Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Rio de los Brazos de Dios
Posts: 3876

In my travels I have attended parts of three cricket games. One in Singapore, one in Teheran and one in London. At none of these games did I watch more than fifteen or twenty minutes and left each bewildered. The game in London I was watching from my Hotel window which over lokked a cricket field. Is "field" the correct word to use in describing the place where Cricket is played.?

I finally decided that the reason I had a hard time with cricket-watching was that I did not understand the game. So tonight I Googled up "Cricket rules" and spent some two or three hours studying the rules of cricket. I still don't understand the game.

First let me quote rule 33 (c) (I believe it was) which had to do wi th "batsmen"

(c) When a batsman with a runner is striker he remains himself subject to the Laws and will be liable to the penalties that any infringement of them demands. Additionally, if he is out of his ground when the wicket is put down at the wicket-keepers end he will be out in the circumstanjces of rule 38 (Run Out) or Law 39 (Stumped) irrespective of the position of the non-striker or the runner. If he is thus dismissed, runs completed by the runner and the other bastsman before the dismissal shall not be scored. However the penalty for a NO Ball or a Wide shall stand together with any penalty to either side that may be awarded when the ball is dead.

The Supreme Court of the US would definitely vote 5 to 4 that this rule is unconstitutional and in violation of the Magna Carta.
And gang, this was not the most complex rule. I guess that it all goes back to a statement about the "Spirit" of the game That such spirit would be defined by the Unjpires in consultation and that no body should give the Umpires any shit about what was "fair" or "unfair".

Do yuo guys really understand the rules or do you just play and hope the unpire goes along with it?

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oxsan


Don't kick until yer spurred.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sedona, Arizona
Posts: 18823

I did the same as you. I read and reread those rules. There is no other game on earth that has a more confusing set of rules.
Apparently this "game" can go on for days which I can only surmise that even the game officials do not comprehend the rules and hence have no idea when the "game" is actually over.

I've decided that trying to understand Cricket is the sports version of trying to understand women.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
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so, cricket is a girly sport? agreed.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Van Diemen's Land.
Posts: 3607

5 days for a test match, wonderaz, yeah.

That law makes complete sense to me, having grown up with cricket on the brain, as with most of my country. - I have no idea about american football, and find the rules difficult to understand.

I guess you just get used to it.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sedona, Arizona
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quote:

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Originally posted by Buddha's Penis!
so, cricket is a girly sport? agreed.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Van Diemen's Land.
Posts: 3607

Ok.

There are two sets of stumps one at each end of the wicket


(which is the area where the ball is pitched or bowled to the batsman), which are comprised of 3 wickets each. Two bails (sp?) rest on top of the three wickets.



If the bails are knocked off by the ball, or by a hand with the ball in it, the batsman is out.


There are two batsmen and several (11) fielders on the field at one time. The striker refers to the man facing the ball, like the batsman does in baseball. The non-striker is the man at the other end.

When a ball is pitched (or bowled) to the batsman, he attempts to hit it, hopefully avoiding fieldsmen, and if he is able to, run from end to end. One successful completion (run end to end) is worth one run (or point). The greatest points at the end of the match wins.

If you are caught out of your crease



(line dictating the batsman’s space which is between the line and the three dots, indicating the location of the wickets) when the ball is alive (just bowled, or hit into the field) you are out, provided the fielding team can knock the bails from the wickets before you can return to your crease (safety area). So its like in baseball, but instead of going from base to base, you run from end to end. And instead of throwing it to the fielder on the base, you throw it to the wicket keeper (fielder chosen to stay at the wickets ), if he can knock the bails off before you can get to your crease, you are out. Which means you have to leave the field to be replaced by another batsmen, of which there are 9 more after the two openers. (Beginning batsmen)

Other methods the fielding team can get a batsman out.

Caught - when the ball is hit and caught before it bounces

Stumped - when the batman is out of his crease usually accidentally, and has his wickets broken



(defined as the bails leaving their resting place on the three wickets) by the wicketkeeper before he gets back into his safety zone (crease)

run out - as discussed before, like a stumping but using a fielder, can be thrown down, with a direct hit, or manually with ball in hand.

bowled - bowler through skill or luck, hits the stumps with his pitch. Normally when the batsman misses the ball attempting a shot

LBW - leg before wicket - batsman obscures the stumps, and the ball hits the batsman - deemed to have been travelling on to hit the wickets. Meaning you have to use your bat, you can't just stand in front of the wickets to protect them.



If a batsman hits the ball out of the park without it bouncing its worth 6 runs (points)

if it hits the boundary it is worth 4

A ball deemed unplayable, is a wide and gives the batting side 1 run.

a no ball is where the bowler released the ball too close to the batsman, having overstepped his mark. Also worth a point to the batting side.


So the aim of the fielding side is to remove the batting side cheaply, and the aim of the batting side is to make runs without losing batsmen. Each side has two innings, in a test match.

An over is the amount of balls delivered (6) before the fielding side must replace him with a new bowler. The bowlers bowl from alternating ends each over.

To win, you score more runs (points).

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Upstate NY
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Why 5 days?

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
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quote:

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Originally posted by MstrG
Why 5 days?

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Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Rio de los Brazos de Dios
Posts: 3876

Thanks A.D.H.D.,I learned more about Cricket from this post than I did from forty years oif observation---I admit that the observation was sporadic and casual. Even with my new knowledge I find it hard to be a Cricket fan.

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oxsan


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Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 99

You know, somethings not right when it requires more effort to learn the rules of the game than to actually play it.

Cricket just aint right.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Van Diemen's Land.
Posts: 3607

I guess its just a matter of taste, and what you've come accustomed to.

I love it.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
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quote:

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Originally posted by Lintinator
You know, somethings not right when it requires more effort to learn the rules of the game than to actually play it.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: A New England
Posts: 9166

Julia A Moore. America's finest.

GRAND RAPIDS CRICKET CLUB
In Grand Rapids is a handsome club,
Of men that cricket play,
As fine a set of skillful men
That can their skill display.
They are the champions of the West,
They think they are quite fine,
They've won a hundred honors well;
It is their most cunning design.

Brave Kelso, he's considered great,
Chief of the club he is found;
Great crowds he draws to see him bowl
The ball upon the ground.
And Mr. Follet is very brave,
A lighter player than the rest,
He got struck severe at the fair ground
For which he took a rest.

When Mr. Dennis does well play,
His courage is full great,
And accidents to him occur,
But not much, though, of late.
This ball play is a dangerous game,
Brave knights to play it though;
Those boys would be the nation's pride,
If they to war would go.

From Milwaukee their club did come,
With thoughts of skill at play,
But beat they was, and then went home --
Had nothing more to say.
Grand Rapids club that cricket play,
Will soon be known afar,
Much prouder do the members stand,
Like many a noble star.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: All over the place
Posts: 2803

quote:

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Originally posted by MstrG
Why 5 days?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
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They did used to have 'timeless tests' where the game ended once both teams had ended both their innings (or the second team had surpassed the two-inning total of the first team); it would be rare for a game to go longer than 5 days even like that unless there was rain that meant that a lot of play was lost (longest match was 9 or 11 days in South Africa and ended when the England team had to catch the boat home). With no interruptions, it just works out that 5 days is 'about right'. In the UK, county matches last 4 days.

The rule that Oxsan posts is for when a batsmen is injured during the game and cannot run as a result. He can have a runner (normally a batsman who has already gotten out); the batsman stands at the crease and bats and the runner stands maybe 20 yards away, likewise behind the line of the crease, and runs for him. The injured batsman remains where he is. The rule in questions says in essence that the injured batsman can be given out if he is out of his ground (in addition to the runner being able to be run out and the injured batsman get out that way).

Like ADHD, the rules of cricket aren't confusing to me but I also grew up with them. I love cricket. I think that the batsman can also be given out for handling the ball, hitting the ball twice deliberately (except for where he does it to protect the wicket; I am not sure if this is an offence for which they are given out or whether it would just be a dead ball) and timed out.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
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I think that it was Mike McShane who said something like 'I didn't understand why the British didn't have guns until I held a cricket ball in my hand'.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: All over the place
Posts: 2803

Yep, anyone who thinks cricket is a girly sport clearly hasn't felt the weight of a cricket ball and imagined it coming in at head height at nearly 100 mph

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
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quote:

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Originally posted by Weasel Spoor
Yep, anyone who thinks cricket is a girly sport

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Baba Kueria
Posts: 3146

cricket really isn't all that different to baseball.

If you take baseball, get rid of 1st and 3rd bases, put 2nd base near the pitcher and put the pitch in the middle of the feild rather than a corner, you're already pretty close to cricket.

since the pitch is in the middle of the field, there is no foul ball, anywhere the batter can put the ball is fine, so long as he doesnt get caught.

then you make the ball heavier and harder, the 'pitch' is deliverred at full sprint (bowlin') and instead of hitting a home run and having a rest, the batter stays 'in' until he is 'out'.

getting 'out' is also much the same as baseball. consider '3 strikes and you're out'... if the ball hits the stumps, that was really a 'strike'.. but in cricket, one strike and you're out. (bowled)

there is no home run, if a batter gets a good hit in, the two batmen keep running until the ball is returned. if the batter ends up at the wicket where the bowler/pitcher is (ie second base), then the other batter bats for the next ball.

6 balls is an 'over'
The feilders are reshuffled, and the bowler bowls from the opposite end of the pitch after each over.

the way i've written it, it sounds like a harder version of baseball, but it is really a very boring sport.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
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Ok, someone explain what a "Googlie" is, in layman's terms.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
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A googly is a ball bowled by a right-handed wrist spinner ('leg spinner') that spins in the opposite direction to that normally achieved by a right-handed wrist spinner (ie, it spins from off to leg for a right-handed batsman, wheras as the normal ball would be from leg to off). The same ball bowled by a left-handed wrist spinner is called a 'chinaman'. The aim is normally to disguise the change in spin direction, ie, making the delivery action look the same, so that the batsman plays outside the ball (if he is right handed). Some bowlers (like Jimmy Adams, I think) bowl googlies as their stock ball and bowl the normal wrist-spin delivery as the surprise ball. Allegedly, Shane Warne has two different googlies, one that can be picked (ie, the batsman can tell that it is spinning in the opposite direction) then the other that surprises the batsman.

The other two deliveries that a wristspinner bowls for their surprise value are the flipper and the topspinner.

I think that lot is right, anyhow.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Upstate NY
Posts: 10121

Equivalent of a knuckleball.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Van Diemen's Land.
Posts: 3607

You can be also given out for taking longer than 2 minutes to get onto the field after the last batsman has been dismissed. (I think)

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