Explain cricket to me. - by june gloom
EvaUnit02 on 29/7/2009 at 20:17
It's worth noting that a cricket ball is strong/heavy enough to break bones. I.e. cracking your skull.
Hence why casual games, such as those played by kids in PE class, tend to use tennis balls.
D'Juhn Keep on 29/7/2009 at 20:57
Quote Posted by Sulphur
The basic idea is the same, whatever the format: the batting team tries to tote up as many runs as possible within the 10 wickets they have, and once they're done, they switch places with the bowling team in an effort to dissuade them from reaching or exceeding the same score, in which case they (the previous batting team) win, or their opponents (the fellows who were bowling) win instead.
I think the problem here is that the American view of cricket is exclusively the Test game, not the relative simplicity of one-day or 20-20.
Test matches last for up to 5 days. Let's say England win the toss and choose to bat first. They get 500 runs before losing all their wickets halfway through the second day. Australia then get a chance to bat. Let's assume Australia get 500 runs before losing all their wickets halfway through the 3rd day. England then get their second innings - another chance to bat. From here there are several outcomes: 1) England score lots of runs and either lose all their wickets or "declare" and make Australia bat without losing all their (England's wickets), Australia then lose all their wickets without making the combined total of England's 2 innings - England wins!
2) England are bowled out quickly, scoring few runs. Australia then get to bat their second innings, score more runs in their 2 innings than England have - Australia wins!
3) England score lots of runs, lose all their wickets or declare, Australia bat again but can't get enough runs to beat England's score and
also don't lose all their wickets before the end of the 5th day - Draw!
I'm also missing out loads of stuff but I fear this is unhelpfully confusing already!
Inline Image:
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/5095/c5c0ae2d5e1855414ffbaa0.jpgTurtle on 29/7/2009 at 21:48
Can someone explain the sweater vest?
Aja on 29/7/2009 at 21:50
good cricket confusion picture
Chade on 29/7/2009 at 21:58
Two teams of men take turns drinking beer.
The team not drinking goes out to an oval somewhere and pretends they are playing some sort of game. This keeps their wives happy.
This can last for up to five days, depending on how long the men can fool their wives.
demagogue on 29/7/2009 at 23:11
It is interesting at least to see how baseball might have evolved out of cricket, like almost specific responses to the rules.
It separates "runs" from the score by making the run a single circuit and a player can only make one point when he completes it; a "strike" is the analog of striking the wicket (if you get 3); a "ball" is when the ball goes wide and (after 4) you get a free run. It's like they streamlined the game on the big-scale (of runs), but drew it out on the small-scale (of individual thrower-batsman exchanges), so there's more for the individual player but less for the team on-whole. I guess that's all obvious, but still interesting.
I was never one to look down on another culture's sports, and I can appreciate seeing connections between them. Like I never understood how someone would like American football but not rugby and vice-versa, or like baseball but not cricket or vice-versa. In both cases, they take a concept and spin it a slightly different way, so if you like one you should like the other. I try to, anyway.
ercles on 30/7/2009 at 00:45
Turtle: Test cricket requires it's players to wear "whites" as their uniform, similar to how wimbledon players must wear white. Some colour is allowed to distinguish the teams, but it's generally white on white. Basically when they are cold they whack on a vest. The reason everything looks old school is that Test cricket is pretty big on tradition, so they don't tend to update the uniforms, ever.
One of the great traditions of Australian cricket is the baggey green, the hat worn by Ricky Ponting in the picture above. It's the traditional hat presented to an Australian player when he gets the call to play test cricket, and they wear the same hat throughout their career. The fact that they hat looks identical to those worn by great players a century ago, and the fact that each hat is numbered makes them a very big deal in Australian cricket culture.
ZylonBane on 30/7/2009 at 00:48
Quote Posted by demagogue
I was never one to look down on another culture's sports, and I can appreciate seeing connections between them. Like I never understood how someone would like American football but not rugby and vice-versa, or like baseball but not cricket or vice-versa.
You can't understand why people wouldn't like a sport where the matches can last literally DAYS? Seriously? :erg:
Americans have NASCAR, the English have cricket.
AltF4 on 30/7/2009 at 01:08
@ Chade.
Correct :D
Except that you've forgotten the rule that the visting team must drink at least 10 cans of beer per man per hour on the plane trip over to England. Ah David Boon, how we miss thee...
