Cricket - An Aquired Taste

Let's be frank, at first glance cricket is about as exciting as watching paint dry. It also seems to be a sport without any rules or too many rules or just bizarre rules.








After awhile, once you start to understand the sport, you gain an appreciation for it.





In the United States, it is very difficult to see a cricket match. In Scotland, the highlights are on television. Instead of quick snippets of action, you can see long segments of matches. Considering that some of these matches can last hours or days, a long television segment may be required to fully describe the action. It is in watching the highlights at night where I learned the game. I'm still a novice but I can describe to you what I believe.









To start with, imagine baseball where instead of three outs and you change sides, you let one team play all of their outs (27), all their innings (9) at once. So let's say they have all their at bats and score 11 runs. I only use the MLB numbers for a comparision...but in cricket a player is allowed only one out, and basically they play only one inning. However, matches last for hours depending on the skills of both bowler and batter.







Now imagine if our Yankees had all their at bats, then the Red Sox come up and bat and they have to either tie the 11 runs or best the 11 runs with 12.

That's cricket in a nutshell.


The biggest difference is the scores. A cricket player can score points for ground balls, foul balls, home runs, and singles. In the end a good day for a cricket player is 100 points. It is called the century mark.




The field is a circle, so a "baseball foul ball" could be a home run.

Here is the field and how the field is covered by the pitching team. A short stop would be the "Stiff Cover" position.

The "Bowler" is the pitcher. He throws the ball overhanded and is allowed to run up to the line. To see how it is done check the scottish highlights:








This is where most of the action takes place.
The objective of the bowler is to hit the wicket. The objective of the batter is to protect the wicket and hit the ball to score points.


Two batsman run back in forth from the Popper's End to the Knacker's End and vice-versa to score points. Each time they cross the line they get a point.

For more rules go to .



Scotland does not have the best cricket team, but England, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan are the best in the business. Australia has been very good lately and their bowlers are first rate.

I gained appreciate for the sport when I realized how the batters must hit every pitch. If they let it get by them, it hits a wicket and they are out and done for the match. So, imagine Randy Johnson running at you, throwing a ball in the dirt and you have to hit it? That's cricket.

Before you toss it off as being a weird sport with no athletic prowess, think again.

Here's a few videos of what I mean: