinner's arm, from in front (i.e. batsman's point of view). The rotation ofthe ball out of the hand is the same in each case, with the ball spinning withthe seam as an ``equator''. So right handed spinners fall into two classes: off-spinners, with their simpleoff-spin and arm-ball deliveries; and leg-spinners, with their leg-spinners,top-spinners, wrong 'uns, and flippers. Leg-spinners are naturally much moredifficult to bat against, because of the great variety of balls they canproduce, but they are actually rarer than off-spinners because it is so muchmore difficult to bowl reasonably accurately with the leg-spin hand action.For left-handed spin bowlers there is a whole different system of nomenclature!A left-handed bowler who uses the same action as an off-spinner is called anorthodox spinner. Such bowlers are not uncommon. A left-hander who bowlswith the same action as a leg-spinner is called anunorthodox spinner - and these are the rarest bowlers in cricket. Theleft-handed analogue of the leg-spin delivery (which spins the opposite way, ofcourse) is called an unorthodox spinner. The top-spinner and flipper retaintheir names. And the left-handed analogue of the wrong 'un is called a Chinaman.Typical bowling speeds are:Fast bowler: 130-140 km/h (80-90 mph)Medium pace bowler: 100-130 km/h (60-80 mph)Spin bowler: 70-90 km/h (45-55 mph)Bowlers also make use of the state of the pitch, which is quite crucial tothe game, and is one of the things the commentators look at in great detailbefore the game begins. Because it's a natural surface, there are usually smallinconsistencies in its flatness, hardness and elasticity. Over a multi-day game,or even over a single day, these become more pronounced, so it often gets moredifficult to bat as the game progresses. Spin bowlers in particular often findthat they get much more spin from an old pitch than a freshly prepared one.Some of the different types of balls bowled have special names:Bouncer: A ball bounced short so that it bounces high, usually chest height orhigher as it passes the batsman. Yorker: A ball bounced very close to the batsman's crease. This is difficult toscore from and often gets batsmen out, but is difficult to bowl withoutaccidentally bowling a full toss. Batsman's Shots The different types of shots a batsman can play are described by names:Block: A defensive shot played with the bat vertical and angled down at thefront, intended to stop the ball and drop it down quickly on to the pitch infront of the batsman. Drive: An offensive shot played with the bat sweeping down through the vertical. The ball travels swiftly along the ground in front of the striker. Adrive can be an on drive, straight drive, off drive, or cover drive, depending in which direction it goes. Cut: A shot played with the bat close to horizontal, which hits the ball somewhere in the arc between cover and gully. Edge, or Glance: A shot played off the bat at a glancing angle, through the slips area. Leg Glance: A shot played at a glancing angle behind the legs, so that it goes inthe direction of fine leg. Pull: A horizontal bat shot which pulls the ball around the batsman into thesquare leg area. Sweep: Like a pull shot, except played with the backmost knee on the ground, soas to hit balls which bounce low. Hook: Like a pull shot, but played to a bouncer and intended to hit the ballhigh in the air over square leg - hopefully for six runs. French Cut: An attempt at a cut shot which hits the bottom edge of the bat and goesinto the area behind square leg. Reverse Sweep: A sweep with the bat reversed, into the point area. Most of these shots can also be lofted, in an attempt to hit theball over the close fielders (or the boundary). The batting strokes can bedivided into two categories: Straight bat and cross bat. Thestraight bat shots are played with the bat held close to the vertical, and arethe blocks, drives and glances. Cross bat shots are played with the bat heldmore horizontally, like a baseball bat. These include cuts, pulls, sweeps andhooks.The following terms are used more informally and are not standard:Hoik: A wild swing intended only to hit the ball as hard and as far as possible, usually with little or no control. Agricultural Shot: Any shot played with very little skill. More Weird Names If a bowler completes an over without any runs being scored from it, it istermed a maiden.If a batsman gets out without scoring any runs, he is said to be out for a duck. The origin of this term is unclear, but commonly rumoured to be becausethe '0' next to his name on the scorecard resembles a duck egg. A batsman outfor a duck while facing his first delivery of the innings is out for a goldenduck.The runs scored while two batsmen bat together are called theirpartnership. There are ten partnerships per completed innings, labelledfrom first-wicket partnership totenth-wicket partnership, in order.A nightwatchman is a batsman who comes in to bat out of order towardsthe end of a day's play in a multi-day game, in order to 'protect' betterbatsmen. To elucidate, the batting order in an innings is usually arranged withtwo specialists openers who begin the innings, then the rest of thebatsmen in order of skill, best to worst. The job of the openers is to bat for awhile against the new ball. A brand new ball is very hard and bouncy, and fastbowlers can use this to great advantage and can often get batsmen out. So it isharder to bat against a new ball. It is also somewhat difficult to beginbatting. A new batsman is more likely to get out than one who has been on thefield and scoring runs for a while.Now, in a multi-day game, it sometimes happens that a team's innings will haveonly a few men out towards the end of the day's play. If a batsman gets out withabout half an hour or less until stumps, the batting captain will sometimes sendin a poor batsman next instead of a good one. The idea is that the poor batsman(the nightwatchman) will last 20 minutes and so protect the good batsman fromhaving to make a fresh start that evening and again the next morning. It isessentially a sacrifice ploy. Of course, it can backfire dangerously if thenightwatchman does get out before stumps. The nightwatchman is a tactic which isused about 50% of the time when the appropriate situation arises (which itselfoccurs perhaps once every 4 or 5 games). It just depends on how the captainfeels at the time.A sightscreen is a large screen positioned on the boundary so that itforms a backdrop behind the bowler, so that the striker can see the ballclearly. Sightscreens are white when a red ball is used, and black for a whiteball.A rabbit is a player (almost invariably a bowler, but sometimes awicket-keeper) who is a very poor batsman. A ferret is anextremely poor batsman (so called because he ``goes in after therabbits''). Statistics and Good Performances The following statistics are recorded:Batsmen: number of runs scored, time spent batting, number of balls faced, howout (and by which bowler and catcher if appropriate).Bowlers: number of overs bowled, number of maidens bowled, number of wicketstaken, number of runs conceded (i.e. scored off his bowling).Team: extras, total runs, wickets fallen, overs bowled, total at each fall ofwicket. A single innings scorecard might look like this:Australia - 1st InningsM. Taylor c. Richardson b. Snell 12M. Slater LBW. Donald 57D. Boon b. de Villiers 68M. Waugh not out 184A. Border c. Rhodes b. Donald 0S. Waugh c. Snell b. de Villiers 34I. Healy c. Snell b. de Villiers 6S. Warne run out 35M. Hughes st. Richardson b. Cronje 10C. McDermott b. de Villiers 41G. McGrath LBW. de Villiers 9 Extras 16 Total 141 overs 10 for 472Bowling - South Africa O M R WA. Donald 40 5 106 2F. de Villiers 37 7 85 5R. Snell 32 3 126 1C. Simons 15 0 82 0H. Cronje 17 2 73 1FOW: 25, 99, 164, 164, 225, 238, 315, 345, 446, 472The abbreviations are:b. bowled byc. caught byst. stumped byO oversM maidensR runsW wicketsFOW fall of wicketThe team score is usually given as ``(number of wickets) for (number ofruns)'' in Australia. In England, New Zealand, and some other countries it isgiven as ``(number of runs) for (number of wickets)''. Bowling figures aresometimes printed in shortened form, for example: Donald 40-5-106-2, de Villiers37-7-85-5, etc.The partnership scores can be seen from the differences between successive fallof wicket scores.Good performances are considered to be:A batsman scoring 50, or 100, or multiples thereof.A partnership adding 50, or 100, or multiples thereof.A bowler taking five wickets in a single innings.A bowler taking ten wickets in a two innings match. (This is an excellent performance and a relatively rare feat.)A bowler taking a hat trick, i.e. three wickets in three successive balls (perhaps in different overs). This is even more rare.Each of these tasks is usually greeted with enthusiastic applause from thespectators. The crowd also usually applauds significant events such as: Anywicket falling, a six, a four, a good over from a bowler (one which the batsmenhave great difficulty playing safely), a good athletic effort from a fielder togather the ball, the innings total reaching a multiple of 50.The number of runs scored in an innings average about 3 per over for a firstclass match, and 4 per over in a one-day match. The variation on these numberscan be quite large, differences of up to one run per over being not uncommon. Ina first class match, a captain makes his decision on declaring the inningsclosed based on the remaining time in the match and the size of his team's lead.He will try to allow as much time as possible to bowl the opposition out, whileensuring they do not have enough time to score enough runs to win.Over a single player's career, the two most important statistics are:Batting Average: The aggregate number of runs scored divided by the number of times thebatsman has been out. The higher, the better. Bowling Average: The aggregate runs scored against a bowler divided by the number ofwickets taken. The lower, the better. Each of these averages is kept separately for Test cricket, first classcricket in general, and one-day cricket. A batting average above 30 is verygood, 40 excellent, and 50 is legendary. Mention must be made of the Australianbatsman Sir Donald Bradman, whose career average was a record 99.94, far andaway the greatest batsman ever to play the game. A bowling average below 25 isconsidered excellent. Teams Which Play Cricket The official Test Cricket nations are currently: England, Australia, WestIndies, South Africa, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe.The West Indies is actually a consortium of Caribbean countries: Barbados;Jamaica; Guyana; The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; Antigua and Barbuda; St.Kitt's-Nevis; Dominica; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Montserrat;and Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.Minor cricketing nations (which do not play Test cricket, but do compete for aplace in the World Cup One-Day competition) include: Kenya, Fiji, Canada, TheNetherlands, Bangladesh.The most famous Test cricket Series is The Ashes, played every two years betweenAustralia and England. The Ashes trophy is a small urn containing ``the ashes ofEnglish cricket'' (in reality the ashes of a set of bails), which ``died'' in amatch in 1882 when Australia beat England for the first time. The Ashes arecurrently held by Australia, although the physical trophy is kept permanently ina room at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.The most infamous event in cricket was the 1932-33 English tour of Australia -the Bodyline tour. The English team used a new tactic to get batsmenout, by bowling at their bodies and placing many fielders in short fieldingpositions backward of square leg. As the batsmen fended the ball away in aneffort to protect themselves, the ball often flew off the edge of the bat intothe waiting hands of the fielders, getting the batsman out caught. The Englishreferred to this tactic as ``Leg Theory'', but the Australians, angry that theEnglish bowlers were aiming at their bodies, christened it ``Bodyline''.Several Australian batsmen were injured because of this, some seriously. TheEnglish tactics cause a diplomatic row between the countries. After the tour wasover, cricket officials introduced the rules against dangerous bowling, and therestriction of no more than two fielders backward of square leg. Last updated: 13-Oct-1995.cricket@ida.com.au(David Mar) |
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