Okay, so, cricket.

Here's what it is, in a simplified, not-100%-accurate version. If you can find a picture of cricket ground you may understand more clearly. In the centre of the ground is the pitch. It's just under 20 metres long, and at each end are the stumps.

There are two teams, each with 11 players. Their aim is to score more runs than the opposing team.

In the normal, five-day version of the game, each team is given two innings. To win, you must in total score more runs than the opposing team, and dismiss the opposing team twice.

The teams take turns. One team bats, the other team fields. There are always two batsmen playing at any time, one at each end of the pitch.

The fielding team also bowl; that is, the bowler runs towards the pitch and when he gets level with the stumps at one end, he throws (bowls) the ball at the stumps at the other end. The batsman at the other end then attempts to hit the ball. The bowler must keep his arm straight as he bowls; he can't just throw it.

Each bowler bowls six deliveries at a time. A set of six deliveries is called an "over". When he has finished an over, a different bowler must then bowl from the other end of the pitch.

For a bowl to be valid, it must bounce once on the pitch before reaching the batsman and it must be within reach of the batsman.

The fielding team try to dismiss the batsmen. There are four main ways in which they can do this:

When bowling:

• The bowler manages to hit the stumps at the far end with the ball. The batsman is then "bowled out", and leaves the field.


• The batsman hits the ball, it flies through the air and is caught by one of the fielders. The batsman is then "caught", and leaves the field. For this to happen, the ball has to have hit the batsman's bat or his glove, and it mustn't touch the ground before it is caught.


• The ball would have hit the stumps, only it hits the batsman's legs before it can do so. The batsman is then out "lbw" ("leg before wicket").

When making a run:

• One of the batsmen does not manage to reach the far end of the pitch before one of the fielders manages to throw/hit the stumps at that end with the ball. The batsman is then "run out".

There are a few other ways to be out, but they are less common. The full list is here.

When ten of the eleven batsmen are dismissed, that team's innings comes to an end. The other team then starts their innings.

After both teams have been dismissed twice, the game is over. The team who has scored most runs has won. This normally takes between 3 and 5 days to achieve. If both teams have not been dismissed twice in 5 days, the game is a draw.

One run is scored by the batsmen both managing to reach the opposite end of the pitch without being run out. If the ball is hit and goes out of the ground, runs are also scored. Six runs if it goes past the boundary in the air. Four runs if it goes past the boundary after hitting the ground.

That, roughly, is cricket. It's not really so different from baseball (or "rounders", as we call it over here).

There is a lot of terminology involved that I haven't mentioned, such as different types of bowling and the positions of the fielders, but it doesn't really matter.

There are also two other forms of cricket played internationally: one day matches, in which each team is given 50 overs in which to bat, and where it is not necessary to completely dismiss the oppposing team to win; and twenty20 cricket where each team is given 20 overs.

You won't understand the game just by reading this. You'll have to watch a match while knowing the above.

If the above doesn't help, the below (infamous) definition of cricket will no doubt help:

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 thats 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 are 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.