by Kimberte William

Created on: March 22, 2009

Misunderstood by some loved by many. A sport which has been in around since the 1500's with the first, official international matches being played in 1877. With origins in England cricket quickly spread to the West Indies, India and Australia. Today the 8 most recognised, major cricketing nations are as follows: Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies. Other nations such as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have become more prevalent in recent years. Cricket has three forms in which it is played today.

Test cricket is the original form of cricket. It is the longest form of the game (5 days). This first form of the game has lead to the many misconceptions about cricket in the western world. This is truly a gentleman's sport and many look at cricket as the old Englishman whacking a ball with a paddle, drinking tea for days on end. Whist there is no doubt that cricket's origins were very gentlemanly and hence the sport has kept some of the old traditions, cricket is by no means boring or easy. The whites coupled with the lunch and tea breaks have been kept in this form of the game. The whites are simply traditional and pay homage to the past crickets. The lunch and tea breaks are just necessary intervals needed by players to recuperate temporarily after a long days work. This is much like a half-time in football.

Test cricket is truly a test on the endurance of the players. Games can go up to 5 days ending in a win, loss or draw. Going into the details of the sport would take quite a while so we may skip this. What we must take from the fundamentals of the sport is that it is not for "wimps" or "pansies" like some have dubbed it as. Standing out in the middle with a bat facing down a ball as hard as a baseball which hits the pitch, bounces and comes at you anywhere between 70-100mph is no mean feat. Catching such a ball all day without mitts is no mean feat, covering the large grounds all day to field a ball is also no mean feat. Recently, there has been a shift away from this form of the game which consists of two innings in favour of one which consists of only one.

Dubbed one-day internationals (ODI's), this shorter form of the game consists of 50 overs per side. An over consists of 6 balls (pitches). The objective is simple, one team tries to score the amount of runs set out by the team who bat first within the allotted 50 overs. This form of the game has seen less test cricket being played. More one day games have also

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