by Bar de Ness

Created on: July 04, 2009   Last Updated: November 03, 2011

Explaining cricket and it's terminology is akin to lecturing about quantum mechanics or the string theory in particle physics.

Cricket is a sport synonymous with England. Just like Rugby it has influenced the world. General terms like "It's not cricket" means that it is not sporting behaviour. To "bowl a maiden over" does not mean you have scored in a nightclub, assuming a maiden still exists in such establishments. Yet a "maiden" is a virgin. It means that out of six balls bowled, no runs (points) were conceded.

Unless an individual has ever played cricket it is unlikely that they will understand it. Unlike football or tennis where the rules of the game are reasonably simple - cricket will baffle the greatest armchair enthusiast. Cricket is a legacy of British influence around the world. It is played all over. In India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies, even the USA, and all regard it's rules and phrases as a common language.

For the uninitaited here is an overview. A failure to understand is not a reflection on an individuals intelligence. A cricket match is contested between two sides each of eleven players. When one side is "in" the other side is "out", and it is the job of the "out" side to get the "in" side out. This is achieved by dismissing the batsmen on the "in" side by several methods.

When a side is batting it is called an "innings", and will last as long as each batsman can hold his wicket. the wicket is what the batsman must protect at all costs - if someone says "you're on a sticky wicket" it means your position is precarious. Unless that is, if they hold their innings for quite a long period and score an extremely high number of runs, in which case the captain will "declare" or "forfeit" the remainder of his innings. It's a tactical decision, and he is hoping the opposition will not be able to match his side's number of runs in the available number of overs. Failure to declare can result in the match drawn, even though one side has more runs than another. In business, If your boss says he's" holding his wicket", it means he has control of the situation and he's not going to declare.

When a batsman is bowled out, a new batsman goes in. When both sides have been in and out, they do it all over again, and this is called the second innings. If your boss suggests you have more than one innings, there is hope for you yet.

Eventually, if all goes to the wire, only one batsman will remain, who will not be allowed to

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>