The people who surf in from a link on a cricket site already know how the game works. But most of the people I know really aren't cricket fans. So if you are one of those, and were wondering how the game works, it's really rather simple. You ready? OK here goes:
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. Sometimes, depending on the light and the weather, they send everybody in, whether they are out or not. 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!
I keed, I keed. (Although that really is all there is to the game.) OK seriously, there are some excellent explanations of cricket on the web, geared towards fans of baseball. While there may be some tickytacky objections that all the intricacies of the game are not covered, they do give a great overall explanation.
CRICKET EXPLAINED - AN AMERICAN VIEWPOINT (from CricInfo)
EXPLAINING CRICKET TO AMERICANS (from seattlecricket.com)
DM'S EXPLANATION OF CRICKET (from dm's cricblog)
And special thanks to former coworkers David Whiteman and Samir Cherkoui, and Mahmood and Ghazala from the donut shop who calmly and patiently explained the game to me, several times, before it finally set in. Mahmood paid out of his pocket to set up his shop in 1999 with TV's and satellite to transmit the games (he did the same in 03) and explained the smallest detail while running the counter. If it wasn't for them, I would have never discovered this fascinating game. Thanks guys!!
Peering Into the Abyss
4 years ago
2 comments:
That's a sixer!
Must be an interesting experience playing cricket with those who do not know much about it.
Well at first, it was before cable and satellite tv, I had one friend trying to explain the game using pizza toppings, black olives and pepperoni and the like as players. Later I had a friend who lent me some VCR tapes. He explained how he had transferred the formats before he moved over. It was not till I watched the games live at the donut shop, and they walked and talked me through the process that it all sunk it.
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