Cricket Information
About Cricket
A cricket match in progress below. The beige strip is
the cricket pitch. The men wearing black trousers on the
far right are the umpires. Cricket is a team sport
played between two teams of eleven players each. It is a
bat-and-ball game played on a roughly elliptical grass
field, in the centre of which is a hard, flat strip of
ground 22 yards (20.12 m) long, called the pitch.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
At each end of the pitch
stand a set of wooden poles called wickets (traditionally made
from the wood of the ash tree). A player from one team (the
bowler) propels a hard, fist-sized ball from one wicket towards
the other. A player from the opposing team (the batsman)
attempts to defend the wicket from the ball with a wooden
cricket bat, traditionally made of willow. Another batsman (the
non-striker) stands in an inactive role near the bowler's
wicket.
If the batsman hits the ball with his bat, he may run to the
other wicket, exchanging places with the non-striker. This
scores a run. The batting team attempts to score as many runs as
it can, while members of the bowling team gather the ball and
return it to either wicket. If the ball strikes a wicket while
the nearest batsman is still running, the batsman is out.
Batsmen can also be out by other means, such as failing to
defend the bowled ball from hitting the wicket, or hitting a
catch to a fielder.
Once out, a batsman is replaced by the next batsman in the team.
As there must always be two batsmen on the field, if and when
the tenth batsman is out, the team's turn to bat or innings
(always with a terminal "s" in cricket usage) is over, and the
other team may bat while the first team takes the field.
Depending on the specific rules of the match, one or two innings
may be played, possibly with a fixed number of legally-bowled
balls defining the end of an innings rather than ten batsmen
having been dismissed. At the end of the match, the winner is
the team that has scored the most runs. However, the game may
run out of time before it is finished, in which case it is a
draw, even if one team is overwhelmingly winning at that point.
This is sometimes surprising to those not familiar with the
game, but it does add interest to one-sided games by giving the
inferior team the incentive to try and achieve a draw even if
they cannot win.
International Cricket
Cricket has been an established team sport for several
centuries. It originated in its modern form in England, and is
popular mainly in the countries of the Commonwealth. In some
countries in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
and Sri Lanka, cricket is by far the most popular sport. Cricket
is also a major sport in England and Wales, Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the English-speaking
countries of the Caribbean, which are known in cricketing
parlance as the West Indies. It is also a prominent minor sport
in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Israel, Nepal, and
Argentina (see also: International Cricket Council).
The length of the game — a match can last six or more hours a
day for up to five days in one form of the game — the numerous
intervals for lunch and tea, and the rich terminology are
notable aspects which can often confuse those not familiar with
the sport. For its fans, the sport and the intense rivalries
between top cricketing nations provide passionate entertainment
and outstanding sporting achievements. It has even occasionally
given rise to diplomatic outrage, the most infamous being the
Bodyline series played between England and Australia.
History of Cricket
A basic form of the sport can be traced back to the 13th
century, but it may have existed even earlier than that. The
game seems to have originated among shepherds and farm workers
in the Weald between Kent and Sussex. Written evidence exists of
a sport known as creag being played by Prince Edward, the son of
Edward I (Longshanks), at Newenden, Kent in 1300.
In 1598, a court case referred to a sport called Creckett being
played at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford around 1550. The
Oxford English Dictionary gives this as the first recorded
instance of cricket in the English language.
A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the
term cricket. The name may derive from a term for the cricket
bat: old French criquet (meaning a kind of club) or Flemish
krick(e) (meaning a stick) or in Old English crycc (meaning a
crutch or staff). (The latter is problematic, since Old English
'cc' was palatal in pronunciation in the south and the west
midlands, roughly ch, which is how crycc leads to crych and
thence crutch; the 'k' sound would be possible in the north,
however.) Alternatively, the French criquet apparently derives
from the Flemish word krickstoel, which is a long low stool on
which one kneels in church and which resembles the long low
wicket with two stumps used in early cricket.
During the 17th century, numerous references indicate the growth
of cricket in the south-east of England. By the end of the
century, it had become an organised activity being played for
high stakes and it is possible that the first professionals
appeared about that time. We know that a great cricket match
with eleven players a side was played for high stakes in Sussex
in 1697 and this is the earliest reference we have to cricket in
terms of such importance.
History of cricket to 1696; History of cricket 1697 - 1725
The game underwent major development in the 18th Century and had
become the national sport of England by the end of the century.
Betting played a major part in that development and rich patrons
began forming their own "select XIs". Cricket was prominent in
London as early as 1707 and large crowds flocked to matches on
the Artillery Ground in Finsbury. The Hambledon Club was founded
sometime before 1750 and started playing first-class matches in
1756. For the next 30 years until the formation of MCC and the
opening of Lord's in 1787, Hambledon was the game's greatest
club and its focal point. MCC quickly became the sport's premier
club and the custodian of the Laws of Cricket.
History of cricket 1726 - 1815
The 19th Century saw underarm replaced by first roundarm and
then overarm bowling. Both developments were accompanied by
major controversy. County clubs appeared from 1836 and
ultimately formed a County Championship. In 1859, a team of
England players went on the first overseas tour (to North
America) and 18 years later another England team took part in
the first-ever Test Match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
against Australia.
Cricket appeared at one Olympic Games, at Paris in 1900. Olympic
cricket lasted only two days and Great Britain is the current
Olympic champion.
Cricket entered an epochal era in 1963, when English counties
modified the rules to provide a variant match form that produced
an expedited result: games with a restricted number of overs per
side. This gained widespread popularity and resulted in the
birth of one-day international (ODI) matches in 1971. The
governing International Cricket Council quickly adopted the new
form and held the first ODI Cricket World Cup in 1975. Since
then, ODI matches have gained mass spectatorship, at the expense
of the longer form of the game and to the consternation of fans
who prefer the longer form of the game. As of the early 2000s,
however, the longer form of cricket is experiencing a growing
resurgence in popularity.
Forms of cricket
The first Test cricket match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) situated in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Australia, in 1877.
Test Cricket
Test cricket is a form of international cricket started
in 1877 during the 1876/77 English cricket team's tour
of Australia. The first Test match began on 15 March
1877 and had a timeless format with four balls per over.
It ended on 19 March 1877 with Australia winning by 45
runs. The Test Cricket Series between England and
Australia is called The Ashes, with the trophy being a
tiny fragile urn, reputed to hold the ashes of a bail or
cricket ball used during the second Test series between
the two countries, which was presented to the English
Cricket Captain, Ivo Bligh, by a group of Melbourne
women, following the Test Series win by the England
Cricket Team, during the England Cricket Team's Tour of
Australia in 1882/83.
Since then, over
1,700 Test matches have been played and the number of
Test playing nations has increased to ten with
Bangladesh, the most recent nation elevated to Test
status, making its debut in 2000. Test matches are two
innings games that must be finished within a five day
time period. Tests that are not finished by five days
are considered a draw and neither teams gets credit for
a win.
One-day cricket
One-day matches, also known as limited overs or instant
cricket, were introduced in English domestic cricket in
the 1960s due to the growing demands for a shorter and
more dramatic form of cricket to stem the decline in
attendances. The idea was taken up in the international
arena in 1971, during an England team tour of Australia,
when a Test match was rained off, and the one-day game
has since swollen to become a crowd-pleaser and
TV-audience-generator across the globe. The inaugural
World Cup in 1975 did much to hasten this. The
abbreviations ODI or sometimes LOI (for Limited Overs
International) are used for international matches of
this type. In one-day cricket, each team bats for only
one innings, and it is limited to a number of overs,
usually 50 in international matches. Despite its name, a
one-day match may go into a second day if play is
interrupted by rain. Day and night matches are also
played which extend into the night. Innovations such as
coloured clothing, frequent tournaments and result
oriented-games often resulting in nail-biting finishes
have seen ODI cricket gain many supporters. Strategies
such as quick scoring, gravity-defying fielding and
accurate bowling make this form more invigorating as
compared to the Test matches.
First-class matches
A first-class match is generally defined as a high-level
international or domestic match that takes place over at
least three days on natural (as opposed to artificial)
turf. A significant feature of first-class cricket is
that games must have two innings per side, in contrast
with games where the teams have one innings each
(including limited overs matches played by teams that
are normally recognised as first-class).
The status of a match depends on the status of the teams
contesting it. All Test-playing nations are allowed to
play first-class matches, as are their regional, state,
provincial or county teams. Matches of Kenya, one of the
foremost non-Test-playing nations, with other first
class teams are adjudged first class, but its domestic
matches are not. As a benchmark, a match can be
considered first-class only if both teams have
first-class status. Thus, a match between two Test
nations, between two domestic teams in full members of
the ICC, or between a Test nation and another Test
nation's domestic team, may be considered first class. A
Test match is also considered to be a first-class match,
but one-day internationals are not due to the two
innings per side rule.
The point of origin of first-class cricket is an ongoing
controversy that is described in the main article.
Other forms of cricket
At lower levels, club cricket is usually played over one
to two days, either as a two innings or one innings
limited overs match. The game of cricket has also
spawned a set of matches with modified rules to attract
more fans. The 'Twenty20' rule can be an example of
cricket rule modification, since this particular
modification enforces a limit of 20 overs per innings,
which makes the game rather shorter in order to maximise
the attention of the fans. These matches are not
recognised by the ICC as official matches. Other
variants of the sport exist and are played in areas as
diverse as on sandy beaches or on ice. Kwik cricket is a
form of the sport where the bowler does not have to wait
for the batsman to be ready before a delivery, leading
to a faster, more exhausting game which is often used in
school PE lessons.
International structure
ICC member
nations.
Orange are Test playing nations; green are the associate
member nations; and purple are the affiliate member
nations.
ICC member nations. Orange are Test playing nations;
green are the associate member nations; and purple are
the affiliate member nations. The International Cricket
Council (ICC) is the international governing body for
cricket. It is headquartered in Dubai and includes
representatives of each of the ten Test-playing nations,
as well as an elected panel representing
non-Test-playing nations. Each nation has a national
cricket board which regulates cricket matches played in
their country. The cricket board also selects the
national squad and organises home and away tours for the
national team.
Nations playing cricket are separated into three tiers
depending on the level of cricket infrastructure in that
country. At the highest level are the Test-playing
nations. They qualify automatically for the quadrennial
World Cup matches. A rung lower are the Associate Member
nations. The lowermost rung consists of the Affiliate
Member nations.
Regional bodies
These regional bodies aim to organise, promote and
develop the game of cricket:
Asian Cricket Council
European Cricket Council
African Cricket Association
Americas Cricket Association
East Asia-Pacific Cricket Council
West Africa Cricket Council
East and Central Africa Cricket Council
Asian Cricket
Council
The Asian Cricket Council was formed as the Asian
Cricket Conference in 1983 to promote and develop the
game of cricket within Asia. Full members of the
Conference were India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Malaysia and Singapore. The Conference became the Asian
Cricket Council in 1995, and it is currently
headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Membership in the ACC is divided between nine full
members and 11 associate members. The full members
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, UAE,
Hong Kong, Singapore and Nepal and the associate members
are Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bhutan, Brunei, Iran, Kuwait,
Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
The ACC runs a development programs that supports
coaching, umpiring, and sports medicine programs in
member countries. The ACC funds this program from
television revenues collected during the officially
sanctioned ACC tournaments including the Asia Cup, Asian
Test Championship, ACC Trophy, and Asian Cricket Junior
Tournaments.
European Cricket Council
The European Cricket Council is an international body
which oversees cricket in European countries other than
the Test-playing cricketing nation of England and Wales.
(For cricketing purposes, Israel is considered to be a
European country.) The ECC was founded in 1997, and has
expanded from an initial membership of 14, as of 2005
having has 37 member associations.
ECC member nations
Austria, Belarus , Belgium , Bulgaria , Croatia , Cyprus
, Czech Republic , Denmark
Estonia, Finland , France , Germany , Gibraltar , Greece
, Guernsey , Iceland , Ireland
Isle of Man, Israel, Italy , Jersey, Latvia , Luxembourg
, Malta , Netherlands , Norway
Poland, Portugal , Russia , Scotland , Slovakia ,
Slovenia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland
Turkey, Ukraine
African Cricket Association
The African Cricket Association is an international body
which oversees cricket in African countries. The ACA was
founded in 1997, and has 20 member countries.
ACA member nations
Agola , Botswana , Gambia , Ghana , Kenya , Lesotho
, Malawi , Mauritius , Mozambique , Namibia , Nigeria ,
Rwanda , Seychelles , Sierra Leone , South Africa
Swaziland, Tanzania , Uganda , Zambia , Zimbabwe
Competitions
and awards
The ICC organises various first-class and one-day
cricket competitions:
First Class
ICC Test Championship
ICC Intercontinental Cup
One Day
ICC ODI Championship
ICC Cricket World Cup
ICC Champions Trophy
ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup
ICC Six Nations Challenge
ICC Trophy