Cricket

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For information regarding the insect, see: Cricket (insect); for other uses, see Cricket (disambiguation).

Cricket is a sport. It is played between two teams of eleven players each who score points by running between two sets of three small, wooden posts called wickets. Each of the wickets is at one end of a rectangle of flattened grass called the pitch. Around the pitch is a much larger oval of grass called the cricket ground.

[edit] The Rules of Cricket

One of the teams is called the batting team; they only have two players playing at any one time. The other team is called the fielding team who have all eleven of their players playing at any one time. The two players of the batting team stand at each end of the pitch in front of each wicket and, holding a bat, are called batsmen (or batswomen). One of the players of the fielding team bowls the ball to one of the batsmen - this player is called the bowler. Bowling the ball means that the ball is thrown by the bowler while he keeps his arm straight. The batsman must make sure that the bowler does not hit the wicket with the ball. They do this by hitting the ball with their bat. If the ball does hit the wicket, the batsman is out and must leave and be replaced by another player from the team. He may also get out LBW. LBW stands for "leg before wicket", and this is an out given by the umpire if the ball hits the batsman's body without hitting the bat but would have hit the wickets if he was not in the way.

Once a batsman hits the ball he may run to the opposite wicket, while his teammate runs to their wicket. If the batsmen are able to do this then they score one run. However if any member of the fielding team hits one of the wickets with the ball before the batsmen can reach it, that batsman is out and must leave the pitch.

Another way that the fielding team can get the batsman out is by catching a ball that one of the batsmen hits before it bounces on the ground. However if the batsman hits the ball and it goes outside the cricket ground without bouncing then that batsman scores 6 runs. If the ball goes outside the ground after having bounced, he scores 4 runs.

Play continues until ten batsmen are made out, this is because there must be two batsmen on the pitch in order for the game to continue. At this time the batting and fielding teams swap round with the fielding team becoming the batting team and the batting team becoming the fielding team. In some games each team plays the role of the batting team and the fielding team once, while in other days each team plays the role of batting and fielding teams twice. In some games there is also a time limit and if this time limit is passed without the game finishing then it is called a draw. This means that some games last for five days but still end in a draw.

[edit] Where cricket is played

Cricket is popular in many countries. The countries where cricket is most popular compete in games which are called Test matches; those countries are India, Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and England as well as a group of Caribbean nations that compete together as a team called the West Indies. Cricket is also played in Kenya, Canada, Bermuda,various European countries and also Guyana new cricket stadium. These teams can only play One Day cricket, not Test cricket.