All sports like to have their own peculiar terms and expressions but cricket perhaps has more than most. For example, what does it mean to be standing at silly mid on, or in the slips? And what does it mean if the commentator says that the batsman has been bowled LBW?
The alien nature of some of cricket's terms was brought home to me when myself and an English friend had a holiday in the US. I remember a long hot Greyhound bus trip from Vegas to Houston where we found ourselves in aminated conversation with a couple of baseball fanatics. We were trying to explain the basic concepts of cricket to our new American friends, and they were trying to explain baseball to us. What we found was that although the basic premises of both sports may be fairly straightforward, there's a lot of jargon and terminology that is used which can get in the way of understanding!
However, before going on to demystify some of those oddball cricket expressions, I think it's probably worth trying to explain the basic premise of cricket. Doing that in one paragraph may be challenging but here goes! Whether we're talking about 5-day Test matches, 1-day matches, or the new Twenty20 shortened version of cricket, the basic aim is to score as many runs (points) as possible and then ensure that the opposition team scores less. Points are scored either by hitting the ball beyond a boundary rope or, alternatively, by hitting the ball within the boundary rope and running between the wickets. Each time that a batsman runs from one end of the scoring zone to the other, 1 run is awarded.
With that summary in mind, let's start to look at some of the terms and expressions that spectators can benefit from understanding:
Wickets, stumps and bails:
Wickets are the sticks that are erected at either end of the scoring zone. Wickets are comprised of three 28 inch vertical sticks (called stumps) that are stuck into the ground, with a total width between the outermost stumps of 9 inches. There are also two smaller sticks, called bails, which are placed along the top of the stumps. The bowler will aim to deliver the cricket ball towards the wickets and if they knock any of the stumps over or the bails off, then the batsman is out. The batsman will therefore try to stop the ball from hitting the wickets, using his bat.
The crease:
Within the scoring zone, there are lines marked that represent demarcation points and which are referred to as creases. There's a bowling crease, which effectively is a line beyond which the bowler's feet must not go when they are bowling. And then there's a batting crease. If the batsman is outside the batting crease, then the fielding team can run them out by hitting the wicket with the ball. That's why you often see batsmen lunging to try to get their bat back towards their wicket.
Ways of getting out (including run outs and the L.B.W. rule)
There are four main ways that a batsman can be got out. We've already covered the fact that they are out if their wicket is knocked over. The second way of getting out is if you hit the ball up into the air and one of the opposition players catches it. The third way of getting out is being run out. All this means is that whilst the batsman runs between the wickets, the opposition team have retrieved the ball and thrown it and hit the wickets that the player is running towards. That will make sense to people who play baseball as it's similar to not making it to base. The fourth main way of getting out is if the umpire decides that you have been bowled L.B.W. This abbreviation just stands for Leg Before Wicket. Being bowled out in this way means that the bowler's delivery would have hit the wickets if it hadn't been for the fact that it hit the batsman's legs.
How's that?!
This impassioned scream can be heard frequently, usually emanating from the bowling team's wicket keeper. It is a request, aimed at the umpire, that the batsman should be called out. Typically, it happens when the wicket keeper thinks that the ball has taken an edge off the batsman's bat and they have then caught the ball. The umpire will then adjudicate whether the batsman is out or still in.
Fielding positions (including silly mid on and slips):
The simple truth is that you don't really need to know the names of the various fielding positions in order to enjoy watching cricket. However, the sport does employ some very odd terminology to denote some of the fielding positions. This includes gully, slips, square leg, mid-wicket, cover, point, third man, fine leg, long off, long on, and silly mid on. It would take forever to explain all those positions but I'll cover off two of them.
Slips
No, this doesn't mean that the fielders were an item of women's undergarments. Instead, it is a series of positions behind the batsman's wicket and slightly off to the side. The idea is that if the batsman attempts a shot and gets a slight edge off the bat, then the fielders in the slip positions will be well positioned to catch the errant attempted shot.
Silly mid on
Normally there will be a fielder positioned in what is called the mid on position. They are there to guard against the batsman attempting to hit the ball back from where the bowler came from. Usually the mid off position is quite a distance from the batsman but occasionally the fielding captain will call his mid on player forward, bringing them in to be positioned very close to the batsman. This is an aggressive strategy and is usually used where it is felt that the batsman is vulnerable and/or not very good. The modifier "silly" is very apt as the fielder is in extreme danger of having his head taken off if the batsman decides to hit cleanly through the ball from that distance!
Cricket commentary terms:
The people most guilty of using cricket jargon are often the expert commentators on TV, the radio, and the web. To illustrate this, here's a piece of commentary from the BBC's Ben Dirs, taken from a recent Ashes match between England and Australia:
"Swanny's on! And his first ball's a full toss - Punter plonks a size 9 down the pitch and gives it the treatment. But that's a doozy from Swann next up, getting one to grip and rip back at Punter and just miss his off-peg. More turn, but this time it's too short and Ponting pulls him away for one."
I'll have a go at translating that it plain English for you:
"Swann is on! And his first received ball reaches him without bouncing. Ponting steps forward and gives it the treatment. But that's a great delivery from Swann on his next delivery, getting the ball to grip and rip back at Ponting and just missing the outside stump. More turn on the ball, but this time it's too short and Ponting pulls him away for one run."
Summary:
I've provided an overview of some of the cricket terminology and jargon that you are likely to come across if you take an interest in the sport. However, this only really scratches the surface and a whole book could be written about cricket's strange terminology. I'll leave you with just two more to finish with, namely duck and maiden. When a batsman gets out without scoring a run, they are said to have scored a duck. If they are out from the first ball, then this is a golden duck. And if the bowler manages to bowl a whole over (6 deliveries) without conceding a run, then they are said to have achieved a maiden. I hope that this has whetted your appetite to learn more about cricket. As a teaser, here are some additional terms that I'll leave you to explore: follow-on, googly, night-watchman, yorker, carrying one's bat, jaffa and box. Let me just say that you don't want a jaffa of a Yorker to bit you in the box!
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_terminology
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/8143 739.stm