Cricket

Cricket : A Gentlemen's Game!

cricket bat and stumps Cricket was invented in the vast fields of England, supposedly by shepherds who herded their flock. Later on this game was shown benevolence by aristocrats, and now has the stature of being England's national game. After a century now, cricket stands in the international arena, with a place of its own.

THE GAME

Cricket involves two teams with 11 players on each side. The captain who wins the toss decides whether his team bats or bowls first. If they bat first , their aim is to score a lot of runs and make sure the other team does not reach that score.

FORMATS OF THE GAME

Cricket is played in many formats , but the most popular are TEST CRICKET and ONE DAY cricket. In TEST cricket game goes on for 5 days, with each team batting twice - if time permits.

ONE DAY is the most popular format, with each team getting 300 balls to score runs. And the other team tries to outscore them within the same number of balls.

KEY PLAYERS

Three functions of the players are 1. BATSMEN, 2. BOWLING 3. FIELDING.

Batsmen - one who scores runs of the balls bowled by the bowler.
Bowler - One who bowls, and tries to get the batsmen "out" (dismissed from the ground).
Fielder - Players (10) who assist the bowler in achieving his goal, and prevent the batsmen from scoring runs.

BATSMEN

The game of cricket mainly revolves around batsmen. Crowds love the batsmen, especially when they wallop the ball all over the ground. Batsmen are the ones who whip up hysteria in the crowd, everybody loves them, they are the Don Juan's of the game.

Many batsmen are good, but only a few are great. Their style, their flair, talent is unique. To each his own - if I can quote this famous phrase.

From the numerous batsmen, from the 11 ICC (International Cricket Committee, London, UK) recognize , only a few achieve immortality. So what is the thing that separates the boys from the men?

Many factors go in deciding, or rather making of a great batsmen. A natural talent is most definite, a good coach (Achrekar who coached Sachin Tendulkar), and obviously performing at the right time.

About the Author

The author, Abhishek Choudhari, is a 24 year old Journalism student from Canada. After studies he wishes to return to India, his beloved home country, and pursue a career in journalism. He has been a freelancer for two years and is also a member of Writers Guild of Alberta.He has also written two short novels (A THING OF BEAUTY, A NAZI'S KARMA) for www.zoetrope.com.

Also by Abhishek Choudhari, an article about Sir Donald Bradman, the pioneer of batting flair.
versions of cricket games