Cricket

Cricket is a sport that generates a broad range of reaction from sports fans. Among those who are a part of more action-packed athletic traditions, cricket is variously seen as a boring, tedious game. To its hundreds of millions of fans united in an intense global following, cricket is a truly international sport, one of immeasurable subtlety, sportsmanship, and athletic skill. The international contests generate a passion that is only approached by soccer's World Cup. To play cricket as a representative of one's country is to achieve celebrity status in countries such as India, Pakistan, the various West Indies, and South Africa.

Cricket was a product of the English countryside, an ancient game that was played in a formalized fashion at least as early as the 1500s. The rules of the game were first codified in 1744; the format of cricket has been only modified, as opposed to being subjected to wholesale reconstruction, since that time. As with American baseball, the fundamental distinction between cricket and virtually all other sports is the fact that traditionally there was no time limit imposed on play; the length of the game was determined by how long it took one team to retire the other side in their turn at bat, known as their "innings." The game was an exclusively English pursuit until it was locally adopted into the various English colonies around the world in the nineteenth century. Ironically, the first international cricket match was played between two countries with a more limited current cricket tradition, when Canada played the United States in 1844.

Cricket is a predominately, but not exclusively, male sport. Women's cricket enjoys a following in various countries where cricket is widely played, but the women's game has not enjoyed the attention nor the professional organization of men's cricket.

The rules of cricket are not complicated, but there are subtleties to the game that are best appreciated through actual participation, as opposed to observation. The rules of the game include:

• The game is played on a field (usually a natural grass surface) that is oval shaped, measuring between 290 ft and 480 ft (90 m to 150 m) across.
• Within the oval is a "pitch," with two marked creases in which the two batsmen will stand awaiting the delivery of a ball from the opposing team's bowler. One batsman faces the bowler at a time, measured by the delivery of six balls, known as an "over." The batsman uses his bat to protect the wicket from being struck by a bowled ball. The wicket is composed of three upright posts, known as stumps, upon which are set two bails, square blocks that rest on notches cut into the stumps.
• The batting team, or side, begins the game with one batsman at each crease. The defensive team takes their positions, one player as the bowler, the remaining 10 players placed in the field positioned to either catch or stop the ball if it is hit toward them. One of the 10 fielders is a wicketkeeper, designated to catch the bowled balls that are not hit by the batsman when bowled.
• The primary object of the game is to score more runs than the opposing team. When the ball is bowled, the batsman generates a run by both hitting the ball in the field, and then running to the opposite crease while his teammate exchanges positions. One run counts when each batsman has reached the other crease; any part of the batsman body or bat that touches inside the crease prior to the arrival of the ball will score the run.
• The bowler delivers the ball with an overhand, straight arm motion (the throwing arm may not be bent at the elbow on delivery), thrown after a run up. The ball is usually delivered with a bounce in front of the batsman, and the ball is not permitted to bounce higher than the waist of the batsman to constitute a legal ball. There are generally two types of bowlers, the spin bowler, who delivers balls that tend to curve or break as they approach the batsman, and the fast bowler, whose ball is thrown with greater emphasis on speed than movement. An elite international fast bowler can deliver a ball at speeds in excess of 120 mi (180 km) per hour.
• The bowler delivers six balls, which comprise an over. At the conclusion of the over, the bowler changes sides and delivers the next six balls from the opposite end of the pitch. The cricket ball is a hard-surfaced, cork, string, and leather object, with a single raised stitch seam. The ball must be 8.81 in to 9.0 in (224 mm to 229 mm) in circumference, with a prescribed weight of 5.5 oz to 5.75 oz (160 g). Unlike the sport of baseball, a cricket bowler is permitted to scuff the ball, which is typically done to make the ball spin in the air.
• The batsman uses a bat constructed a willow wood with a flat side, a maximum of 4.25 in (108 rmm) width, and 38 in length (965 mm). Given the speed that the ball can be delivered by the bowler, the batsman wears gloves, a helmet and face protection, and leg pads. Other than the wicketkeeper, who is permitted gloves and protective gear, no other fielder has any special equipment.

The batsman has a number of different strategies available to him. In some circumstances, the batsman may chose to take a defensive posture toward a ball bowled, where the batsman protects the wicket from being struck by the ball by using the bat as a blocker. In other instances, the batsman may direct the ball in any direction; he is not obligated to run.

When the ball is batted, and the two batsmen on the field successfully exchange positions, crease to crease, one run will be scored. If the ball is hit far enough to permit the batsmen to run between the creases twice, two runs will score. When the batsman strikes the ball and hits along the ground over the boundary of the oval, four runs score and the batsmen are not required to run between the creases. When the ball is hit in the air and it crosses the boundary to the oval in the air, six runs score.

Consistent with the nature of a game that developed with no time limits, a batsman may remain at bat indefinitely, subject to any tactical decisions made about the conduct of the team's innings, or the special rules associated with different formats such as one-day cricket.

As with baseball, which owes some of its structure to cricket, the batsmen on a cricket side have different specialties and defined roles within the match. Some batsmen are required to occupy the bowler, especially if partnered with an adept batsman. These players typically take a defensive stance, protecting the wicket and running when their batting partner is facing the bowler and makes contact with the ball. Early in an inning, often the role of the batsman, known as the opener, will be to wear down the opposition by being on the receiving end of the fastest opposition. In games where a new cricket ball is being used in play, the new ball will often be faster. The batsmen in the middle of the team's order will be the best, most free-swinging batsmen of the side. The last batsmen tend to be the weaker members of the side, often the team bowlers. A player who is both an adept batsman and a bowler is referred to as an "all rounder."

One of the many intricacies of cricket is found in the fact that there are 10 different ways in which a batsman may be called out on a bowled ball. The most common ways to get a batsman out are to be bowled out by the bowler (the ball strikes the wickets and dislodges the bails), caught out when the batted ball is caught by a fielder without the ball first hitting the ground, run out, if the batsman hits the ball but fails to reach the opposite crease, or "leg before wicket" (LBW), when the batsman swings and misses at a bowled ball, and part of leg or pad block the ball from striking the wicket.

Games can have a variety of lengths and structures. The traditional cricket game consisted of one inning per side, and such a match could take hours or more than one day to complete. The English game was famous for the break for the teams to take tea and other refreshment. In international test competitions, the countries involved will set rules for how long the matches will take; test matches usually run for a number of days. In recent years, the one-day cricket concept has evolved to a relatively fixed series of rules, where each team gets a specified number of overs, the typical number being 50 overs. While there is no time limit as to how long each over may take, the overs limit greatly shortens the traditional cricket match. Kerry Packer of Australia (1937–2005), a cricket fan and television impresario, spearheaded the formation of the World Series of Cricket and the one-day, television-friendly cricket match in the 1970s.

While cricket has enjoyed a growth in professional competition in a number of countries throughout the world, including Australia and England, cricket supremacy is measured on a world scale through the test matches. Countries are certified as being worthy of participating in test matches by the International Cricket Council, the supreme governing body of world cricket. Ascendancy to test status is the supreme indication of the cricketing status of a nation. The current test membership includes Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and Zimbabwe.

The longest held and best-known international competition is that of the the Ashes, which originated in the defeat of the English team by Australia in 1882, an event referred to as "the death of English cricket." When England traveled to Australia to resume the rivalry in 1883, the English captain was presented with an urn, purporting to carry the ashes of dead English cricket. The urn and the Ashes have been the prize contested between those countries since that date.

see also Cricket batting; Cricket: Strength training and exercises; Cricket: The physics of how the ball is bowled; Exercise, intermittent; Shoulder anatomy and physiology.

cricket. As with most games, cricket was played in a primitive form many years before rules were drawn up, and some of the most enjoyable cricket is still played in back lanes with a dustbin as wicket. There are suggestions that shepherds in the Sussex weald played some form of the game in forest clearings, presumably with stones, a stick, and a tree stump. Among the games condemned by Edward III for distracting men from archery practice was club-ball. Cricket is not mentioned in James I's Book of Sports (1617) but was certainly well developed before the end of the century. An eleven-a-side match for 50 guineas was played in Sussex in 1697 and in 1709 Kent played Surrey at Dartford. Bowling was underarm and the bat was a heavy curved club. In 1744 there was an attempt to formulate agreed rules and the same year an All England XI played the men of Kent at the Artillery Ground, Finsbury. The patronage of the nobility helped to make the game fashionable. Frederick, prince of Wales, was a keen cricketer in the 1740s and the duke of Dorset in the 1770s, being a member of the Hambledon Club which played on Broadhalfpenny Down (Hants), outside the Bat and Ball Inn, and a patron of the White Conduit Club, which played at Islington Fields. A meeting at the Star and Garter in 1774 drew up new rules, with 22-yard pitches, 4-ball overs, stumping, and no-balling: ‘the wicket-keeper should not by any noise incommode the striker.’ In 1785 the White Conduits played Kent for 1,000 guineas, winning by 306 after Kent's second innings had collapsed for 28. In 1787 Thomas Lord opened his new ground at Marylebone and in 1788 the Marylebone Cricket Club issued revised rules, prohibiting any attempt to impede a fielder while making a catch. The club moved to its present ground in 1814.

The most important change in the rules in the 19th cent. was the introduction of overarm bowling in 1864 after some vehement controversies. The Gentlemen v. Players match was first held in 1806 and was annual after 1819; Oxford v. Cambridge dates from 1827. By 1864 enough cricket was being played for John Wisden, himself a celebrated bowler (who took all ten wickets playing in 1850 for North v. South), to launch his Cricketers' Almanack. The first test match was played at Melbourne in 1877, when Australia won, and when they won again at the Oval in 1882 (England needing 85 in the second innings were all out for 77, Spofforth taking 7–44), the Sporting Times declared that the ashes of English cricket would be taken to Australia. Though county teams competed from early days, the county championship did not start until 1889, and was dominated in its early years by Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. Gloucestershire, for whom the great W. G. Grace played, had been strong in the 1870s. Grace, probably the best known of all Victorian figures, gave cricket a national following. When he first turned out at 16 for the Gentlemen in 1865 they had lost their last 17 matches to the Players: subsequently they won 35 out of 39. Grace played until well over 50 and took ten wickets on two occasions, in 1873 and 1886—on the second occasion scoring a century as well.

The two main developments of 20th-cent. cricket were the spread of international competition, as the West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and others came in to join England, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and the introduction after the Second World War of limited-over cricket at the highest level. Limited-over cricket was not quite the innovation sometimes suggested, since village, club, and northern league cricket had always been played on that basis. It was made necessary because gate money could no longer support the traditional county championship in the face of alternative leisure attractions. With limited-over cricket came sponsorship—the Gillette Cup in 1963, the John Player League in 1969, the Benson and Hedges Cup in 1972. It is not difficult to deplore negative bowling, six-hitting flails, complex rules, and often predictable finishes, but cricket has always had its bizarre side. Married women and maidens played at Bury in Sussex in 1793; one-legged Greenwich pensioners v. one-armed Greenwich pensioners in 1796; teetotallers v. whiskey-drinkers at Ballinasloe in 1840; and cricket on the ice at Cambridge in 1870. Disagreeable developments of more recent years have been the intrusiveness of crowd behaviour and the revelation that heavy betting has led to widespread corruption.

Nicholas J. Bryars; and Professor J. A. Cannon

cricket Bat-and-ball game popular in Britain and other Commonwealth nations since c.1700. Two teams of 11 players compete on an oval or round pitch. The game revolves around two wickets, 20.1m (66ft, 22yd) apart. A wicket comprises three wooden stumps, 71cm (28in) high, connected at the top with two small cross-pieces (bails). Leading nations compete against each other in a series of test matches, the most famous of which is probably The Ashes. A test match is held over a maximum of five days and two innings per side. In an innings, all the players of one team bat once, while the other team fields, providing the bowlers and a wicket-keeper. A batsman stands within a marked area (crease) on the pitch, 1.2m (4ft) from the wicket. The bat is traditionally made of willow wood. Fielders are placed at strategic positions around the ground. A bowler is allowed to bowl six consecutive overarm deliveries (an over) at the wicket defended by a batsman, this is followed by another over from the opposite end of the pitch by a different bowler. Bowlers may be slow (relying mostly on spin), medium pace (relying on swinging the ball or moving it off the pitch), or fast (relying on speed to beat the batsman). The ball is made of stitched leather with a seam. A run is usually scored by a batsman making contact with the ball, and running between the wickets with his partner before the ball can be returned to either wicket. If the ball reaches the boundary of the pitch it scores four, or six runs if it does not bounce. A batsman can be given out in a number of ways: by being bowled (when the ball delivered by a bowler hits the wicket); by being caught (the ball struck by the bat or glove is caught on the full by a player); by being run out or ‘stumped’ (a player dislodges the bails with the ball when a batsman is outside the crease), by being ‘leg before wicket’, or ‘lbw’ for short (the ball pitches in line with the stumps and hits a batsman's padded leg and would, in the umpire's opinion, have hit the wicket); or by hitting his own wicket. Two umpires adjudicate on the field. If they are uncertain of a dismissal, a third umpire (off the field) makes a definitive judgement based on television replays. From the 1960s, one-day or ‘limited-overs’ cricket became increasingly popular. Since 1975 cricketing nations compete every four years in the World Cup, a one-day competition. The administrative and historical headquarters is at Lord's Cricket Ground, London.

crick·et¹ / ˈkrikit/ • n. an insect (family Gryllidae) related to the grasshoppers. The male produces a characteristic rhythmical chirping sound. crick·et² • n. an open-air game played on a large grass field with ball, bats, and two wickets, between teams of eleven players, the object of the game being to score more runs than the opposition.PHRASES: not cricket Brit., inf. a thing contrary to traditional standards of fairness or rectitude.DERIVATIVES: crick·et·er n.crick·et·ing adj.crick·et³ • n. a low stool, typically with a rectangular or oval seat and four legs splayed out.

cricket Brown to black insect with long antennae and hind legs adapted for jumping, found worldwide. Males produce a chirping sound by rubbing their wings together. Length: 3–50mm (0.8–2in). Family Gryllidae.