Topman - Padding, Helmets, breaks in play every 10 seconds (or less) - I agree with the "Sissies" sentiment.

Just in response to Flanneruk's comment re the "World (!!)" series; I believe that the series owes it's name to an early sponsor, the World newspaper, rather than to global pretensions.

Cricket and baseball are notionally similar and you get a better understanding of the game of cricket by comparing and contrasting with baseball. Briefly, the object of both games is to score more runs than your opposition. While in baseball a run is scored when the batter reaches the home plate, in cricket it's when the batsmen who stand around 22 yards apart exchange positions. In baseball, the innings are fishned with three outs, while in cricket all ten batsmen must be out before it's concluded. Hence 9 innings in baseball and only one or two in cricket. For a batsman to be out, the ball must be caught clean (like catching a fly) and run out (like ground out, except that you have to physically dislodge the bails - two small horizontal pieces resting on top of the stumps, the uprights, before the runner)

Isn't cricket the only game where they stop for tea?

I actually think it makes it even more confusing (if that's possible) to try and compare cricket to baseball. The following link gives a nice compact explanation of the rules of cricket:
http://www.allworldknowledge.com/cricket/

Alec's description is a really good concise way of summarising the differences between baseball and cricket. I would also add that a "home run" in cricket gets you 6 runs and the equivalent of a "ground rule double" gets you 4 runs.

I also think there are lots of similarities between baseball and cricket in that you have different "pitches" - slow deliveries with spin like a curve ball and fast deliveries akin to a fast ball.

Plus you have specialist batsmen and fielders in both games. A catcher's job for example is not wildly different to a wicket keeper and a bowler (like a pitcher) is not expected to be a star batsman.

In both games you sometimes set the field to work against a batsmen's strengths.

Both games have umpires and innings.

Both games have ballparks which are either good for batting or pitching and legendary stadiums. For Wrigley Field read Lords or Fenway Park read Headingley.

Both games even stop when there's rain!!!

So like so much in life what unites us is greater than what divides us

Continued-
There are no strikes and balls in cricket, with a few exceptions. A batsman can stay at the crease (batting box) as long as he likes without getting out. But an illegal delivery by bowler earns a run for the batting side. Batsman will be out when the delivered ball hits the wicket, or when a leg or another part of his body deflects the ball which would have hit the wicket called leg before wicket or lbw. A home run in cricket earns 6 runs, a ground-rule double 4 runs. There is no foul territory. Bowler (pitcher) must deliver the ball without throwing (bending the wrist or elbow), usually bouncing the ball once on the ground. Catcher is called a wicketkeeper. There is a break for lunch (around 40 min) and tea (15 min). Most matches start around 10-11 am and end 6-7 pm.

Cricket is an absolutely spiffing game played by gentlemen and the occasional Cad.
I am off to watch Glamorgan v Warwickshire in the fabulously successful 20 twenty competition tonight.
This game is somewhat shorter than those mentioned so far.
20 overs of 6 balls for each team.
Should be in the pub by 8:15pm.
Hopefully with a smile on my face !!
Muck

:-)

Continued:
A bowler delivers 6 balls (called an over). After an over, another bowler starts delivering the ball from the opposite direction. There are basically two kinds of cricket game. Test and county game in which the innings continues until all batsmen are out (without restricting how many balls - overs - the fielding side can take), and one-day or limited-over game when the number of balls delivered (over) is usually limited to 50 overs (300 balls plus any illegal delivery for which an extra ball is bowled).
Test matches are played between 'Test match' nations (currently 10). Perhaps the most prestigious are the 'Ashes' series between Australia and England. Cricket 'World Cup' is a fairly recent innovation and takes the form of limited-over. There's a fierce rivalry between nations, notably Aus/Eng as mentioned and India/Pakistan.

It's threads like this that make me wish I could meet many of you, I have a big grin on my face and you are all so helpful AND entertaining!

I asked the question because my 16 year old nephew, who lives in Atlanta, is lucky enough to be spending the month of July living and studying at Oxford in a high school program. He emailed the other day that they will be playing cricket. That delights me for many reasons, not the least of which is that
he is a third-generation American-born citizen, and when his great grandparents came through Ellis Island from Eastern Europe in the early 1900s, I doubt they would have imagined having a great grandson who would be playing cricket in Oxford, that is, if they'd heard of Oxford.

Anyway, thanks for all the responses, though I have to admit, the game rules remain arcane to me, but I suppose that's always true when one doesn't grow up knowing the game.

PLEASE, can someone tell me where I can buy a cricket tea towel?
Regards to all

http://www.shopatlords.com/browse.aspx?cid=112

That was HARD!!

thanks for trying Sheila, but apparently Lords isn't prepared to ship to the USA

I remember reading that cricket was more popular than baseball in America around the late 1800s (hard as it may be for the modern American to believe). In fact, Philadelphia was a major centre of cricket action. The reason cricket lost out to baseball has to do with the upper-class pretensions of the players in those days. As a result, the bluecollar workers opted for baseball, eventually wiping off cricket from the American sportscape.

Today's "test cricket" which is the 5 day version, used to be even longer. It was played in 7 days with a rest day in between!! Now those were the days ...

I've always thought test cricket is just an excuse for blokes to sit and watch telly for 5 days without moving.

Talking of which, congratulations to your US compatriot Todd Hamilton for winning another game that goes on for days, The Open Golf Championship.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/default.stm

Elaine

This is Ulster Weavers' own site. If it doesn't work for you, email me, and I'LL buy the bloody thing and send it to you:) I've spent too much of my ever shortening life on this:)

http://www.irishegifts.com/tradepoin.../46/rate_id/0/

There was a lovely movie about a little Jewish boy in the 50's (?) who lived next door to a Jamaican family, the father of which was a cricket legend. The kid collected all the team cards and while he had originally been a dismal player at school, once his neighbor took him under wing, he became pretty good. It was a delightful film. Wish I remembered the name, but it was the third film I watched enroute from Cape Town to London on BA. (Or maybe it was from London to Baltimore....)

The film was <i>Wondrous Oblivion</i> and I can't wait to see it.

Have a look here for left coast cricketing supplies: http://www.modelcraft.com/topgear.htm/

There is nothing hurried about cricket! This from my 1999 diary:

&quot;The local cricket team is drinking it up in the bar, unlike most villages this one has a dedicated cricket ground, not just the village green. However they do not have a pavilion. When the ground was set aside for cricket it was suggested that they should build a pavilion, but wiser heads prevailed and they decided to wait to see if it caught on. Now they have decided to go ahead with building one and have launched an appeal for 50,000 pounds ? it is clearly going to be a small pavilion! They want to finish it for the 2000 season. Not because of any millennium fever, but because that will be exactly 700 years after the ground was first used for cricket. These Kentish men, or is it men of Kent, certainly don?t make hasty decisions.&quot;

After only 20 years my wife now enjoys watching one-day cricket or six man cricket (the Chiangmai Sixes are competed by teams from all over the world) but the attractions of test match cricket still eludes her!

Cricket is catching on here in Thailand.

Welcome to the Europe board, Tangata! Speaking of cricket in Thailand, Tangata, have you perchance visited the Chieng Mai Gymkhana Club? It is Thailand's oldest sports club, founded by British ex-pat public school men around the turn of the century-there's a cricket, rugby, football pitch, squash and tennis, among other sports. Although it is a British (and now Thai and other nationalities) members club, non-members, like American Spygirl here, are welcome. Sitting out on the veranda with a gin and tonic, contemplating the TREE-a magnificent spreading rain tree -now that's some livin! Spygirl can't get enough of these old British colonialist ex-pat clubs in Asia!