Sports: The Wickets, Stumps and Bails of Cricket
Cricket was invented and is massively popular in England. Thanks to the expansion of the British Empire throughout history, cricket is now played all over the world.
History
The first game of cricket was played during the Tudor times of the 16th century in southern England. The earliest reference to the sport was in 1598, when it was called crekett. It is believed that the name originates from either the Dutch word krick, meaning stick, or the Old English words crick or cryce, which mean crutch or staff.
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Equipment
Cricket is played between two teams of 11 players on a grassy field of nonstandard sizes.
The majority of the game’s action is played on a rectangular strip of ground in the center of the field known as the pitch. At either end of the pitch, placed 22 yards (20 meters) apart are wickets.
Wickets are sets of three wooden stakes, known as stumps, placed vertically in the ground. Resting between the tops of the three stumps are two smaller sticks known as bails.
Cricket is played with a long, paddle-shaped bat with a cylindrical handle. The bats are normally made of white willow.
Cricket balls are made of string wound around a cork center and are covered in hard red leather. The balls are roughly 9 inches n circumference, and have two white parallel laces stitches along their centers. Since these balls are extremely hard and can reach speeds of more than 90 miles per hour, players typically wear thick gloves, helmets, and pads on the knees and shins.
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Rules
Before every cricket match, a coin is tossed to decide which team bats first. The winner of the coin toss can choose either to bat, or to pitch –or bowl – to the batting team.
The object of the game is to score more runs than the other team and to dismiss the other team. A run is scored when a player hits a ball thrown at him by the other team’s bowler and runs from one end of the pitch to the other.
To use what are probably more familiar terms, cricket is vaguely similar like baseball, only with one base instead of three.
Teams continue to bat until all of their players have hit, or are dismissed – the equivalent of being called out in baseball. A batter can be called out in several ways. The most common outs are when the other team catches hit ball, if a bowled ball passes the batter and knocks over a wicket, if a batter knocks over his wicket, if the batter is tagged, or if the batter touches the ball while not batting.
Cricket matches are notoriously long, and typically last as long as 5 days. This could be one of the reasons why the sport has never caught on in the States.
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