April 2003

Cricket: The Foreign Sport Finally Explained

By Amar Kelkar

Cricket is a sport played by many countries worldwide; however, very little is known about it in the United States. The rules are very simple, and are very similar to those of baseball. Most matches are one-day matches, which consist of just two innings-- one for each team to bat. Each team gets 10 wickets (similar to an out in baseball) per inning, but the innings can be ended if the team decides to end their inning at anytime.

At any point during a match, there are two batsmen (batters), a bowler, a wicket keeper, and nine fielders (and one back-up player who is not in the game). Each team has 10 batters and once a batter a batter records a wicket, he is out of the match. When a batter gets out, it is called a wicket. In all matches, each team has 10 wickets and once all 10 are used up, the inning for batting is over. An over consists of 6 balls, or six “pitches”. There are 50 overs in an inning, and the inning usually ends when the 50 overs have been used up, or when the team has used up all their wickets.

There are many ways to get a wicket, and the most basic way is when the ball gets past the batter and hits the stumps behind him (often called the ‘wicket stumps’ or simply ‘stumps’). If the ball hits the batters leg when it is in front of the wicket, it is called an LBW (Leg Before Wicket) and is classified as a wicket. If the ball is lifted into the air by the batter and caught before bouncing, it is a wicket as well.

The wicket keeper stands on the opposite end of the wicket stumps as the bowler and in the picture below is behind the batter. His purpose is very similar to that of a catcher in baseball.

The field is set up as a large grass circle with a 22-yard pitch (dirt rectangle) in the middle. On opposite ends of this dirt rectangle are the wicket stumps and a runway on either side for the bowler to run down before throwing the ball. After each over, the bowler bowls from the opposite of the rectangle. Runs are scored when the batter hits the ball and is able to reach the stumps on the other side without getting out.

The ball can be hit in any direction because of the field’s ovular shape. If an odd number of runs are scored, the bowler will be facing a different batter than before and if an even number of runs is scored, the bowler faces the same batter. Outside the large oval of grass is a rope that goes all around which is called the boundary line. If the ball hits this rope or bounces over it after being hit, then four runs are awarded to the batter. If the ball is hit over the boundary line by the batter without bouncing, the batter is awarded 6 runs, as right beyond the boundary line is the crowd seating.

The cricketing equipment is much more extensive than that of baseball: for the batter, a heavy caged helmet, similar to the caged football masks. They wear large leg pads and batting gloves. When in the field, the fielders are barehanded with only a sun hat to shield their eyes. The bat used is much wider tha a baseball bat; one side is almost completely flat while the other side has a triangle-shaped corner.

Unlike baseball, cricket is a country sport, so there is no trading of players; there is, however, a league below the national team that has a similar purpose to the minor league of baseball. Though the U.S. does not have a national team, we do have many small leagues set up in areas with large populations of people from cricket-playing nations.