Cricket, also known as the gentlemen's game, was first played in the 16th century in England. A bat and ball are the two major components used to define the sport.
Cricket is played between two teams where each team consists of eleven players performing various roles. Cricket action is on a circular or oval shaped grounds and the centre is the location of the 22-yard cricket pitch. This pitch has a major role in determining the outcome of the match as judged by two on-field umpires.
The British took the game of cricket around the globe. In 1877, the first test match between England and Australia was played at Melbourne. Cricket was included for the first time in the Summer Olympics in 1900 but due to the length of a match, it was removed.
The International Cricket Council=ICC and the Marylebone Cricket Club=MCC maintain the rules of cricket also known as the Laws of Cricket.
Each team has to bat and bowl at least once depending upon the format of the game. The objective of the team batting first is to score as many runs as they possibly can. The team batting second has to score one more run than their opponents to win the match.
Cricket consists of three parts: batting, bowling and fielding. Batting is the part of the game where the batsmen wearing heavily padded equipment play to score runs. A batsman has two areas to score on, the offside and the onside. Bowling is the part where the bowlers look to use the 5.5-ounce leather ball to dismiss the batsman. There are ten ways of dismissing a batsman in cricket.
Fielding, although not as important as the other two, includes the job of preventing the opposition from stealing runs and catching the ball to dismiss the batsman. Fielding can play a useful part in the overall result.
Cricket is a sport dependent on weather and is usually played in the summer months in Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
The first and original format is Test Cricket, which can last up to five days, sometimes without a result. Each team can have two innings of batting and bowling.
The third format is Twenty-Twenty or T20 that was first played in England in 2003. It is the most popular format of cricket wherein each team bats and bowls for 20 overs only.
One-Day Internationals=ODIs were introduced in 1971 and produce a definitive result over the course of a single day with each team batting and bowling for 50 overs.