1.Definition of Cricket

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 have 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!

2.DAFT Defintions

APPEAL- A 250 decibel scream made to overcome the obvious congenital deafness so common in the umpiring profession.

AVAGOYAMUG- The mysterious, almost religious chant that comes out of the mouth of the cricket spectator. Sometimes it can be repeated by the one person 1200 times in an afternoon,especially if the Englishmen are batting.

BLOCK- Taking block, a slow painful ritual involving an incoming batsman, the umpire and a little pitch excavation.A means of postponing the fearful onslaught.

BRADMAN- See God.

BYE- A way of scoring a run or more by cleverly missing the ball.The umpire raises one arm as if he wants to leave the room. The wicketkeeper wishes he could.

CAUGHT BEHIND- Trapped in the turnstiles.

COMMENTATOR- He's venerable.His eyesight is not as good as it was in 1938 but it's remarkable how he can still pick an inswinger or an outswinger from 200 metres. Whats going on in the centre can be a wretched inconvevience when he's just recalling that marvellous incident on the fourth day of the Fifth Test in 1948. He is superb at describing seagulls and most graceful at 5pm when he refers to the long shadows moving across the ground.At 6pm during the suming up he can usually cause a shock by actually referring to the days play.

ESKY- A trade device used for carting refreshments mostly into sports grounds. Many of them are made of plastic foam. In moments of extreme emotion during Test matches it is done to break up your esky and throw the pieces at the players.

EXTRAS- Or in politer circles,sundries.Here we have the collection of no balls and byes. Extras is quite a fellow. Sometimes he is so skillful he is the top scorer of the day.

FOOTBALL- A crude winter game played with an inflated pigskin. It provides much tedious talk in the newspapers, bars and on the airwaves.If particular care is not taken it will get worse and the desire will arise to play it all year round.

GOD- See Bradman.

HORSE RACING- A strange unecessary sport where horses are thrashed into competing against one another. It is used for the sole purpose of interrupting cricket descriptions on the radio.

3. A Baseball Fans View of CRICKET

There are TWO teams, with eleven players each (instead of nine as in baseball).

Instead of four bases, there are only two; in the middle of the field, sixty-six feet apart... all running is between the two bases... the ball can be hit in front, OR behind... or, in ANY direction.

Instead of rotating batting for nine innings each, EACH team does all its batting in a SINGLE inning.

The team scoring more runs wins the game.

[NOTE: Unlike baseball, where a pitcher rests every 10 or so pitches when the BATTING rotates, cricket pitchers rest every 6 pitches as their PITCHING rotates.]

The fielding team works with TWO pitchers at the same time.
The first pitcher throws from one base to the other. After six throws, the catcher moves around behind the first pitcher's base, pitcher #2 takes over. He makes six throws in the opposite direction (i.e. towards the starting pitcher's base). The two pitchers keep alternating like this, until one or both of them are relieved.
* [[ IMPORTANT: Each six-pitch set is called an "over", and pitchers are called "bowlers" in cricket. So, to say "Doe bowled seven overs", is saying Doe threw 42 pitches, in (alternating) sets of six. ]]

The MAJOR DIFFERENCE from baseball is that batters can hit in ANY direction.

Also, THE BATTER CAN RUN WHEN HE CHOOSES TO, NOT every time he hits the ball, as in baseball. He is safe as long as he protects his wickets WITH HIS BAT (NOT his feet or hands) and makes no other errors.

As long as the batter can protect his base, he is free to keep batting, and scoring, as long as he can!

The batter (or "batsman") is OUT only if : any of the three sticks marking his base (called "wickets") are hit by the pitcher
--he is "bowled" (like being struck out, except that once is enough).
OR, if: the ball is hit into a fielder's hand without touching the ground, he is "caught" (like baseball's pop fly).
OR, if: he is running between the bases, and a fielder can touch the base he is running to, before the runner crosses the "safe line" in front of the wickets, he is "run out" (like a tag, except in cricket you tag the base, not the runner).

So: A cricket batter could be out on the first pitch, BUT would go on batting until someone puts him "out"; Some batters can stay on base for hours, scoring 50, 100 runs or more!

A batter (or "batsman") can score in cricket by hitting the ball, deciding to run, then running safely between the two bases.
Once across (from one base, to the opposite one) is a "single", scoring 1 run. there and back is a "double", scoring 2 runs. three times back and forth is a "triple", scoring 3 runs.

A hit that reaches the fence scores four runs. and a hit that flies over the fence is a sixer, scoring 6 runs.

Before the game starts, the opposing captains toss a coin, to decide who is to bat first... or second.

The game begins. TWO batters are sent in, one for each base (they are called "batsmen" in cricket).
(I.e. the bases are "loaded" to start a team’s batting, and have to stay that way.)

As one batter is put out, the next person in the batting order goes in.

In the USA, each team is allowed 10 outs OR a maximum number of overs....say 40 overs ( i.e. 240 pitches)... to bat.
The inning is finished EITHER when 10 outs have occurred ( i.e. 1 man is left on base, out of the 11 in the team), OR when the 40-over limit has been reached.

After one team finishes batting, there is a tea (actually, sandwiches, beer and pop) break. Now the team which has been fielding gets its chance to bat.

Say the team batting first scored 120 runs. If the team batting second scores only 100 runs in its 40 overs, it has lost by 20 runs.
BUT.. if it reaches 121 runs for (say)only 6 outs within its allowed 40 overs, it wins by 4 "wickets" ( meaning, the number of outs it had left when it passed the first team's score).
In the USA, a typical cricket game takes about as long as a weekend baseball double-header.

In fact, this is a useful way of looking at cricket if you understand baseball: Each team's batting takes about as long, and has as many things happen, as a complete baseball game.

A typical cricket game in the USA might take 5 to 6 hours. This could consist of 4 to 5 hours of actual play, and the rest of the time for lunch, tea, refreshment breaks and other pauses.

This is about average. There CAN be low-scoring games that are over in 2 or 3 hours...

On the other hand, if both teams score 200 to 300 runs each, these VERY high-scoring games last seven hours... or more.

It all depends---on the day, the teams, the mood and the playing conditions.

4. The One Dayer

Bad Light:what games tend to finish in, when it is probably twice as dark as it was when the batsman went off for bad light in the middle of the afternoon session.

Bits and Pieces Player: cricketer who is only average at more things than the average player.

Bowler's Limitation: maximum number of overs a bowler is allowed to bowl, which they usually exceed by bowling no-balls.

Bowler Tossing The Ball Up: bowler celebrating a caught and bowled.

Bowling Attack: a series of bowlers who defend.

Building A Platform For The Innings: method by which batsmen bat very slowly leaving the tail to bat very quickly to ensure a decent total.

Coloured Clothing: what players wear in the hope that spectators will wear it too; also a useful way for the crowd to tell the difference between the batsmen and the bowlers.

Day/Night Match: one-day game played under contemporary over- rates.

Death: part of the innings in which the participants are the most active.

Dismissal of Batsman: bowler's attempt at a dot ball which didn't go quite to plan.

Fielding Circle: lot of dots which, if joined up, would not make a circle.

Fielding Restrictions: way of making captains put fielders where they don't want them.

Full Toss: yorker which has got above itself.

Gillette: company who decided to sponsor a one-day cricket competition to make people realise that they made razor blades. Everyone then realised that Gillette was something to do with cricket. Therefore the company decided not to sponsor a one-day cricket competition to make people realise that they made razor blades.

Leg-Break and Googly Bowler: 12th man.

Maiden Over: every bowler's aim.

Man Of The Match Adjudicator: normally a famous ex-bowler or batsman; which of these he is can often be determined by whether he gave the award to a batsman or a bowler.

Man Of The Match Award: (1) conversation piece, especially when the match is a foregone conclusion; (2) monetary award almost always given to a member of winning side. Adjudicator decides which player to give it to, and this player then shares the money equally amongst his team mates.

Move With The Times: meaningless cliche identifying speaker as a marketing man.

One-Day Shot: heave across line unlikely to make contact with ball, thereby scoring no runs and making batsman liable to be bowled; played by batsmen in the belief that this helps them to score runs quickly.

One-Day Wide: at beginning of innings same as any other wide, at end of innings any ball which goes down leg side.

Opening Batsman: most likely winner of Man of the Match Award.

Outside The Circle: on the boundary.

Reduced Target: (1) way of achieving statistical equality and practical inequality; (2) (in Australia) target rarely reduced, merely number of overs to get it in.

Running Ball Down To Third Man: way to make batting harder by using less of bat's face.

Run-Rate Required: something batsmen early in innings increase leaving their bowlers later in the innings to decrease.

Short Third Man and Short Fine Leg: positions where fielders are unlikely to stop a ball unless going straight at them - unlike regular third man and fine leg positions - thereby conceding more runs than are saved by having mid-off and mid-on on boundary in the event of batsmen hitting the quick bowlers back over their heads.

Slower Ball: delivery bowled to surprise batsman in final overs of an innings; originally the surprise was when a slower delivery was bowled, now it is when a slower delivery is not bowled.

Spinner: medium pacer with a shorter than usual run-up.

Stonewaller: a very senior player and/ or captain' s best friend.

Slip: what happens to a fielder without spikes on wet grass.

Sweeper: term borrowed from Association Football, so as to make football fans - who watch one-day cricket in the three days a year when there is no football so as to allow for footballers' pre-season training - feel welcome.

Tea Interval: moveable feast.

Thoreau: he who said 'beware of all enterprises that require new clothes' .

Treble Wicket Maiden: every bowler's fantasy.

Trundler: bowler bowling at this end and/or bowler bowling at the other end.

World Cup Final: international one-day competition which many countries compete over many years to host, and which two countries compete over part of a day to win.

Wicket-keeper: batsman who keeps his pads on when fielding.