WetLeather Motorcycle Rider Information

Ferguson, Frank wrote:
>OK, 'splain cricket. We watch the BBC news every morning, and they've
>been announcing the cricket scores. X wickets and y runs in z overs.

Righto, sit back, grab a beer and let me explain :) I'll try to relate
to baseball terminology where possible to explain similarities and
differences. I'll also cut some of the fine-grain rules too.

Start with the playing field. This is an oval or circular shape. In the
middle is a mown and rolled bit of grass called a wicket. It is very
heavily rolled and typically takes on a white-ish green appearance.

The wicket is precisely 22 yards (not metres) long. On the wicket is
marked a collection of white lines. Depending on which of these lines,
they act either like a base or foul line.

At each end of the wicket are three vertical pieces of wood about 3'
high called stumps. On top of the stumps are two small pieces of wood
place horizontally called bails.

Now the players. There are two teams - like baseball - one team bats and
one team fields. Each team consists of 11 players, and one or more
reserve players. The reserve players are very restricted in what they
can do - they can only be used when fielding. Not that they are no
substitutes. The fielding captain cannot change players for the reserve
- the reserve (commonly called The twelfth Man) can only be used when
one of the fielders is injured.

Starting with the fielding team. The 11 players are placed on the field
in various places which are at the captain's discretion. There are two
fixed fielding positions. One is called the bowler. He's like a pitcher
in baseball. The other is called the Wicket Keeper and is like the
back-stop in baseball. The wicketkeeper is the only one that is allowed
the equivalent of a catching mit - and he has one on each hand, not a
single one. He also has other padding and stuff.

The bowler delivers the ball using a round-arm action. Throwing in a
baseball style is explicitly outlawed and bowler's actions that are
somewhat suspect are the subject of considerable controversy. Before
rolling the arm over there is a run-up (unlike baseball where the
pitcher stands and delivers from the mound) which may be short or long,
depending on the style that the bowler is a specialist in (there are
fast and slow bowlers). The bowler's run up is in a line along the
length of the wicket and then they deliver the ball along the pitch
aiming at the stumps or thereabouts on the other end. The wicket keeper
catches the ball, hence the needing for the gloves.

Fielders act like fielders in baseball. They're job is to catch/fetch
the ball and toss it back to either end of the wicket as circumstances
dictate.

Now the batting team. There are two batters on the field at a time. The
batters are at each end of the wicket. One batter faces the bowler, the
other get's ready to run (think of having a base loaded in baseball and
the batter is getting ready to run as well when the pitcher hits the
ball). There must always be one batter at each end - you can't have both
of them at the same end. Each batter has a piece of wood called,
naturally enough, a bat. It's a flat object about 3 foot long and 6
inches wide.

The batter facing the bowler has a side-on stance, but instead of the
bat held at shoulders, it is down by the legs. The grip is somewhat like
holding an axe. The batter will also have on leg-pads, padded gloves, a
"box" for protecting his balls and then lots of optional stuff like
helmet, chest, arm and thigh padding. The facing batter stands in front
of the wickets and typically on or near one of the white painted lines
mentioned earlier.

When the bowler delivers the ball, the facing batter tries to hit it.
The batter may move about the wicket as desired - forwards, backwards,
sideways are all appropriate - he may even run down the wicket towards
the bowler as the bowler is delivering the ball (called a charge but
usually phrased "dancing down the wicket"). There are many different
ways to hit a cricket ball, there's no such thing as a foul hit. The
ball may go in any direction. However, if the batter hits the ball
(touch is all that is required really) and it is caught without bouncing
by any on the fielding team, that's out in the same way as baseball it
is out. New batter comes in.

There are other ways for the batter to get out too. The job of the
batter is to protect his wicket. When the bowler bowls, he either tries
to get the batter to hit a catch or to get through the defences and hit
the stumps. In the later case, this is called "being bowled". If the
batter misses, but the stumps are not hit, the batter is not out. A
batter may also get out by being hit on the legs and having the line of
the ball look like it is going to hit the stumps - called Leg Before
Wicket (LBW). A fairly fuzzy set of rules here and is primarily a
judgement call by the umpire.

The idea of the batting team is to score runs, just like baseball. A run
is when the two batsmen physically run and swap ends. Each must make
it successfully to the other for it to count. Another way of getting out
is for the batsmen to set off on a run and have a fielder deliver the
ball to the stumps on one end and knock them over before the batsmen
running to that end has a chance to make it over the white line with any
part of their body or equipment (the batter does not throw the bat away
like in baseball, it is always with them) called a Run Out.

Other ways to score runs is to hit the ball over the field boundary - if
it bounces before going over, they get 4 runs, on the full gets them 6.
Runs get accumulated for the individual batter (the one that hits the
ball is attributed the run(s)) and the total for all batters is
accumulated for the fieling team. Unlike baseball where after scoring a
run the batter leaves the field, in cricket the batter stays on the
field scoring more runs until they get out.

There are other ways for the team to accumulate runs, but are not
attributed to the batter. If the batter does not hit the ball, but it
comes off other parts of the body, and they complete a run, that is
called a Leg Bye. If the batter misses is and the wicketkeeper also
misses it, it's called a bye. If the bowler delivers the ball such that
it travels way to far away from the batter it is called a wide. Finally,
there is another class of "everything else" called a No Ball. Many
ways of doing this, but the most common is the bowler, in their delivery
stride oversteps one of those white lines on the wicket (foul line
equivalent). When a no-ball is delivered, the batter cannot be given
out, no matter what happens and the bowler must bowl an extra ball to
make up for it.

Once 10 batters are out, then that is the end of the innings. The score
of the team is referred to by the current aggregate number of runs and
the number of batsmen out. So 6/136 (six for 136) says that six batsmen
are out and the total runs so far for this innings is 136 runs. Once the
batting team is all out, the two teams swap, just like baseball.

The last major part is dealing with the bowling. Unlike baseball where
you have a single pitcher always throwing, in cricket, this is not the
case. After the bowler has bowled six times, this is called an Over.
After the over is complete, the fielding team changes around so that the
new bowler is running in from the other end of the wicket. The batters
stay in place, but the fielding team changes. Bowlers then effectively,
like batters, operate in pairs. Each delivering an over before the other
one takes over. A team usually has 5 player's whose specialty is bowling
and 5 specialty batters and the wicketkeeper (who also has to be a very
good batter too), and most of the batting specialists can also bowl
somewhat too, and so the captain of the fielding team can choose who he
wants to bowl at any one time (like batting, all may bowl, all must bat)
and he can change the bowler to a new one.

Bowlers have different repetoires. Some use high speed and swinging
(curve ball), others use slow speed and spinning. The ball should hit
the ground before it makes it to the batter, hence the different styles.
The fast bowlers usually work on speed and accuracy - the batter
misses, the bowler hits the stumps. Slow bowlers use cunning and
deception. When the ball lands, the batter doesn't know which way the
ball will turn. Quickly wandering to tennis analogies - think top spin,
bottom spin and side spin. The best spinners in the world can get the
ball to change direction close to a right-angle when it lands. In
constrast, the fast bowlers work on getting the line to deviate by just
millimetres - enough just to catch the edge of the bat for wicketkeeper
to catch.

That's it for the main game description. To win, the team with the
highest score at the end wins. However, there are two forms of the game
- Test Matches, which last 5 days, and Limited Overs, which have a
maximum of 50 overs for each team regardless of how many batters get out
in the batting team. The former is a very strategic game, much like
chess. The latter is more razzle-dazzle and high-energy. Right now,
there is the World Cup for the latter going on in South Africa.

Hmmm... should probably stop now. :)

For more info such as scores, statistics, live match feeds etc, have a
look at http://www-usa.cricket.org/

--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/~justin/
Java Architect & Bit Twiddler http://www.yumetech.com/
Author, Java 3D FAQ Maintainer http://www.j3d.org/
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