Cricket
Cricket
SPORT
WRITTEN BY:
Marcus K. Williams
Rex Alston
Andrew Longmore
LAST UPDATED: Oct 17, 2019 See Article History
History
Origin
Technical development
Until early in the 19th century all bowling was underhand, and
most bowlers favoured the high-tossed lob. Next came
“the round-arm revolution,” in which many bowlers began
raising the point at which they released the ball. Controversy
raged furiously, and in 1835 the MCC rephrased the law to allow
the hand to be raised as high as the shoulder. The new style led
to a great increase in pace, or bowling speed. Gradually bowlers
raised the hand higher and higher in defiance of the law.
Matters were brought to a head in 1862 when an England team
playing against Surrey left the field at London’s Kennington Oval
in protest over a “no ball” call (i.e., an umpire’s decision that
the bowler has thrown an illegal pitch). The argument centred
on whether the bowler should be allowed to raise his arm above
the shoulder. As a result of this controversy, the bowler was in
1864 officially accorded liberty to bowl overhand (but not to
cock and straighten the arm). This change dramatically altered
the game, making it yet more difficult for a batsman to judge the
ball. Already a bowler was allowed to take a running start from
any direction and for any distance. Once the bowler was allowed
to release overhand, the ball could then reach speeds above 90
mph (145 km/hr). Though this is not as fast as the pitching
speed in baseball, cricket has an additional twist in that the ball
is usually delivered so as to bounce on the pitch (field) before
the batsman can hit it. Thus, the ball may curve to the right or
the left, bounce low or high, or spin toward or away from the
batsman.
Batsmen learned to protect themselves with pads and batting
gloves, and a cane handle increased the resilience of the bat.
Only the best batsmen, however, could cope with fast bowling,
because the poor condition of most pitches made it yet more
difficult for a batsman to predict the motion of the ball. As the
grounds improved, however, batsmen grew accustomed to the
new bowling style and went on the offensive. Other new bowling
styles were also discovered, causing batsmen to adjust their
technique further.
In the early 20th century so many runs were being scored that
debate ensued on reforming the “leg-before-wicket” law, which
had been introduced in the 1774 laws to prohibit a batsman from
using his body to prevent the ball from hitting his wicket. But
the heavy scores were actually due to the performances of
several outstanding batsmen, such as W.G. Grace, Sir John Berry
Hobbs, and K.S. Ranjitsinhji (later the maharaja of Nawanagar).
This was cricket’s golden age.
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International cricket
Australia: Cricket
The major summer sport is cricket. Introduced by a British ship’s crew,
cricket arrived in Australia in 1803. Play among cricket clubs began…
Australia
One of the founding members of the ICC, Australia remains one
of its most powerful countries both on and off the field. The
history of cricket in Australia dates to 1803 when the game was
introduced by the crew of a British ship. The first intercolonial
match took place in 1851 between Victoria and Tasmania, and by
the end of the 19th century teams from England were touring
Australia regularly. The first official Test match was played
in Melbourne in 1877 by Australia and England, beginning the
oldest rivalry in international cricket, a series that became
known as The Ashes (see Test Matches below).
D.M. Jones, batsman for Australia's team in a cricket Test match, placing the ball to the
leg side against England's team.Colorsport
Pakistan
The development of cricket in Pakistan has been
chaotic, quixotic, and exotic in roughly equal measure. Under the
leadership of Imran Khan, Pakistan won the 1992 World Cup, but
often its cricket was blighted by political interference and
scandal. A low point was reached in 2010: To begin with, the
national team was in virtual exile, unable to persuade other
countries to play in Pakistan for fear of terrorist attacks in the
wake of an assault in Lahore on the visiting Sri Lankan team bus
in March 2009 that left six policemen dead and several players
injured. Moreover, three members of the Pakistani team touring
England were involved in allegations of “spot fixing”—that is,
fixing the results of certain bowls in return for money—and were
banned by the ICC. Huge profits could be made in illegal betting
markets in Asia by predicting the results of individual bowls.
Only a few years earlier several Pakistan players also had been
banned as a result of investigations over match fixing. Yet
Pakistan has also produced a host of talented cricketers such as
Khan, Wasim Akram, Abdul Qadir, and Inzamam-ul-Haq and has
proved itself adept at Twenty20 cricket, winning the T20 World
Cup in 2009.
South Africa
South Africa played its first Test, against England in Port
Elizabeth, as early as in 1889. Cricket has been at the heart of
the country’s sporting culture ever since. When South Africa was
banned from the ICC from 1970 to 1991 because of
its apartheid policies, cricket administrators worked quietly
to integrate nonwhite players into the system, which was based
largely on traditional all-white schools and state teams.
When apartheid was abolished, cricket was far more prepared to
cope with the social and political changes than was rugby
union. Makhaya Ntini, a world-class fast bowler, who made his
international debut for South Africa in 1998 and played in more
than 100 Tests, served as a role model for the new generation of
black cricketers. On the other hand, in 2000 Hansie Cronje, the
captain of South Africa, was banned for match fixing in a
scandal that brought into question the integrity of South African
cricket. It was not until 2003, when South Africa hosted a
successful World Cup, that the rehabilitation of country’s
cricketing reputation was complete. South Africa has always
been a great exporter of cricketers, mainly to England. Allan
Lamb and Robin Smith were prominent members of the England
team in the 1980s and ’90s; Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott
were mainstays of the Ashes-winning side of 2010.
Sri Lanka
Even before Test status was awarded to Sri Lanka in 1981, the
island country was a popular destination for touring teams,
particularly for English teams on the way to Australia by boat.
Given the disadvantages of its relatively small population and of
the civil war that disrupted life on the island for three decades,
Sri Lanka developed into a top cricketing country with
surprising speed. In 1996 it won the World Cup, beating
Australia in the final by playing aggressive, innovative cricket
under the inspired leadership of Arjuna Ranatunga. The victory
instilled belief in a new generation of players that included
Sanath Jayasuriya; Mahela Jayawardene, an elegant and
aggressive batsmen; and Muttiah Muralitharan, who in 2010
became the first bowler to take 800 Test wickets. The Indian
Ocean tsunami of 2004 devastated the cricket-playing regions of
southern Sri Lanka, including the Test match ground at Galle,
and took the lives of many promising young players.
Nonetheless, Sri Lanka recovered to reach the World Cup final
again in 2007. Calamity struck again in 2009, when the Sri
Lankan team’s bus was attacked by terrorists on the way to the
ground for the second Test against Pakistan in Lahore.
West Indies
Cricket has been a unifying force in the Caribbean since the West
Indies became the fourth Test-playing side in 1928. The islands
have generally played other sports as independent countries, but
British colonial influence contributed to the formation of a
united regional team. For a time in the 1970s and ’80s, when the
West Indian team featured a quartet of fast bowlers—led
by Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, and Joel
Garner—and batsmen of the destructive capacity of Sir Viv
Richards and Clive Lloyd, the West Indies were virtually
unbeatable. Blessed with an abundance of talented players and
true pitches, Caribbean cricket has always been played with an
unorthodox flourish, seen most clearly in the batsmanship of Sir
Garfield Sobers, Richards, and Brian Lara.
In the 21st century cricket declined in popularity in the West
Indies, a result of a lack of strong administrative leadership and
because of the increasing appeal of potentially more lucrative
sports such as athletics (track and field), football (soccer)
and basketball. After playing in the finals of the first three
World Cups (1975, 1979, and 1983) and winning the first two,
the West Indian team failed—with the exception of 1996—to
reach even the knockout stage of subsequent World Cups,
including in 2007, as the host of the event.
Zimbabwe
Until Test status was granted to Zimbabwe in 1992, the country’s
best cricketers, such as Colin Bland, played for South Africa.
Indeed, the history of the cricket in the two countries has been
inextricably linked. Long before the newly independent and
renamed Zimbabwe became an associate member of the ICC in
1980, teams representing its Rhodesian forerunner states had
participated in the Currie Cup, the South African domestic first-
class tournament (first in 1904–05, then in the early 1930s, and
again after World War II). Competing in its first World Cup in
1983, Zimbabwe surprised the world by beating Australia,
yet Graeme Hick, arguably the country’s best batsman, left
shortly thereafter to play for England.
Zimbabwean cricket in the early 21st century has been marked
by chaotic administration and political interference. In
2004 Heath Streak was sacked as captain of the national team,
precipitating a crisis from which Zimbabwe took years to
emerge, including an exile from Test cricket that began in 2006
and ended in 2011. The country’s political volatility during this
period had much to do with the situation. In the 2003 World
Cup, for example, England forfeited its match in Zimbabwe,
citing security concerns. During the same tournament, two
Zimbabwe players, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga, wore black
armbands to “mourn the death of democracy” in their country.
Andrew Longmore
Test matches
The first Test match, played by two national teams, was between
Australia and England in Melbourne in 1877, with Australia
winning. When Australia again won at the Oval at Kennington,
London, in 1882, the Sporting Times printed an obituary notice
announcing that English cricket would be cremated and
the ashes taken to Australia, thus creating the “play for the
Ashes.” The Ashes, kept in an urn at Lord’s irrespective of which
country is victorious, are supposed to be those of a bail burned
on the England tour of Australia in 1882–83. For the rest of the
19th century, the two countries met almost yearly. With W.G.
Grace, the greatest cricketer of Victorian England, on its side,
England was often too strong for the Australians, though
Australia had the greatest bowler of this era in F.R. Spofforth
and the first of the great wicketkeepers in J.McC. Blackham.
AshesAshes urn.Daniel Greef
Cricket grounds vary in size from great arenas, such as the main
playing area at Lord’s in London (5.5 acres [2.2 hectares]) and
the even larger Melbourne Cricket Ground, to village greens and
small meadows. Level turf of fine texture is the ideal surface,
but where this is unavailable any artificial covered surface—
such as coir (fibre) matting or artificial turf on a firm base—may
be used. The limits of the playing area are usually marked by a
boundary line or fence.
BRITANNICA QUIZ
Cricket Quiz
What is the slang term given to a ball that is bowled so well that it is
considered unplayable by the batsman?
Runs
The batsman tries to keep the bowler from hitting the wicket,
while also trying to hit the ball sufficiently hard to score a run,
i.e., enable him to run to the other end of the pitch before any
fieldsman can pick up the ball and throw it to either wicket to
knock off the bails. If the wicket is broken, either by a thrown
ball or by the wicketkeeper or bowler with ball in hand, before
either batsman is in his ground, the batsman is dismissed. The
striker does not have to run after he has hit the ball, nor does it
count in any way if he misses the ball or if his body is struck by
it. But if he gets a good hit and thinks he can score a run, he
races for the opposite wicket and his partner runs toward him.
When each has made good his ground by touching his bat beyond
the popping crease at the opposite end, one run is recorded to
the striker; if there is time, each will run back for a second or
more runs, crossing again. If an even number of runs is scored,
the striker will receive the next ball; if an odd number, then the
nonstriker will be at the wicket opposite the bowler and will
face the next ball. Any runs thus made count to the batsman,
otherwise they are extras. When a ball from a hit or any of the
extras mentioned below goes as far as the boundary, the runners
stop and four runs are scored. If the batsman hits the ball full
pitch over the boundary (on the fly), he scores six runs.
Extras
Only runs scored from the bat count to the batsman, but to the
side’s score may be added the following extras: (1) byes (when a
ball from the bowler passes the wicket without being touched by
the bat and the batsmen are able to make good a run); (2) leg
byes (when in similar circumstances the ball has touched any
part of the batsman’s body except his hand); (3) wides (when a
ball passes out of reach of the striker); (4) no balls (improperly
bowled balls; for a fair delivery the ball must be bowled, not
thrown, the arm neither bent nor jerked, and in the delivery
stride some part of the bowler’s front foot must be behind or
covering the popping crease), off which a batsman cannot be out
(except as noted under Methods of dismissal below) and
which, apprised in time by the umpire’s cry of “no ball,” he may
try to hit.
Overs
When a bowler has bowled six balls (occasionally, eight balls),
not counting wides and no balls, he has completed an over. The
batsmen remain where they are and a new over is begun by a
different bowler at the opposite wicket, with a corresponding
adjustment of the positions of the players in the field. If a
bowler delivers a complete over without a run being scored from
the bat (even though the opponents may have scored extras by
means of byes or leg byes), he has achieved a maiden over. In
one-day cricket, no bowler is allowed to bowl more than 10
overs in a 50-over match.
Methods of dismissal
2. He is “bowled out” if the bowler breaks the wicket, i.e., dislodges a bail
with the ball, which includes when the batsman hits the ball into his
own wicket.
3. The batsman is out “leg before wicket” (lbw) if he intercepts with any
part of his person (except his hand) that is in line between wicket and
wicket a ball that has not first touched his bat or his hand and that has
or would have pitched (hit the ground) in a straight line between the
wickets or on the off side provided the ball would have hit the wicket.
The batsman may also be out lbw if he intercepts the ball outside the
off-side stump having made no genuine attempt to play the ball with his
bat.
4. Either batsman is out by a “run out” if, while the ball is in play, his
wicket is broken while he is out of his ground (that is, he does not have
at least his bat in the crease). If the batsmen have passed each other,
the one running for the wicket that is broken is out; if they have not
crossed, the one running from that wicket is out.
5. He is “stumped” if, in playing a stroke, he is outside the popping crease
(out of his ground) and the wicket is broken by the wicketkeeper with
ball in hand.
6. The batsman is out “hit wicket” if he breaks his own wicket with his bat
or any part of his person while playing the ball or setting off for a run.
7. Either batsman is out for handling the ball if, with the hand not holding
the bat, he willfully touches the ball while it is in play, unless with the
consent of the opposing side.
Bowling
Bowling can be right- or left-arm. For a fair delivery, the ball
must be propelled, usually overhand, without bending the elbow.
The bowler may run any desired number of paces as a part of his
delivery (with the restriction, of course, that he not cross the
popping crease). The ball generally hits the ground (the pitch)
before reaching the batsman, although it need not. The first
requisite of a good bowler is command of length—i.e., the ability
to pitch (bounce) the ball on a desired spot, usually at or slightly
in front of the batsman’s feet. The location varies with the pace
of the bowler, the state of the pitch, and the reach and technique
of the batsman. The second requisite is command of direction.
On this foundation a bowler may elaborate with variations—
finger spin (in which the ball rotates on its axis as it moves
towards the batsman), swerve (which describes a ball that
curves towards or away from the batsman once it has bounced
on the pitch), alteration of pace (the speed of the ball)—that lend
deceptiveness and uncertainty as to exactly where and how it
will pitch. A good-length ball is one that causes the batsman to
be uncertain whether to move forward to play his stroke or to
move back. A half volley is a ball pitched so far up to the
batsman that he can drive it fractionally after it has hit the
ground without having to move forward. A yorker is a ball
pitched on or inside the popping crease. A full pitch is a ball that
the batsmen can reach before it hits the ground. A long hop is a
ball short of good length.
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The primary purpose of the spin is to bring the ball up from the
pitch at an angle that is difficult for the batsman to anticipate.
The two swerves (curves) are the “inswinger,” which moves in
the air from off to leg (into the batsman), and the “away
swinger,” or “outswinger,” which swerves from leg to off (away
from the batsman). A “googly” (coined by cricketer B.J.T.
Bosanquet on the 1903–04 MCC tour) is a ball bowled with
fingerspin that breaks unexpectedly in the opposite direction
from that anticipated by the batsman given the motion of the
bowler. A more recent variation in bowling is known as reverse
swing. This delivery was pioneered by Pakistani players,
particularly by bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younnus. If a
bowler is able to deliver at speeds of greater than 85 mph (135
kph), he can achieve reverse swing, meaning that without
altering the grip on the ball or the motion of delivery, the
bowler can cause the ball to swing (curve) in either direction.
This makes it difficult for the batsman to gauge the direction in
which the ball will move, as nothing about the bowler’s motion
is different between the swing and the reverse swing delivery.
Bowlers worldwide now employ this delivery, especially at the
end overs as the batsmen look to dominate the bowler. If a
bowler does not have the pace (speed) to deliver the reverse
swing, another way to cause the ball to move in that fashion is
to tamper with the surface of the ball (by scratching or scuffing
it). Charges of ball tampering increased dramatically in the
1990s.
Batting
A batsman may hit right-handed or left-handed. Good batting is
based on a straight (i.e., vertical) bat with its full face presented
to the ball, although a cross (i.e., horizontal) bat can be used
effectively to deal with short bowling. The chief strokes
are: forward stroke, in which the batsman advances his front leg
to the pitch (direction) of the ball and plays it in front of the
wicket (if played with aggressive intent, this stroke becomes the
drive); back stroke, in which the batsman moves his rear leg
back before playing the ball; leg glance (or glide), in which the
ball is deflected behind the wicket on the leg side; cut, in which
the batsman hits a ball on the uprise (after it has hit the ground
on the off side), square with or behind the wicket; and pull or
hook, in which the batsman hits a ball on the uprise through the
leg side.
Fielding
The ideal fieldsman is a fast runner with quick reactions and the
ability to throw quickly and accurately. He should be able to
anticipate the batsman’s strokes, to move quickly to cut off the
ball in its path, and to judge the flight of the ball in the air to
make a safe catch.
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Wicketkeeping
The wicketkeeper is a key member of the fielding side. He takes
position behind the striker’s wicket, 10 to 20 yards back for the
fast bowlers or directly behind for those of slower pace. He must
concentrate on every ball, being ready to stop a ball that passes
the wicket, to stump a batsman if he leaves his ground, or to
receive a ball returned to him by a fielder.