Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by hitting the ball bowled with the bat at the wicket (and running between the wickets), while the bowling and fielding side attempts to prevent this (by preventing the ball from leaving the field and getting the ball to either wicket) and dismissing each batter (so they are “out”). Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side either catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease in front of the wicket. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The match is adjudicated by two umpires, aided in international matches by a third umpire and match referee. They communicate with two off-field scorers who record the match’s statistical information.

Cricket was the first of the major team sports to be codified in the eighteenth century, and remains a popular team sport, and has also been adapted to play at university, club and school levels. As of 2019, the game had 123 national national member countries of the International Cricket Council. Cricket’s first world championship, the ICC Cricket World Cup, was launched in 1971, with England winning the first tournament, defeating Pakistan at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London by eight wickets in the final. The World Cup is contested every four years, and currently by 10 teams: eight of which are full members of the ICC, and the host nation.

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. Its wicket defends the batting side. If a batsman is caught, that batsman goes out of the game. If he is caught without his wicket being broken, the catch is called a “dead ball” and the batting team loses two runs, the catch being taken by the fielding team. If a batsman hits the ball so that it falls on any part of the pitch or over the boundary, that is a “wicket” and that wicket becomes the new batsman’s or wicket keeper’s position. A batsman also can be run out.

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.

They have become increasingly lucrative TV events, with a large majority of the global audience watching live on television.

The support of rural people means cricket can transcend class and, even today, is one of the few sports in which the winners are the same rich and poor. The sport is often thought of as belonging to white and Western society, but it also has much in common with tribal culture.