This article is about the sport. For the insect, see Cricket (insect). For other uses, see Cricket (disambiguation).

Bowler Shaun Pollock bowls to batsman Michael Hussey. The paler strip is the cricket pitch. The two sets of three wooden stumps on the pitch are the wickets. The two white lines are the creases.

A Test match between South Africa and England in January 2005. The men wearing black trousers on the far right are the umpires. Test cricket, first-class cricket and club cricket are played in traditional white uniforms and with red cricket balls, while professional One-day cricket is usually played in coloured uniforms and with white balls.

A One-Day International match at The Melbourne Cricket Ground between Australia and India. The batsmen are wearing yellow, while the fielding team is wearing blue.
Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport contested by two teams, usually of eleven players each. A cricket match is played on a grass field, roughly oval in shape, in the centre of which is a flat strip of ground 22 yards (20.12 metres) long, called a cricket pitch. At each end of the pitch is a wooden construction called a wicket.
The bowler, a player from the fielding team, hurls a cricket ball from the vicinity of one wicket towards the other. The ball usually bounces once before reaching the batsman, a player from the opposing team. In defence of the wicket, the batsman plays the ball with a wooden cricket bat. Meanwhile, the other members of the bowler's team stand in various positions around the field as fielders, players who retrieve the ball in an effort to stop the batsman scoring, and if possible to get him or her out. The batsman - if he or she does not get out - may run between the wickets, exchanging ends with a second batsman (the "non-striker"), who has been waiting near the bowler's wicket. Each completed exchange of ends scores one run. More runs are available if the batsman hits the ball to the boundary of the playing area, without a fielder intercepting it. The match is won by the team that scores the most runs.
Cricket has been an established team sport for hundreds of years. It originated in its modern form in England and is most popular in the present and former members of the Commonwealth. Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world.[1][2][3] More than a hundred cricket-playing nations are recognised by the International Cricket Council.[4] In the countries of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, cricket is the most popular sport. It is also a major sport in England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean, which are collectively known in cricketing parlance as the West Indies. There are also well-established amateur club competitions in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Kenya, Nepal and Argentina, among others.
The sport is followed with passion in many different parts of the world. It has even occasionally given rise to diplomatic outrage, the most notorious being the Basil D'Oliveira affair which led to the banning of South Africa from sporting events. Other examples include the Bodyline series, played between England and Australia in the early 1930s, and the 1981 underarm bowling incident involving Australia and New Zealand.
Contents[hide]
1 Overview
2 Results
3 Laws of cricket
3.1 Players and officials
3.1.1 Players
3.1.2 Umpires
3.1.3 Scorers
3.2 The playing field
3.2.1 The pitch
3.2.2 The nature of the pitch
3.2.3 Parts of the field
3.2.4 Placements of players
3.3 Match structure
3.3.1 The toss
3.3.2 Overs
3.3.3 End of an innings
3.3.4 Playing time
3.3.5 Batting
3.3.6 Run scoring
3.3.7 Extras
3.4 Bowling and Dismissals
3.4.1 Bowling
3.4.2 Dismissal of a batsman
3.5 Fielding
3.6 Other roles
3.6.1 Captain
3.6.2 Runners
3.6.3 Substitutes
4 History
5 Forms of cricket
5.1 Test cricket
5.2 One-day cricket
5.2.1 Twenty20 Cricket
5.3 First-class matches
5.4 Other forms of cricket
6 International structure
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
//

Overview

A traditional cricket ball. The white stitching is known as the seam.As one-day games are often played under floodlights, a white ball is used to aid visibility.

A cricket bat, front and back sides.
The aim of the batting team is to score as many runs as possible. A run is scored when both batsmen successfully move to their respective opposite ends of the pitch. (The batsmen will usually only attempt to score runs after the striker has hit the ball, but this is not required by the rules—the batsmen can attempt runs at any time after the ball has been bowled.) Runs are also scored if the batsman propels the ball to the boundary of the playing area (scoring six runs if the ball crosses the boundary without having touched the ground or four runs otherwise), or if the bowler commits some technical infringement.
The aim of the bowler's team is to get each batsman out (this is called a "taking a wicket", or a "dismissal"). Dismissals are achieved in a variety of ways. The most direct way is for the bowler to bowl the ball in such a way that it hits the stumps, dislodging the bails. While the batsmen are attempting a run, the fielders may attempt to dismiss either batsman by using the ball to knock the bails off the set of stumps to which the batsman is closest, before he has grounded himself or his bat in the crease. Other ways for the fielding side to dismiss a batsman include catching a struck ball before it touches the ground, or having the batsman adjudged "LBW" (leg before wicket, i.e. attempting to block the ball from hitting the stumps using his body, which is prohibited). Once the batsmen are not attempting to score any more runs, the ball is "dead" and is bowled again (each attempt at bowling the ball is a "ball" or a "delivery").
The game is divided into overs of six (legal) balls. At the end of an over, the batting and bowling ends will be swapped, and the bowler replaced by another member of the fielding side. The two umpires also change positions at this time (the umpire previously at square-leg becomes the bowler's umpire at what is now the bowling end, and vice versa), and the fielding positions are rearranged.
Once out, a batsman is replaced by the next batsman in the team's line-up. (The batting side can reorder their line-up at any time, but no batsman may bat twice in one innings.) The innings (singular) of the batting team ends when the tenth batsman is given out, since there always must be two batsmen on the field. When this happens, the team is said to be "all out". (In limited overs cricket the innings ends either when the batting team is all out or a predetermined number of overs has been bowled.) At the end of an innings, the two teams exchange roles, the fielding team becoming the batting team and vice versa.
A team's score is reported in terms of the number of runs scored and the number of batsman that have been dismissed. For example, if five batsmen have been given out and the team has scored 224 runs, they are said to have scored 224 for the loss of 5 wickets (shortened to "224 for 5" and written 224/5 or, in Australia, "5 for 224" and 5/224).
The team that has scored more runs at the end of the completed match wins. Different varieties of the game have different definitions of "completion"; for instance there may be restrictions on the number of overs, the number of innings, and the number of balls in each innings.

Results
Main article: The result in cricket
If the team that bats last has all of its batsmen dismissed before it can reach the run total of the opposing team, it is said to have "lost by (n) runs" (where n is the difference between the two run totals). If however, the team that bats last exceeds the opposing team's run total before its batsmen are dismissed, it is said to have "won by (n) wickets", where n is the difference between the number of wickets conceded and 10. For instance, a team that passes its opponents' score whilst only losing six wickets would be said to have "won by four wickets".
If, in a two-innings-a-side match, one team's combined first and second innings total fails to reach its opponent's first innings total, there is no need for the opposing team to bat again. The team with the greater score is said to have won by an innings and (n) runs, where n is the difference between the two teams' totals.
If all the batsmen of the team batting last are dismissed with the scores exactly equal then the match is a tie; this result is very rare in matches of two innings a side. In the traditional form of the game, if the time allotted for the match expires before either side can win, then the game is declared a draw.
If the match has only a single innings per side, then a maximum number of deliveries for each innings is often imposed. Such a match is called a "limited overs" or "one-day" match, and the side scoring more runs wins regardless of the number of wickets lost, so that a draw cannot occur. If this kind of match is temporarily interrupted by bad weather, then a complex mathematical formula known as the Duckworth-Lewis method is often used to recalculate a new target score. A one-day match can also be declared a "no-result" if fewer than a previously agreed number of overs have been bowled by either team, in circumstances that make normal resumption of play impossible; for example, an extended period of bad weather.

Laws of cricket
For more details on this topic, see Laws of cricket.
The game is played in accordance with 42 laws, which have been developed by the Marylebone Cricket Club in discussion with the main cricketing nations. Teams may agree to alter some of the rules for particular games. Other rules supplement the main laws and change them to deal with different circumstances. In particular, there are a number of modifications to the playing structure and fielding position rules that apply to one innings games that are restricted to a set number of fair deliveries.

Players and officials

Players
For more details on this topic, see Cricketer.
A team consists of eleven players. Depending on his or her primary skills, a player may be classified as a specialist batsman or bowler. A balanced team usually has five or six specialist batsmen and four or five specialist bowlers. Teams nearly always include a specialist wicket-keeper because of the importance of this fielding position. Of late, the role of specialist fielder has also become important in a team. Each team is headed by a captain, who is responsible for making tactical decisions such as determining the batting order, the placement of fielders and the rotation of bowlers.
A player who excels in both batting and bowling is known as an all-rounder. One who excels as a batsman and wicket-keeper is known as a "wicket-keeper/batsman", sometimes regarded as a type of all-rounder. True all-rounders are rare and valuable players; most players focus on either their batting or their bowling.

Umpires
For more details on this topic, see Umpire (cricket).
Two on-field umpires preside over a match. One umpire will stand behind the end of the pitch from which the ball is bowled, and adjudicate on most decisions. The other (the "square leg umpire") will stand near the fielding position called square leg, which offers a side view of the batsman, and assist on decisions for which he or she has a better view. In some professional matches, they may refer a decision to an off-field third umpire, who has the assistance of television replays. In international matches an off-field match referee ensures that play is within the laws of cricket and the spirit of the game.

Scorers
For more details on this topic, see Scorer.
Two scorers are appointed; usually, one is provided by each team. The laws of cricket specify that the official scorers are to record all runs scored, wickets taken and (where appropriate) overs bowled. They are to acknowledge signals from the umpires, and to check the accuracy of the score regularly both with each other and, at playing intervals, with the umpires. In practice scorers also keep track of other matters, such as bowlers' analyses, the rate at which the teams bowl their overs, and team statistics such as averages and records. In international and national cricket competitions, the media often require notification of records and statistics, so unofficial scorers often keep tally for broadcast commentators and newspaper journalists. The official scorers occasionally make mistakes, but unlike umpires' mistakes these can be corrected after the event.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground during the 1992 Cricket World Cup.

The playing field
For more details on this topic, see Cricket field.
The cricket field consists of a large circular or oval-shaped grassy ground. There are no fixed dimensions for the field but its diameter usually varies between 450 feet (137 metres) and 500 feet (150 metres). On most grounds, a rope marks the perimeter of the field and is known as the boundary.

The pitch
For more details on this topic, see Cricket pitch.

A wicket consists of three stumps that are hammered into the ground, and topped with two bails.
Most of the action takes place in the centre of this ground, on a rectangular clay strip usually with short grass called the pitch. The pitch measures 10 × 66 feet (3.05 × 20.12 m).
At each end of the pitch three upright wooden stakes, called the stumps, are hammered into the ground. Two wooden crosspieces, known as the bails, sit in grooves atop the stumps, linking each to its neighbour. Each set of three stumps and two bails is collectively known as a wicket. One end of the pitch is designated the "batting end" where the batsman stands and the other is designated the "bowling end" where the bowler runs in to bowl. The area of the field on the side of the line joining the wickets where the batsman holds his bat (the right-hand side for a right-handed batsman, the left for a left-hander) is known as the "off side", the other as the "leg side" or "on side".
Lines drawn or painted on the pitch are known as creases. Creases are used to adjudicate the dismissals of batsmen and to determine whether a delivery is legal.

A standard cricket ground.

The nature of the pitch
Pitches vary in consistency, and thus in the amount of bounce, spin, and seam movement available to the bowler. Hard pitches are usually good to bat on because of high but even bounce. Dry pitches tend to deteriorate for batting as cracks often appear, and when this happens spinners can play a major role. Damp pitches, or pitches covered in grass (termed "green" pitches), allow good fast bowlers to extract extra bounce and seam movement. Such pitches tend to offer help to fast bowlers throughout the match, but become better for batting as the game goes on.

Parts of the field
For a one-innings match played over a set number of fair deliveries, there are two additional field markings. A painted oval is made by drawing a semicircle of 30 yards (27.4 m) radius from the centre of each wicket with respect to the breadth of the pitch and joining them with lines parallel, 30 yards (27.4 m) to the length of the pitch. This line, commonly known as the "circle", divides the field into an infield and outfield. Two circles of radius 15 yards (13.7 m), centred on each wicket and often marked by dots, define the "close-infield". The infield, outfield, and the close-infield are used to enforce fielding restrictions.

Placements of players
For more details on Fielding positions, see fielding positions in cricket.

The standard fielding positions in cricket for a right-handed batsman. The spots are only indicative. Only nine fielders are available in addition to the bowler and wicketkeeper, so there are always many unprotected areas.
The team batting always has two batsmen on the field. One batsman, known as the "striker", faces and plays the balls bowled by the bowler. His or her partner stands at the bowling end and is known as the "non-striker".
The fielding team has all eleven of its players on the ground, and at any particular time, one of these will be the bowler. The player designated as bowler must change after every over. The wicket-keeper, who generally acts in that role for the whole innings, stands or crouches behind the wicket at the batting end. The captain of the fielding team spreads his or her remaining nine players — the fielders — around the ground to cover most of the area. Their placement may vary dramatically depending on strategy. Each position on the field has a unique label.

Match structure

The toss
For more details on this topic, see toss (cricket).
The two opposing captains toss a coin before the match, and the captain who wins chooses either to bat or bowl first. The captain's decision will be based on whether the team's bowlers are likely to gain immediate advantage from the pitch and weather conditions (these can vary significantly), or whether it is more likely that the pitch will deteriorate and make batting more difficult later in the game.