Learning to love cricket

I've really have no choice, the IPL has taken over sports on TV, and with football (soccer to you) winding down there's not much choice. For a baseball fan, cricket should actually be very easy to understand. The basic idea is the same, someone throws a ball, the other guy tries to hit it.

Picture a baseball diamond, four bases with a pitchers mound in the center. Throw away first and third base, move the pitcher to second base, leave the batter where he is and there you have it. Cricket. There are a couple other modifications of course, but they are minor. First, get rid of the foul lines, the ball can be hit in any direction. This will then necessitate fielders standing to the side and even behind the batter. Make the field in an oval shape to accommodate this arrangement. And add another batter, so you have one at home plate and one at second base. When one runs the other does too, they go back and forth. Behind the batter, replace the umpire with three vertical sticks with two cute little spools balanced on top.

Now it's time for some proper terms. The batter is not, he's the batsman. The pitcher is the bowler. The area between the bases is termed the wicket. The sticks are the stumps. There are eleven players on each team.

The fielders are not allowed to wear gloves except for the chap who stands behind the batsman, termed the wicket keeper, who is allowed a pair of gloves that look like what soccer goalies wear. The two batsmen wear helmets with face shields, heavy pads on their legs and large gloves, picture an ice hockey goalkeeper. The cricket bat is wide and thick, almost flat on the front. There is an umpire dressed in white who generally wears a wide floppy hat.

The teams take turns with one batting and the other bowling and fielding, just like baseball. Play begins an inning (see, same thing) with the fielders strolling out onto the field and taking their positions. The two batsmen then take up positions at the bases. The bowler hands his hat to the umpire who is kind enough to hold it while he is undertaking the strenuous affair that is bowling. The bowler then takes the ball and wanders out into center field for a good long way. He turns and runs full speed towards the wicket, launching the ball as he passes the batsman nearest to him. He may throw the ball directly or bounce it in an attempt to hit the stumps and thus make the batsman change in status to "out". The batsman will protect the stumps and attempt to hit the ball in such a way that he and his partner can run to their opposite bases. There is no requirement to run, if the ball looks to be too easily fielded, both batsman will stay where they are. For each time the batsman do run to the other end, thus switching ends, one run is scored.

A batsman can be out if the stumps are hit by the bowler or by any fielder while a batsman is in between bases. These outs are termed being "bowled" or "run out" respectively. A batsman can also be out if a fielder can catch the ball on the fly, before it touches the ground. This is known as having been "caught". This is not very likely since the fielders have no gloves and when they were younger they never wanted to be fielders anyway so have never really mastered the art of catching. The glory is in the bowler and the batsman, the fielders are not really expected to do much. Even a simple fly ball is an adventure and comical dives and drops are the norm.

A ball hit outside the oval on the fly scores 6 points, a ball that bounces or rolls out scores 4 points.

After throwing six times, the bowler has exhausted himself and completed an "over". He can then retrieve his hat from the umpire and take a place standing in the field. Another fielder is now given the responsibility for bowling and is honored by having his hat carefully tended by the umpire. I should note that bowlers are not allowed to bend their elbow in the throwing, resulting in a highly comical motion. They are allowed however to rub the ball and polish it against their pants in a way that baseball fans would find highly questionable. There's plenty of time to do this between pitches while wandering out to get a good long run in before the throw.

Nine outs (also known as wickets) constitute an inning. At that point the teams switch roles, the fielders going to take their ease in the pavilion while two of their mates are batsman and the other team plays the field and provides the bowler.

Matches may be of differing lengths with varying numbers of innings and/or overs. The so called "test match" goes on seemingly forever, over several days, with each team getting two innings, each of which potentially takes longer than a day to complete. A lunch break and afternoon tea are required to keep the players strong enough to continue. The scores in such a match are astronomical, well into the hundreds, the play is extremely boring since there is little incentive to hit a ball that is not to the batsman's liking since it may be caught. So the process of batting becomes an endless defensive exercise of blocking the ball into the ground. Remember there is never a requirement to run, especially in this type of match where there is plenty of time for that later on.

Too add some "interest" to the sport, in recent times matches with a limited number of overs have been instituted. The above mentioned IPL plays what they call twenty twenty. Each team gets a single inning of twenty overs. So there is some incentive for the batsman to hit the ball in a way to score runs, not just to avoid being out. Based on a flip of the coin, one team bats first and scores as many runs as possible in the twenty overs. This is usually one hundred to two hundred runs. Then the second team takes their twenty overs and tries to score more runs than the first team did. This can be a bit exciting but there is an inevitability to it all, since there is little chance of the miracle comeback that makes most sport interesting right to the end. If the first team runs up a large total, then the second team can have no chance of overtaking them and winning.

There are other variations as well, all developed in an attempt to prevent catatonia in the fans. The players also make an effort to excite the fans. For even the most unimportant event on the field, they are required to shout and jump and hug each other. For example, if a ball is actually caught, then a whole team celebration is required.

Every sport is required to have at least one play that requires an official on the field to make a call based on a little understood and poorly defined rule. Think offsides in soccer, pass interference in football, or pretty much anything in basketball. Cricket has the dreaded "Leg before wicket" (LBW). The batsman's leg pads can make an effective blockade in front of the stumps, however it is not legal to use the leg for that purpose. The ball must be hit with the bat if it is on a path to contact the stumps, not be stopped by the batsman's leg pad. The key to this rule is whether the ball was on a path to hit the stumps or not. If the umpire rules that the ball would not have hit the stumps, then it doesn't matter if the batsman has blocked it with his pads.

This leaves the door open for endless speculation and argument, as every sport needs. On the field, the players are allowed one outburst, like "No way!" if they disagree with the call. Further arguing is considered "a breach of the spirit of the game" and is harshly dealt with. Barging (trash talk) is also not allowed. Fans and commentators however are allowed full rein.

Cricket yields an amazing array of statistics, much like baseball, I think because there is so much time between any activity on the field that minds begin to wander. Yes, there are even fantasy cricket leagues (IFL for example), probably more interesting than watching an actual game. And there are always the incredibly complicated rules to ponder.

How are the Giants doing again?