Cricket : A game of Unknown

For many days I wanted to publish the rules and regulations of Cricket. Now its almost a obligatory for me, because one of my close friend has requested me to write about cricket. He knows the game but only visually which can be defined as pre-primary stage for learning any game. For example my knowledge about baseball or rugby which is pretty scaring. So better to avoid.

Starting point...

As history says cricket was first played in the early 16th century in England. So it can be said that the origin of cricket was from England. Though it was limited only to the Royal kings family. For which its still called as "The Gentleman's Game".

During 19th century....

By this time cricket was well established in India, The Caribbean, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Interestingly First International cricket match was played between USA and Canada and neither of them well established now.


ICC or International Cricket Council

Governing body of cricket or ICC was founded in the early 19th century though it has changed its name more than twice. The headquarters of ICC is situated in Dubai from where it regulates.


Cricket Playing nations now-a-days...


ICC has 104 members.Among them 10 full members,34 associate members and other 60 affiliate members.

Full members are


1. Australia
2. Bangladesh
3. England
4. India
5. New Zealand
6. Pakistan
7. South Africa 
8. Sri Lanka
9. West Indies
10. Zimbabwe  


     Full members of ICC has the ability to play any format in cricket. They also are called as Elite members of cricket.




Accessories needed to play cricket 


It is the prime need for playing any types of sports especially in cricket. To play a proper cricket match which things are needed listed below..

1.Bat

2.Ball

3.stumps




4.Batsmen gloves

5.wicket-keeper gloves




6.Batsmen knee-pads

7. wicket-keeper knee-pads




8.batsmen helmet 

9.wicket-keeper helmet




Ins and Outs of Cricket Ground, cricket pitch and wickets


An ideal Cricket ground is oval shaped. But it may be seen circular from outer perspective though its not. On this ICC has a mandatory of 140 yards from boundary to boundary square of the pitch. Although some of the grounds of the world do not fulfil these requirements because they may be built long before.

In the cricket field where all the action takes place is called Pitch. Pitch is rectangular in size. As the mandatory of ICC a pitch should be 22 yards or 20 meter in length.
At each end of a pitch there are 3 wooden stumps should be installed. Together they are called as wickets. At each part the 3 stumps are linked with 2 wooden piece at the top. They are known as Bails.

Classification of Matches in cricket....


There are 3 types of cricket which are playing between different countries now-a-days.


1.Test match 
        They continue for 5 days.The teams are allowed to play 2 innings each.
2.One day International (ODI match)
        Each team get 50 overs to show their effort.
3.T20 international match
        This is the shortest and newest version of cricket to supply more interest to general crowd and to spread the game in the corners.


Cricket is playing day and night...


     Test matches are not allowed to play in night still though ODI matches and T20 matches may be played in nights as in days.

What is a over????

In over is consisted of 6 balls.

Test match continues for 5 days as a mandatory but each day should be consisted of at least 90 overs  if there is no interruption in the play.

One day matches consisted of 100 overs which means 50 overs for each team.

T20 matches go by teir names and consisted of 40 overs,20 over each.

A standard cricket team

Alike football a cricket team also consists 11 players. A player may be measured either bowler or batsman depending on his skill. But some players can play the both role in a cricket match. They are known as all-rounders.

Every cricket team want to occupy at least 4 specialist bowlers,5 specialist batsmen,1 wicket-keeper and 1 all-rounder.

Batting style…

Some batsmen are aggressive by nature whereas some like to defend. But most of the times it depends on the situation. If there is enough overs to play batsmen try to occupy in the crease and attack in the last overs which also known as Slog overs.

But some batsmen naver wait for the slog overs to come. They try to hit from the very beginning. For example Adam Gilchrist from Australia, Shahid Afridi from Pakistan etc.

Some batsmen like to defend till the last seconds. Such as Rahul Dravid from India, Raqibul Hasan from Bangladesh and many more.

Bowlimg Style…

Some bowlers can bowl  at a sheer speed regularly. They are kknown as fast bowlers.Some of them can even deliver the ball at a speed over 140km/h or 90m/h. e.g. Shane bond from New Zealand, Shoaib Akhtar from Pakistan, Shaun Tait and Brett lee from Australia etc.

The bowlers who don’t have sheer speed but bowls at a medium speed over 125km/h are known as medium fast bowlers. Such as Mashrafe Mortaza from Bangladseh, Zaheer khan from India etc.

But some bowlers try to trap the batsmen by their slow but guile bowling are known as Spinners or spin bowlers. But they can be divided in 2 sections such as Off spin bowlers and leg spin bowlers. Off spin bowlers can spin the ball from off stump to leg stump and for leg spinners vice versa. There is also one kind which defines the slow left arm bowlers.

Some world class offspinners are Muttiah Muralitharan from Sri Lanka, Harbhajan Singh from India etc.

Leg spinners are also not negligible. We got some world class leg spinners time to time such as Shane Warne from Australia, Anil Kumble from India and so on.

Bangladesh is called as the production house for slow left armers. Such as Shakib al Hasan and Abdur Razzaq are well known from this country.

Fielding style…

All the 11 players  of the fielding team take the field together  except the bowler and wicket-keeper aka keeper. Captain of the team and sometimes the bowler select the positions of the fielder. To be good fielder it is must for any player to be fit and skiled.

What is a Run…

Run is equal to points in cricket. The batsman who face the ball of the bowler is called as striker and the batsman who is standing on the other end is called vice versa, non-striker. It is must to have 2 batsmen at the same time in the crease but in different ends.

 Runs may be scored In 3 ways

1. Run by interchanging the position between 2 batsmen :  runs can be made if the 2 batsmen interchange their place successfully. In this way they can make 2,3,4… runs depending their number of changing positions

2. Runs by hitting 4,6 : there is a rope surrounding the ground is called boundary line. If the ball hit by batsman crosses the rope touching the ground is called a 4 run and if the ball crosses the rope not having any contact with the ground is called a 6 run.

3. runs by extras (what is extra in next para)

Extras

Additional runs can be gained by the batting team which are called as extras.

1.  No ball : one run extra is conceded by the bowler if he breaks the rule. If the bowler’s front foot crosses the return crease is called a no ball by umpire.

If the bowler has an inappropriate action to ball not abiding the rules of ICC is called a no ball and one run conceded. ICC recommends the bowlers not to bowl breaking the arm more than 15 degrees. It is an official rule from ICC.

If the bowler’s ball bounces more than the batsman’s chest is called a no ball.

Every types of no balls must be re-bowled.

2. wide ball : if the ball crosses the batsman without touching him and outside of the white line area is called a wide ball. It also must be re-bowled.

3.Bye and Leg bye : bye can be committed by the fielding team if they let the batsman run for extra runs. This can be happened by overthrowing or by misfielding.

Types of dismissals (outs)

There are different types of outs in cricket by which a batsman can see back the dressing room.

1.bowled out

2.caught out

3.run out

4.stump out

5.leg before wicket (LBW)

6.hit wicket

7.hit the ball twice

8.obstructed the field

9.handled the ball

10.timed out