CRICKET 

 

 

England's national summer sport, which is now played throughout the world, particularly in Australia, India, Pakistan, the West Indies, and the British Isles.

Cricket is played with a bat and ball and involves two competing sides (teams) of 11 players. The field is oval with a rectangular area in the middle, known as the pitch, that is 22 yards (20.12 metres) by 10 feet (3.04 metres) wide. Two sets of three sticks, called wickets, are set in the ground at each end of the pitch. Across the top of each wicket lie horizontal pieces called bails. The sides take turns at batting and bowling (pitching); each turn is called an “innings” (always plural). Sides have one or two innings each, depending on the prearranged duration of the match, the object being to score the most runs. The bowlers, delivering the ball with a straight arm, try to break (hit) the wicket with the ball so that the bails fall; this is one of several ways that the batsman is dismissed, or put out. A bowler delivers six balls at one wicket (thus completing an “over”), then a different player from his side bowls six balls to the opposite wicket. The batting side defends its wicket.

There are two batsman up at a time, and the batsman being bowled to (the striker) tries to hit the ball away from the wicket. A hit may be defensive or offensive. A defensive hit may protect the wicket but leave the batsmen no time to run to the opposite wicket; in that case the batsmen need not run, and play will resume with another bowl. If the batsman can make an offensive hit, he and the second batsman (the nonstriker) at the other wicket change places. Each time both batsmen can reach the opposite wicket, one run is scored. Providing they have enough time without being caught out and dismissed, the batsmen may continue to cross back and forth between the wickets, earning an additional run for each time both reach the opposite side. There is an outside boundary around the cricket field. A ball hit to or beyond the boundary scores four points if it hits the ground and then reaches the boundary, six points if it reaches the boundary from the air (a fly ball). The team with the highest number of runs wins a match. Should both teams be unable to complete their number of innings before the time allotted, the match is declared a draw. Scores in the hundreds are common in cricket.

Matches in cricket can range from informal weekend-afternoon encounters on village greens to top-level international contests spread over five days in Test matches and played by leading professional players in grand stadiums.

History
Origin

Cricket is believed to have begun (possibly as early as the 13th century) as a game in which country boys bowled at a tree stump or at the hurdle gate into a sheep pen. This gate consisted of two uprights and a crossbar resting on the slotted tops; the crossbar was called a bail and the entire gate a wicket. The fact that the bail could be dislodged when the wicket was struck made this preferable to the stump, which name was later applied to the hurdle uprights. Early manuscripts differ about the size of the wicket, which acquired a third stump in the 1770s, but by 1706 the pitch—the area between the wickets—was 22 yards long.

The ball, once presumably a stone, has remained much the same since the 17th century, weighing between 5 and 6 ounces (140 and 170 grams). Its modern weight was established in 1774.

The primitive bat was no doubt a shaped branch of a tree, resembling a modern hockey stick but considerably longer and heavier. The change to a straight bat was made to defend against length bowling, which had evolved with cricketers in Hambledon, a small village in southern England. The bat was shortened in the handle and straightened and broadened in the blade, which led to forward play, driving, and cutting. As bowling technique was not very advanced during this period, batting dominated bowling through the 18th century.

The early years

The earliest reference to an 11-a-side match, played in Sussex for a stake of 50 guineas, dates from 1697. In 1709 Kent met Surrey in the first recorded intercounty match at Dartford, and it is probable that about this time a code of laws (rules) existed for the conduct of the game, although the earliest known version of such rules is dated 1744. Sources suggest that cricket was limited to the southern counties of England during the early 18th century, but its popularity grew and eventually spread to London, notably to the Artillery Ground, Finsbury, which saw a famous match between Kent and All-England in 1744. Heavy betting and disorderly crowds were common at matches.

The aforementioned Hambledon Club, playing in Hampshire on Broadhalfpenny Down, was the predominant cricket force in the second half of the 18th century before the rise of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London. Formed from a cricket club that played at White Conduit Fields, the club moved to Lord's Cricket Ground in St. Marylebone borough in 1787 and became the MCC and in the following year published its first revised code of laws. Lord's, which was named after its founder, Thomas Lord, has had three locations over its history. Moving to the current ground in St. John's Wood in 1814, Lord's became the headquarters of world cricket.

In 1836 the first North counties versus South counties match was played, providing clear evidence of the spread of cricket. In 1846 the All-England XI, founded by William Clarke of Nottingham, began touring the country, and from 1852, when some of the leading professionals (including John Wisden, who later compiled the first of the famous Wisden almanacs on cricketing) seceded to form the United All-England XI, these two teams monopolized the best cricket talent until the rise of county cricket. They supplied the players for the first English touring team overseas in 1859.

Technical development

Until early in the 19th century all bowling was underhand, and most bowlers favoured the high-tossed lob. Next came “the round-arm revolution,” in which many bowlers began raising the point at which they released the ball. Controversy raged furiously, and in 1835 the MCC rephrased the law to allow the hand to be raised as high as the shoulder. The new style led to a great increase in pace, or bowling speed. Gradually bowlers raised the hand higher and higher in defiance of the law. Matters were brought to a head in 1862 when an England team playing against Surrey left the field at London's Kennington Oval in protest over a “no ball” call (i.e., an umpire's decision that the bowler has thrown an illegal pitch). The argument centred on whether the bowler should be allowed to raise his arm above the shoulder. As a result of this controversy, the bowler was in 1864 officially accorded liberty to bowl overhand (but not to cock and straighten the arm). This change dramatically altered the game, making it yet more difficult for a batsman to judge the ball. Already a bowler was allowed to take a running start from any direction and for any distance. Once the bowler was allowed to release overhand, the ball could then reach speeds above 85 mph (135 kph). Though this is not as fast as the pitching speed in baseball, cricket has an additional twist in that the ball is usually delivered so as to bounce on the pitch (field) before the batsman can hit it, thus, the ball may curve to the right or the left, bounce low or high, or spin toward or away from the batsman.

Batsmen learned to protect themselves with pads and batting gloves, and a cane handle increased the resilience of the bat. Only the best batsmen, however, could cope with fast bowling, because the poor condition of most pitches made it yet more difficult for a batsman to predict the motion of the ball. As the grounds improved, however, batsmen grew accustomed to the new bowling style and went on the offensive. Other new bowling styles were also discovered, causing batsmen to adjust their technique further.

In the early 20th century so many runs were being scored that debate ensued on reforming the “leg-before-wicket” law, which had been introduced in the 1774 laws to prohibit a batsman from using his body to prevent the ball from hitting his wicket. But the heavy scores were actually due to the performances of several outstanding batsmen, such as W.G. Grace, Sir John Berry Hobbs, and K.S. Ranjitsinhji (later the maharaja of Nawanagar). This was cricket's golden age.

In the 20th century there was a series of attempts to aid the bowler and quicken the tempo of the game. Nevertheless, the game by the mid-20th century was characterized not by overwhelming offense but by defensive play on both sides and by a slow pace. In an attempt to shore up a declining fan base, one-day, or limited-overs, cricket was introduced. One-day cricket had first been played internationally when, after a Test match was rained out for the first days, on the last scheduled day of play a limited-overs match was held in order to give the fans some game to watch. The response was enthusiastic and one-day cricket came into being. In this version of cricket the limited number of overs (usually 50 per side) leads to a faster paced though much-altered game. In one-day cricket there are some restrictions on placement of fielders. This led to new batting styles, such as the paddle shot (wherein the ball is hit while behind the wicket because there are usually no fielders there) and the lofted shot (where the batsman tries to hit the ball past the fielders and over their heads). One-day cricket became more popular than Test matches worldwide, although in England, Test cricket retained a large following. The pace of Test matches increased dramatically in the late 20th century with the introduction of new bowling strategies.

Organization of sport and types of competition
County and university cricket

Some of the earliest organized cricket matches were between amateur and professional players. From 1806 (annually from 1819) to 1962, the Gentlemen-versus-Players match pitted the best amateurs against the best professionals. The series was ended in 1962 when the MCC and the counties abandoned the distinction between amateurs and professionals. Other early cricket matches took place between British universities. The Oxford-versus-Cambridge match, for example, has been played mainly at Lord's since 1827 and became a high point of the summer season in London.

University cricket was a kind of nursery for county cricket—i.e., matches between the various counties of England. Although the press acclaimed a “champion county” (Sussex) as early as 1827, qualification rules for county cricket were not laid down until 1873, and it was only in 1890 that the format of the county championship was formalized by the counties themselves. Gloucestershire dominated the 1870s, thanks to W.G. Grace and his brothers E.M. and G.F. Grace. From the 1880s to World War I, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Kent, and Middlesex constituted the Big Six that dominated county cricket. After World War I the northern counties, led by Yorkshire and Lancashire, largely professional teams, were the leaders. Surrey, with seven successive championships, dominated in the 1950s and Yorkshire in the 1960s, followed by Kent and Middlesex in the 1970s. The 1980s were dominated by Middlesex, Worcestershire, Essex, and Nottinghamshire. Other first-class counties in county cricket are Leicestershire, Somerset, Hampshire, Durham, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Sussex, Northamptonshire, and Glamorgan.

After a postwar boom, slow play and lower numbers of runs characterized the 1950s, and this defensive nature of county cricket led to progressively decreased attendance. In the 1960s the MCC and the counties introduced a one-day knockout competition (the Gillette Cup—since 1981 the NatWest Bank Trophy) and a separate Sunday afternoon league, which revived public interest, although most counties remained dependent financially on proceeds from football pools and money received from Test matches and broadcasting fees. The immediate registration of overseas players was permitted, and each county, as of the early 1980s, was allowed one such player, who could, however, still play for his national team. The change worked well for the counties, and it also strengthened the national teams for whom those players appeared. In county cricket, bonus points were created to encourage batsmen and bowlers to play less defensively, and from 1988, to help the development of young batsmen and spin bowlers, four-day games increasingly replaced the three-day format. The longer game gives batsmen more time to build an innings and relieves them of the pressure to score runs quickly. Spin bowlers benefit from the longer game because the pitch wears as the game progresses and permits greater spin.

The Cricket Council and the ECB

A reorganization of English cricket took place in 1969, resulting in the end of the MCC's long reign as the controlling body of the game, though the organization still retains responsibility for the laws. With the establishment of the Sports Council (a government agency charged with control of sports in Great Britain) and with the possibility of obtaining government aid for cricket, the MCC was asked to create a governing body for the game along the lines generally accepted by other sports in Great Britain. The Cricket Council, comprising the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB), the National Cricket Association (NCA), and the MCC, was the result of these efforts. The TCCB, which amalgamated the Advisory County Cricket Committee and the Board of Control of Test matches at Home had responsibility for all first-class and minor-counties cricket in England and for overseas tours. The NCA consisted of representatives from clubs, schools, armed services cricket, umpires, and the Women's Cricket Association. In 1997 there was another reorganization, and the TCCB, the NCA, and the Cricket Council were all subsumed under the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The MCC still is in operation, having responsibility for maintaining Lord's and for adjudicating the laws of cricket.

International cricket

The English introduced cricket wherever a ground was available and two teams could be collected. The firmest roots are in those countries that were members of the Imperial Cricket Conference. The conference was founded in 1909 by England, Australia, and South Africa (which ceased to be a member on leaving the Commonwealth in 1961 but was reinstated to the ICC in 1991), and they were joined as full members by India, New Zealand, and the West Indies in 1926 and Pakistan in 1952. In 1965 the conference was renamed the International Cricket Conference. In 1981 Sri Lanka was elevated by the ICC to full-member status; Zimbabwe followed in 1992 and Bangladesh in 2000, bringing the number of nations with Test status to 10. Of those, the nations with the greatest percentage of wins in Test matches are Australia, the West Indies, and Pakistan.

In 1965 the ICC made associate members of the United States and Fiji, followed by Bermuda, The Netherlands, Denmark, East Africa, Malaysia, Canada, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Argentina, Israel, Singapore, West Africa, and Kenya. From 1984 Italy, Switzerland, The Bahamas, France, and Nepal entered in a subsidiary class of affiliate membership. In 1989 the ICC changed its name again to the International Cricket Council. The new ICC set its sites on expanding cricket to a global sport, encouraging countries such as Japan, Kenya, Greece, Germany, Nepal, Namibia, and Uganda to compete. By the end of the 20th century more than 100 nations were playing cricket.

Test matches

The first Test match, played by two national teams of the best players, was between Australia and England in Melbourne in 1877, Australia winning. When Australia again won at the Oval at Kennington, London, in 1882, the Sporting Times printed an obituary notice announcing that English cricket would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia, thus creating the “play for the Ashes.” The Ashes, kept in an urn at Lord's irrespective of which country is victorious, are supposed to be those of a bail burned on the England tour of Australia in 1882–83. For the rest of the 19th century, the two countries met almost yearly. With W.G. Grace, the greatest cricketer of Victorian England, on its side, England was often too strong for the Australians, though Australia had the greatest bowler of this era in F.R. Spofforth and the first of the great wicketkeepers in J.McC. Blackham.

In 1907 South Africa first played Test matches in England and also took on Australia, whose dominance between the two world wars was symbolized by the prodigious run scoring of D.G. (later Sir Donald) Bradman. This period saw a notable growth in the number of Test match countries with the arrival of the West Indies in 1928, New Zealand in 1930, and India in 1932.

The visit of the English side to Australia in 1932–33 severely strained relations between the countries because of the use of “bodyline” bowling tactics, in which the ball is bowled close to or at the batsman. This scheme was devised by the English captain, D.R. Jardine, and involved fast, short-pitched deliveries bowled to the batsman's body so that the batter would be hit on the upper body or head or alternatively, would be caught out by one of the fielders on the leg side (the side behind the striker when in a batting stance). The plan was devised to curb Bradman's scoring, but it led to a large number of serious injuries on the Australian team. The practice was felt to be unsportsmanlike by the Australians, who protested vigorously. The series was played out (with England winning 3–1), but it created bitter feeling on the part of Australia for some time to come. Bodyline bowling tactics were banned soon after the series.

After World War II there were Test matches in England every summer, Australia being the most frequent visitor, and the Test ranks were increased by the addition of Pakistan in 1952. There was a steady escalation of tours between the Test-playing countries to the extent that, while the first 500 Test matches were spread over 84 years, the next 500 occupied only 23. Sri Lanka's entry in 1982 as the eighth Test-playing nation came during an era dominated by the West Indies, whose devastating attack was founded, for the first time in cricket history, on four fast bowlers. Zimbabwe was admitted as a Test nation in 1992 and Bangladesh in 2000.

One-day internationals—answering the complaint that Test matches went on too long—began in 1972. In 1975 the first World Cup was contested in England in a series of one-day matches of 60 overs a side. The event was a great success and continued at four-year intervals. It was held outside England, in India and Pakistan, for the first time in 1987.

Test cricket has faced a number of crises since the late 1960s. In one such case in 1969–70 a South African tour of England was canceled because of opposition to the South African racial separation policy. Violence, damage, and disruption of play had been threatened. A further threat to Test cricket was posed by an Australian television network executive, Kerry Packer, who signed many of the world's leading players for a series of private contests between 1977 and 1979. Reprisals were brought against the players but were overruled after court action in England. The players returned to the fold, but commercialism had taken hold of the game. In 1982 the agreement of 12 first-class English players to take part—in breach of official guidelines—in a commercially sponsored South African tour with fees of up to £50,000 per player led to the players' being banned from Test cricket for three years. Cricketers from Sri Lanka and the West Indies also toured South Africa and received more stringent sanctions, and the engagement of English professionals as players and coaches in South Africa threatened a serious division between the Test-playing countries that ended only with the repeal of apartheid laws in South Africa beginning in 1990.

Test cricket was again rocked by a scandal that began in 1999 regarding match fixing. While betting on matches had been common in England in the early days of cricket, many Test nations had banned such betting in the modern era. In India and Pakistan betting on cricket was legal, however, and cricketers playing international matches there reported being asked by bookmakers and betting syndicates to underperform in return for money. A number of players were eventually found to have fixed matches. Members of the Australian, South African, Indian, and Pakistani national teams were all tainted by this scandal, several players were banned from cricket for life, and the integrity of the game was called into question.

Women's cricket

Women first played cricket in England in the 18th century. In 1887 the first club, White Heather, was formed, and it survived to 1957. In 1890 two professional teams known collectively as the Original English Lady Cricketers were in action.

In 1926 the Women's Cricket Association was founded, and in 1934–35 it sent a team to Australia and New Zealand. Australia paid a return visit in 1937, and, since World War II, tours have increased. The International Women's Cricket Council was formed in 1958 by Australia, England, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and South Africa and later included India, Denmark, and several West Indian islands. A World Cup was instituted in 1973, two years ahead of men's cricket, and England and Australia played in the first women's matches at Lord's in 1976.

Play of the game
Field of play, equipment, and dress

 

Cricket grounds vary in size from great arenas, such as the main playing area at Lord's in London (5.5 acres [2.2 hectares]) and the even larger Melbourne Cricket Ground, to village greens and small meadows. Level turf of fine texture is the ideal surface, but where this is unavailable any artificial covered surface—such as coir (fibre) matting or artificial turf on a firm base—may be used. The limits of the playing area are usually marked by a boundary line or fence.

A wicket consists of three stumps, or stakes, each 28 inches (71.1 cm) high and of equal thickness (about 1.25 inches in diameter), stuck into the ground and so spaced that the ball cannot pass between them. Two pieces of wood called bails, each 4.37 inches (11.1 cm) long, lie in grooves on the tops of the stumps. The bails do not extend beyond the stumps and do not project more than half an inch above them. The whole wicket is 9 inches (22.86 cm) in width. There are two of these wickets, which a batsman defends and a bowler attacks, and they are approximately in the centre of the ground, facing one another at each end of the pitch.

Lines of whitewash demarcate the creases at each wicket: the bowling crease is a line drawn through the base of the stumps and extending 4.33 feet (1.32 metres) on either side of the centre stump; the return crease is a line at each end of and at right angles to the bowling crease, extending behind the wicket; and the popping crease is a line parallel with the bowling crease and 4 feet in front of it. The bowling and return creases mark the area within which the bowler's rear foot must be grounded in delivering the ball; the popping crease, which is 62 feet (18.9 metres) from the opposing bowling crease, demarks the batsman's ground. When a batsman is running between wickets, the crease represents the area in which he is “safe” (in baseball parlance) and only a cricketer's bat need be in the crease; thus a batsman will often place just the tip of the bat over the line of the crease and then begin to run for the opposite wicket.

The blade of the paddle-shaped bat is made of willow and must not be broader than 4.25 inches (10.8 cm). The length of the bat, including the handle, must not exceed 38 inches (96.5 cm). The ball, which has a core of cork built up with string, was traditionally encased in polished red leather, although white is now frequently used, especially for night games. The halves of the ball are sewn together with a raised seam (the seam being like the equator on a globe, not like the curved seam of a baseball or tennis ball). Slightly smaller, harder, and heavier than a baseball, it must weigh between 5.5 and 5.75 ounces (156 and 163 grams) and measure between 8.8 and 9 inches (22.4 and 22.9 cm) in circumference. In the early days of cricket it was common to use the same ball for an entire match, which allowed for pitches with more swerve and movement as the match wore on. Even today a cricket ball may stay in play for an entire day of a match, and, as the ball gets more used, it is progressively more difficult to hit.

Cricket attire has evolved with men's fashion. In the 18th century cricketers wore tricorne hats, knee breeches, silk stockings, and shoes with buckles. More colourful dress was common on the field in the 18th century, and only in the late 19th century did the uniform now associated with cricket arrive: white flannel trousers with a white shirt and V-necked sweater, the sweater often trimmed with club colours. Players have worn a myriad of hat styles, including top hats and straw hats, but in the 1880s the coloured cap became the norm. White buckskin shoes also became popular for men in the 1880s, and cricketers then adopted the white shoes (known, however, as boots) that are now traditionally worn with flannels. In a break with tradition, late 20th-century players in one-day cricket matches began to wear brightly coloured clothing.

With the advent of fast bowling, cricketers adopted protective dress. The batsman wears white pads (leg guards), an abdominal protector, and batting gloves to protect the fingers; batsmen may also wear helmets and other protection. The wicketkeeper also wears pads and reinforced gauntlets (the other fielders do not wear gloves).

Rules of the game


 

One player on each team acts as captain. There are two umpires—one standing behind the bowler's wicket, the other at the position called square leg about 15 yards from the batsman's popping crease (see the figure)—to control the game according to the laws; two scorers record its progress. The object of the game is for one side to score more runs than the other.

At the start of a match, the captain who wins the toss of a coin decides whether his own or the other side shall take first innings—i.e., proceed successively as batsmen, the first two as a pair together, to the wicket and try to make as many runs as possible against the bowling and fielding of their opponents. There are three methods by which an innings is completed: (1) when 10 batsmen have been dismissed (the remaining batsman, having no partner, is declared “not out”); (2) when the captain of the batting side declares his innings closed before all 10 men are out (a captain may decide to declare if his team has a large lead in runs and he fears that the innings will continue so long that the opposing team will not have time to get in their full innings and the game will therefore be a draw); or (3) in a match of one innings a side, when the allotted number of overs expires. Results are recorded by the margin of runs or, if the side batting last passes the other side's total before all their batsmen have been dismissed, by the number of their wickets (i.e., batsmen still to be dismissed) outstanding.

Matches are decided either by the number of runs scored in one innings each (usually for one-day matches) or on the aggregate of runs made by each side in two innings. Test matches last five days (30 playing hours), other first-class matches from three to four days, and the bulk of club, school, and village matches one day.

 

The nonbatting side takes up positions in the field. One man is the bowler (similar to the pitcher in baseball), another is the wicketkeeper (similar to the catcher), and the remaining nine are positioned as the captain or the bowler directs. The first batsman (the striker) guards his wicket by standing with at least one foot behind the popping crease. His partner (the nonstriker) waits behind the popping crease at the bowler's end. The bowler tries to hit the batsman's wicket or to dismiss him in other ways.

Runs

The batsman tries to keep the bowler from hitting the wicket, while also trying to hit the ball sufficiently hard to score a run, i.e., enable him to run to the other end of the pitch before any fieldsman can pick up the ball and throw it to either wicket to knock off the bails. If the wicket is broken, either by a thrown ball or by the wicketkeeper or bowler with ball in hand, before either batsman is in his ground, the batsman is dismissed. The striker does not have to run after he has hit the ball, nor does it count in any way if he misses the ball or if his body is struck by it. But if he gets a good hit and thinks he can score a run, he races for the opposite wicket and his partner runs toward him. When each has made good his ground by touching his bat beyond the popping crease at the opposite end, one run is recorded to the striker; if there is time, each will run back for a second or more runs, crossing again. If an even number of runs is scored, the striker will receive the next ball; if an odd number, then the nonstriker will be at the wicket opposite the bowler and will face the next ball. Any runs thus made count to the batsman, otherwise they are extras. When a ball from a hit or any of the extras mentioned below goes as far as the boundary, the runners stop and four runs are scored. If the batsman hits the ball full pitch over the boundary (on the fly), he scores six runs.

Extras

Only runs scored from the bat count to the batsman, but to the side's score may be added the following extras: (1) byes (when a ball from the bowler passes the wicket without being touched by the bat and the batsmen are able to make good a run); (2) leg byes (when in similar circumstances the ball has touched any part of the batsman's body except his hand); (3) wides (when a ball passes out of reach of the striker); (4) no balls (improperly bowled balls; for a fair delivery the ball must be bowled, not thrown, the arm neither bent nor jerked, and in the delivery stride some part of the bowler's front foot must be behind or covering the popping crease), off which a batsman cannot be out (except as noted under Methods of dismissal below) and which, apprised in time by the umpire's cry of “no ball,” he may try to hit.

Overs

When a bowler has bowled six balls (occasionally, eight balls), not counting wides and no balls, he has completed an over. The batsmen remain where they are and a new over is begun by a different bowler at the opposite wicket, with a corresponding adjustment of the positions of the players in the field. If a bowler delivers a complete over without a run being scored from the bat (even though the opponents may have scored extras by means of byes or leg byes), he has achieved a maiden over. In one-day cricket, no bowler is allowed to bowl more than 10 overs in a 50-over match.

Methods of dismissal

It is important to remember that in cricket, unlike in baseball, a batsman need not hit the ball bowled at him to maintain his at bat. Further, should the batsman hit the ball and, in his judgment, be unable to reach the other wicket before a fieldsman can handle the ball, he may stay put at his wicket and no penalty occurs. The batsman's primary task is to defend the wicket, not to get hits or score runs. That being said, there are 10 ways in which a batsman or striker can be dismissed (put out); they are listed from most common to least:

  1. The batsman is “caught out” if a ball hit by the batsman is caught before it touches the ground.

  2. He is “bowled out” if the bowler breaks the wicket, i.e., dislodges a bail with the ball.

  3. The batsman is out “leg before wicket” (lbw) if he intercepts with any part of his person (except his hand) that is in line between wicket and wicket a ball that has not first touched his bat or his hand and that has or would have pitched (hit the ground) in a straight line between the wickets or on the off side provided the ball would have hit the wicket. The batsman may also be out lbw if he intercepts the ball outside the off-side stump having made no genuine attempt to play the ball with his bat.

  4. Either batsman is out by a “run out” if, while the ball is in play, his wicket is broken while he is out of his ground (that is, he does not have at least his bat in the crease). If the batsmen have passed each other, the one running for the wicket that is broken is out; if they have not crossed, the one running from that wicket is out.

  5. He is “stumped” if, in playing a stroke, he is outside the popping crease (out of his ground) and the wicket is broken by the wicketkeeper with ball in hand.

  6. The batsman is out “hit wicket” if he breaks his own wicket with his bat or any part of his person while playing the ball or setting off for a run.

  7. Either batsman is out for handling the ball if, with the hand not holding the bat, he willfully touches the ball while it is in play, unless with the consent of the opposing side.

  8. A batsman is out if he hits the ball, except in defense of his wicket, after it has been struck or stopped by any part of his person.

  9. Either batsman is out if he willfully obstructs the opposite side by word or action.

  10. An incoming batsman is “timed out” if he willfully takes more than two minutes to come in.

Regardless of the means of dismissal, a batsman is not given out until the fielding side has appealed to an umpire and that umpire has declared the player out. Thus, when a play occurs in which the batsman could be out, a fielder will appeal to the umpire with the phrase “How was that?” (pronounced “Howzat?”). Only then will the umpire rule on the play. (If a player knows himself to have been out, however, he can declare himself out.) No matter how a player was dismissed, even if by leg before wicket or timed out, the vernacular of cricket is such that it is said that the batting side has “lost a wicket.”

Strategy and technique

The disposition of the field will vary widely according to the technique of the bowler or of the batsman, the condition of the pitch, the state of the game, and the tactics determined by the captain. He may place his fieldsmen as he thinks best, and he may alter their positions, if he wishes, after each ball. There are no foul lines in cricket, so a hit in any direction is a fair ball. The objectives of the captain of the fielding side are: (1) to place his men in positions where the batsman may give a catch, i.e., hit a drive or a fly ball to a fielder and (2) to save runs, i.e., to block the path of the ball from the batsman's scoring strokes (intercept or trap grounders). The tactical possibilities for a captain in directing his bowlers and fieldsmen and the batsmen are manifold and constitute one of the attractions of the game. In one-day cricket, however, there are some restrictions on the placement of fielders.

As there are 11 players on a team and 2 of them must be the bowler and wicketkeeper, only 9 other positions can be occupied at any one time. The field is spoken of as being divided lengthwise into off and on, or leg, sides in relation to the batsmen's stance, depending upon whether he bats right- or left-handed; the off side is the side facing the batsman, and the on, or leg, side is the side behind him as he stands to receive the ball. The fieldsmen will reposition themselves at the end of each over and will adjust the field for a left- or right-handed batsman.

To sum up, the objective of the bowler is primarily to get the batsman out and only secondarily to prevent him from getting runs, though these objectives have tended to become reversed in limited-overs cricket. The objective of the batsman is to protect his wicket first and then to make runs, for only runs can win a match. The objective of each fielder is, first, to dismiss the batsmen, and, second, to prevent the striker from making runs.

 
 
Make a Free Website with Yola.