Learning Cricket Through an American’s Perspective
It’s a lot easier to comprehend than you might think
This entry is going to be a post in which I will jot down my thoughts, reactions and (at least I’m guessing) confusion in real-time as I try to teach myself this world-renowned sport is all about.
Of course, I first turn to the wonderful place called the Internet. You didn’t think I was going to read this out of a book, did you?
When I look at the layout of the field, it seems pretty straightforward: there’s a strip of dirt in the center of a huge oval and the pitcher (bowler, as it’s known in cricket) throws the ball at the batter (batsman) so he can hit it with his flat, paddle-like bat. As I’d read further, it’s waaaaaaay more complicated than that.
There’re so many new words in this game. Crease. Yorker. LBW. METRE (what does that even mean????).
I think I’m starting to get it. There are two bowlers and two batsmen on either side, and they go back and forth taking turns bowling and batting. There are 11 men on the field for the team that is bowling and two for the ones batting. The teams switch after their inning, similar to baseball.
It’s is still so difficult to understand. Visualizing the descriptions from black and white text to real-life pictures is hard. So naturally, like any student who doesn’t understand what they’re reading, I turned to YouTube for answers. And thank you everything Holy, there’s a video that’s called “How to Explain ODI Cricket to Americans.” I’m not even going to try and understand what “ODI” means (I’d figure it out later, just keep reading).
The video uses fun animations to explain the game in simple terms. I’m taking comfort in the fact that I’m not the only person that has tried to figure this sport out. The one thing I still don’t get is how the game is scored. Cricket games can sometimes go for a full day or two, and many times the scores are in the hundreds.
Another video, this one coming from Slate Magazine, gives a more detailed frame-by-frame description of gameplay.
Now I get it. The main way that teams score runs is when the batters run back and forth from wicket to wicket. Another way they score is hitting the ball out of the boundaries, similar to a home run in baseball. All 11 people on the field will have their turn to bat, unless the team has used up all of their overs. An over is a group of six pitches that can be bowled to the batsman. Once the bowler has used all six balls, the teams switch sides and a new bowler is up.
Oh, and the “ODI” term I described earlier means One-Day International, a style of the game that limits a match to one day. This is required to put in the description because sometimes cricket matches can take days if they play two innings, which means both teams would bat and field twice.
Okay, I think at this point I have a pretty general understanding of the game, and I hope anyone reading this feels the same. Sure, I might not know everything that would be happening if I sat and watched a match at a place like Lord’s Cricket Ground (nor would I fully comprehend the history of that building).
But I feel like now I would at least begin to understand what was happening during a game. And that’s a lot more than what most people can say. I’m just happy with that.
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