Cricket... help!

[Damini]

Okay, just got an e-mail from my american publisher, who's struggling to understand the britishisms in my book. One particular questions has got me, excuse the pun, absolutely stumped.

can you explain cricket to me briefly

Briefly??

I'm absolutely floundering. Especially since I've never played or understood it.

 

[Will]

http://www.ecb.co.uk/

Will that do? Say it's like baseball. Only less dull.

 

[Damini]

In short, there are two teams, one batting and one fielding. If you compare it to Baseball, instead of four bases, you have only two facing each other, and the two players stay in until they are got out, as opposed to rotating through the team. The bowler has to either hit the stumps to get a batsman out, or if the ball is struck, it must be caught by a fielder. When a ball is struck, the batsmen run between the two stumps (or bases) getting runs. They can be made out if the feilder returns the ball and strikes the stumps before the batsmen reaches the safe point. This continues until the whole batting team is out, and then the fielding team goes in to bat.

Howzat?

 

[Will]

Talking like a pro already.


I think I'm the only person born in Scotland who understands cricket.

 

[Mobius]

• 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.

Cricket compared to Baseball. Just to make it easy for them.

 

[Damini]

How does scoring work? Just whoever gets the most runs wins? Is there no accounting for how long it takes, or not outs and ins? I thought it was more complicated than just how many runs.

 

[Will]

I don't think you want to start talking about overs, or the one day matches as compared to test matches. It'll just confuse the yanks.

 

[Damini]

Hell, its just confused me, let alone the Yanks.

 

[Guest]

and the americans aint heard of Cricket, WTF are they on, do you REALLY want some bastardised version of your book being read by anally retarded yanks, i am sure your artistic nature would be hurt if the publisher demanded you dumbed your book down for the retards in the u s of a

or you could just want their cash

just my 2p

 

[Damini]

It's hardly going to be a bastardised version, and its not dumbed down - none of the plot will change, it's just peripheral details such as a description of the school playing field, and some words being swapped (like ballpoint for biro). It's just that the USA isn't as culturally and linguistically as aware of our country as we are of theirs, and thats partly to do with the fact that we share so much of their media and films that we understand baseball, and american football, and what a sidewalk is.

And of course I want their cash. I've got an overdraft the size of Istanbul, a student loan so large it pulls smaller student loans onto orbit around it, and a mortgage to pay.

 

[TdC]

can someone define an "over" for me. I played Mank's flash cricket game, and have actually played cricket on schoolgrounds but I still don't understand it

 

[mank!]

An over consists of six balls. Simple. There are a certain number of overs in different types of games, the twenty20 cup is a 20 over game, one day games are generally between 40-60 overs.

 

[TdC]

aha ta matey

 

[Tom]

Get them to listen to Radio 5 live when the cricket is on, it should be streamed over the internet from the bbc website.

 

[Mazling]

Dear god that could kill a man.

"Number 22 just... er ... passing some houses there in the background."
"Yeah I heard is doesn#'t stop at X anymore, such a pain I hear ... from the locals ..."
"Yes."
"..."

 

[JingleBells]

This reminds me of Bill Bryson trying to work out cricket in "Down Under":

Rogan Josh starts his run up from 1/2 a mile away...
..and hes caught by Vindaloo

Can't remember it all but its well worth a read .

You could always record some of the cricket today and send it them

 

[old.Tohtori]

...i thought it was a bug....

 

[Gumbo]

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 that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When both sides have been in and out including the not-outs, that's the end of the game.

 

[Mazling]

 

[Ch3tan]

Did Gumbo just come out?

 

[Jonaldo]

Forgot to mention that a player can get out by the ball hitting his leg before the wicket. In this situation the umpire must decide whether the ball would have actually struck the wicket or gone wide. The player is only out if the ball would definitely have hit the wicket.
A 'test' match is played over five days, each team gets two 'innings' to score as many runs as they can, and quite simply the team with the most at the end of the five days wins. However, if both teams haven't had a full two innings then the game is declared as a draw. As a result of this, even if one team are useless at bowling and cannot get the other team out it is not beneficial to bat for the entire duration and generally a team will 'declare' their innings over after approximately 500-600 runs as this is considered a decent score.
A 'one day' match is just that, played in one day and with a limited number of 'overs', usually 20 or 50. Each team simply tries to get the best score possible from those overs. An over is six balls bowled by the same bowler.
You can score a run whether you hit the ball or not but if you do not reach the other wicket before the fielding (defending) team get the ball there you can be stumped out by striking the wicket with the ball. There is a rope boundary around the outside of the field, if you hit the ball there along the floor or it bounces you are automatically awarded 4 runs, if you manage to clear the boundary without the ball bouncing at all then you score 6 runs.

Words in quotes may want to be explained but I'm bored of typing

 

[Wij]

To clarify the lbw law:-

The ball must pitch in line with the stumps, IE bounce in the area bounded by the leg and off stumps at each end of the pitch, in order for an lbw decision to be given. However there can be an exception to this rule if the upmire judges that the batsman offered no stroke, IE was not trying to hit the ball with the bat, in which case the ball only has to be judged to have been heading for the stumps and does not need to have pitched inline.

Clear ?

 

[TdC]

reading you explanation I now understand less of cricket than before

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Baseball with only 2 bases.

 

[TdC]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...=2&u=/nm/20040813/od_nm/odd_britain_rabbit_dc

 

[mank!]

fuck me, I know somebody who plays for Devizes

 

[Cyfr]

Tell them this is cricket:

 

[mr.Blacky]

reading you explanation I now understand less of cricket than before

indeed

 

[mank!]

Tell them this is cricket:

Yeah, but she's an Aussie - what do they know about cricket?

 

[BuckFush]

Cricket sucks...This brit that I went to college with tried gettin me into that. :lol: