Can anyone explain Cricket to me in simple uncomplicated terms that an ignorant American could understand?
I’ve tried websites, books, even watching it, but I still dont get it.
Perhaps I am a moron, but I thought I would ask.
Can anyone explain Cricket to me in simple uncomplicated terms that an ignorant American could understand?
I’ve tried websites, books, even watching it, but I still dont get it.
Perhaps I am a moron, but I thought I would ask.
Ok, let me lay it down simple…
2 teams. 11 players each.
1 team fields while the other team bats.
The fielding team has all 11 players on the field while it’s fielding.
The batting team has 2 batsmen on the field while batting.
The batting team’s objective is to score the highest runs.
The fielding team’s objective is to get the entire batting team out and/or giving away the least number of runs.
The fielding team has 1 bowler at any given time. The batting team has 1 batsman at strike at any given time.
The fielding team’s bowler bowls the ball (a bit different from baseball) to the batsman at strike and the batsman tries to hit the ball with his bat.
If the ball then touches or crosses the boundary rope, the batting team gets runs. 6 runs if the ball crosses without bouncing. 4 runs if it bounces at least once.
If the ball does not reach the boundary, the batting team can still score runs by having the batsmen switch places. Somewhat like bases in baseball, only here there are just 2 bases. If they successfully switch bases, that is counted as 1 run. Switching again will give them an additional run. They can keep trying to switch until the fielding team retrieves the ball and attempts to hit the wickets with the ball.
There are wickets at the two ends of the pitch. One end is where the bowler throws the ball from. The other end is where the striking batsman is standing. The bowler’s objective is to try and land the ball on one of the three stumps (which make up the wicket). If he does so successfully, the batsman is out and cannot contribute further to the batting. He must leave the field and another teammate takes his place.
A batsman can also get out if he hits the ball with his bat and the ball is caught by one of the fielders before it touches the ground.
There are other methods by which the batsman can get out.
Again, the aim of the batting team is to score the highest number of runs. Once the batting team finishes batting, the two teams switch roles. So if Team A was batting first, and Team B was fielding, then Team B must now bat and Team A must now field. Team B must now attempt to score more runs that Team A did while it was batting.
The team with the higher number of runs at the end of the game wins.
This is an extremely basic version of the game, and possibly does not represent the game in all correctness, since there are exceptions to the rules in any given sport. There are also two popular versions of the game which differ significantly: Limited Overs cricket and Test cricket.
But with this explanation as the base, we can now start taking your questions. What parts do you not understand ?
The complete and official Laws of Cricket can be found here:
What I’ve never understood about Cricket is how come so many people don’t understand the rules. It seems so straightforward to me.
Someone is bound to post this sooner otr later, so it may as well be me. I don’t remember who came up with it originally.
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.
Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.
When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.
Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.
There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.
When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
The sound of leather on willow, cucumber sandwiches and cake in the pavillion, ahhh, cricket.
Can’t stand it.
But I thought I’d chime in to mention that Hambledon, ‘the birthplace of cricket’ (possibly a slight misnomer - they have recently started calling it ‘the cradle of cricket’) is a mere stone’s throw from where I live.
I’m an Aussie. We’re pretty good at cricket.
In short… here are my observations on the MAJOR differences. Bear in mind, there’s a truckload of minor differences which doubtless other posters will go into.
(1) Instead of 3 outs per innings, you get 10 outs per innings (with some nifty intricate exceptions).
(2) Intstead of 9 innings per game (with exceptions), you get only 2 innings per game.
(3) A cricket Test Match is a bit like a 5 day mini Tour de France. The game is played over a 7 hour period each day (3 x 2 hour sessions with drink and lunch breaks taking 20 minutes and 40 minutes respectively)
(4) A batsman can stay at bat for a long time - sometimes up to two days if his team is strong enough and he faces many, many deliveries (the equivalent of pitches) from which he can score many different strokes and shots - sometimes well over a 100.
(5) A good innings by a team is considered over 400 runs. An innings of over 600 runs is usually an unbeatable innings when combined with that teams other innings.
Really, Mangetout? My gran used to live there about 15 years ago. Nice place, as I recall.
And to justify this bit of reminiscence, I’ll try to come up with a potted version of cricket. (I used to think it was dull, but I’ve got quite into it now - must be age.)
Ultra-short version: One team tries to knock over the stumps by throwing the ball at them. The other team tries to stop them from doing so, and score runs while doing so, by running from one set of stumps to the other or hitting the ball off the pitch.
Less short but still very simple version:
Two teams, one batting and one fielding. Batting side has two batsman on pitch at any one time, one of whom is actually batting.
There is a wicket at each end of the playing strip (which is also called the wicket, confusingly). One batsman stands at each end.
Six balls are bowled to one end, then six to the other end, and so on. Each set of six balls is called an “over”.
The bowler is trying to get the batsman out, either by knocking the stumps over (“bowled out”) or by striking the batsman on the leg with a ball that would otherwise have hit the stumps (“leg before wicket” or lbw). The batsman is also out if one of the opposing team catches the ball that he has hit, before it hits the ground. There are other ways of getting out - for example if you hit your own stumps, or hit the ball twice.
You can also be “stumped” or “run out”. This is probably easiest to explain by analogy to baseball. The batsman has a “safe zone”, like a base, in front of the stumps. This is called the “crease”. If he is outside this zone at any point, and doesn’t have his bat touching the ground inside it, the opposing team can get him out by knocking the stumps down with the ball. This can happen either when he has missed the ball and strayed out of the crease and the wicket-keeper picks it up and knocks the stumps down with it, or if he is trying to run to the other end and doesn’t make it before the other team throw the ball at the stumps.
Which brings me on to runs. After a ball has been bowled, the batsman can run to the other end, and the batsman that was at the other end runs to his end, so they swap over. This counts as one run. It’s important to note that the batsman does not have to run if he hits the ball - and neither does he have to hit the ball to be able to run. There is no limit to how many runs you can score off one ball, although obviously you want to stop running and be safe in your crease before the other team can hit the stumps and get you out.
Another way to score runs, as I mentioned, is to hit the ball off the pitch. If the ball goes over the boundary without bouncing then you get six runs. If it touches the ground but still bounces out the you get four.
So, that’s it. In a Test match, which lasts for five days, each team will bat twice unless they run out of time. So for example, Team A will bat until 10 men are out (there are 11 batsmen, but you need to have 2 on the field, so the innings is over when there is only 1 left). Then they will bowl at Team B until they are out, and then Team A are back into bat, and finally Team B bats again.
The highest total score wins. Cricket matches do often end in draws, even after five days, because if, say, Team B is 500 runs behind but is still batting at the close of play, it is a draw. So tactics do come into it - a side is allowed to “declare” before they are all out. If they think they have enough of a lead, they can call an end to their innings and thus give themselves more time to bowl the other side out.
Clear? It occurs to me now that cricket does seem quite complex when you try to explain it, even though it’s really very simple!
I’ll post the standard link I always post in these threads.
Cricket explained for Americans BY AN AMERICAN! It’s extremely good.
Worth a read for Commonwealth Dopers too.
I think I get it now. Thanks for the help.