
An Explanation of Cricket (2009) - Bud
https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/cricket/explanation.htm?
======
bmsleight_
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the
side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes
in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the
side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes
you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when
he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two
men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men
who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been
out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in,
including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

~~~
CuttlefishXXX
Does anyone know of a good audio recording of this quote?

~~~
cam-
It used to be on tea towels that you could buy for a dollar when you were on
vacation in Foster-Tuncurry.

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bvm
Test cricket (international matches played over five days) is a truly
wonderful experience that I urge everyone to try and watch* at least once.

When you try and explain that the most engaging of matches can end in a draw,
after all that time, you rarely succeed on winning over sceptics, but find a
friend that is willing to sit and watch for a few days and try it out.

*or listen to, it's equally at home on the radio, where you can keep up in a state of semi-aware engagement. Test cricket doesn't require complete concentration, just a willingness to know what is going on.

~~~
Someone
For those who don't know it: in cricket, a draw is different from a tie. A tie
means both teams are equally strong, a draw that no conclusion could be
reached because time ran out, either because the weaker team managed to
postpone defeat long enough or because of the weather (playing in bad light or
in rain makes the game too dangerous, so play can get stopped, even when one
team is on the brink of victory. Watching the weather forecast is very
important in test cricket)

Draws can be very interestng even if the teams involved have widely different
strengths.

Ties in test cricket are extremely rare. There were 2 in over 2000 tests since
1877.([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tied_Test](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tied_Test))

~~~
notahacker
Only us Brits would invent a game decided largely by the weather.

Quite apart from rescuing a side in a desperate position by raining for two
whole days, even slight changes in atmospheric conditions significantly affect
the difficulty of batting for reasonably evenly matched professional sides.

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king_magic
So... pretty much this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEH4ahCCrJo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEH4ahCCrJo),
right? ;)

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praneshp
> "The most infamous event in cricket was the 1932-33 English tour of
> Australia "

Many fans of the game would likely disagree; personally, a couple of match
fixing scandals and the underarm delivery vs New Zealand were worse.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkQRERykq5M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkQRERykq5M)

~~~
danieltillett
I have always wondered why we have not had a repeat of the underarm delivery
[1], but just done by bowling overarm very, very slowly. As far as I know
there is no rule in how fast the ball has to be bowled and if you bowled very
slowly the ball would reach the batsman rolling along the ground.

1\. For those that don't know the history of the underarm delivery, in a match
between Australia and New Zealand the final ball was bowled underarm so the
batsman had no chance of hitting the ball over the fence for 6. This was the
only way NZ could win. For historical reasons bowling underarm had been
allowed, but it had not been used for more than 100 years.

Edit. There have been some changes to the rules so you can't let a ball bounce
more than twice now [2]. You should be able to bowl very slowly though.

2\.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_ball](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_ball)

~~~
notahacker
A very slow ball with no spin is very easy to hit for six, especially if
you're delivering the ball with an unnatural movement so the batsman knows
your intention from your arm movement.

Fast bowlers bowling towards the end of limited overs cricket and facing
aggressive attacking shots actually do bowl occasional "slower balls" using
their normal delivery stride to try to catch out opponents who tend to mistime
shots when the ball arrives slightly later at ~70mph rather than the expected
~85mph. But you're not going to catch them out with a gentle 30mph lob down
the pitch, just like a decent tennis player will not have difficulty returning
an attempted drop shot serve

~~~
stevetrewick
>just like a decent tennis player will not have difficulty returning an
attempted drop shot serve.

County champ tennis player and LTA coach here. You might not see this much
from tour players (though Razzano had a crack at it in Paris this year [0])
but I can assure you a well executed 'drop shot' serve will befuddle even the
most experienced player. So much so that it is considered unsporting [1]. In
fact, 'under hand' serving is allowed in tennis but it is conventional -
though not a rule - to inform your opponent that you are doing so for this
very reason.

For a quick take on why, your expectation (long serve) will be violated. While
you're getting over that you'll need to be running up court (getting on for
12m depending on where you were standing to receive) starting from a stance
that was balanced to go left or right. By the time you get there, you're
likely going to be hitting the ball on the drop with an over extended racquet
which limits your shot selection quite drastically, and the whole back of the
court is now open, rendering you vulnerable to a lob or passing shot - the
very things that make drop shots such an effective weapon.

I know a few players who are constantly working on their drop serves, but it
is a super hard shot to play well, which is at least one of the reasons you
won't see it much at pro tournaments, another being that spectators will
literally boo you.

(edit: balance parens)

[0] [http://m.tennis.com/photos-video/2015/05/videos-razzano-
late...](http://m.tennis.com/photos-video/2015/05/videos-razzano-latest-
unleash-underhand-serve-roland-garros-twice/55013/#.Ve_vh9l4XCR) [1]
[http://m.tennis.com/pro-game/2014/07/gentlemans-
disagreement...](http://m.tennis.com/pro-game/2014/07/gentlemans-
disagreement/52156/#.Ve_tvdl4XCR)

------
vermooten
I came to the UK aged 10 from (the mighty) USA. Forced to play cricket at
school. No f*cker told me the rules. I wish I'd' had this page back then.

~~~
praneshp
Did you bat or bowl? For batting: 'See ball, hit ball'. 'The faster it comes,
the harder you hit' For bowling: never figured it out :(

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trequartista
This is like Cricket 101 - a wonderful introduction to the rules of cricket.

However, this is from 2009 and as such slightly dated. Recent years have seen
the explosion of Twenty20 (20 over games - shorter and supposedly more
entertaining) as well as other innovations like Batting and Bowling powerplays
and so on.

~~~
bjackman
The writer is probably one of the games many purists! I love Twenty20 but I
have to agree with whoever said "it's not cricket, it's a form of
entertainment performed using cricket equipment".

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j_lev
Cricket is a great example of where disruption created a larger pie for the
incumbent. Kerry Packer popularised the One Day International at a time where
the (five day) Tests were on their last legs, which in turn re-ignighted
interest in the Tests.

Cricket has experienced no other disruption prior or since.

~~~
redindian75
what about the latest craze T20? It's a multibillion dollar industry! Tho I am
too much of a purist to watch it often, Its far more monetarily successful
than the last disruption. Its tailor made for 2000s generation who dont want
to sit thro a whole day to enjoy cricket

~~~
j_lev
incremental improvement

~~~
notahacker
It pays vastly more than Test and One Day cricket, has radically shifted the
balance between batting attack and defence (including in the One Day Cricket
played today) by making strike rates matter more than batting averages, has
made superstars of players that would have previously been considered severely
lacking in defensive technique, encouraged athletic fielding and made Indian
franchises an attractive and lucrative destination for overseas players. And
probably made generations of kids grow up not wanting to be bowlers! That's a
pretty radical set of changes.

~~~
j_lev
I agree with all points regarding the impact.

The reason Twenty20 was incremental was because it took an entrepreneur like
Packer, with connections and money, to prove that cricket could even be
changed in the first place.

------
bluesmoon
The MCC is a good resource for the laws of cricket:
[https://www.lords.org/mcc/laws-of-
cricket/laws/](https://www.lords.org/mcc/laws-of-cricket/laws/)

------
ilitirit
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBRAzmaq5x0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBRAzmaq5x0)

Gotta love a game that has fielding positions "Silly Point", "Deep Square
Leg", "Cow Corner" and "Short Third Man".

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Cricketf...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Cricketfieldingpositions.jpg)

Cricket is to me one of those sports that I hated _the idea_ of playing and
watching, but I always enjoyed it when I did.

------
Grazester
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEH4ahCCrJo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEH4ahCCrJo)
I would leave this here since its most relevant.

I grew up playing cricket.I recently broke my foot playing after not having
played for 15 years(collided with an idiot that ran across the pitch close to
my crease to backup the wicket in an attempt to run me out).

Go West Indies(we sure aren't what we use to be)!!

~~~
mitchty
> I recently broke my foot playing after not having played for 15
> years(collided with an idiot that ran across the pitch close to my crease to
> backup the wicket in an attempt to run me out).

I feel like cousin avi from snatch here, that or rick in that it appears like
you're just shuffling english words together in a sentence.

------
Xophmeister
Just to right the last section: England currently holds the Ashes after this
summer's series.

~~~
socceroos
shhhhh.

------
willhsiung
Was in London last month and toured Lord's Cricket Ground. That experience got
me to watch some test and ODI matches between England and Australia on
ESPN3.com. Strange for an American with no Commonwealth ties!

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afhammad
Reg Explains Cricket
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83oa1S0x9zI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83oa1S0x9zI)

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zem
[http://www.dangermouse.net/cricket/](http://www.dangermouse.net/cricket/) is
good too

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gcb0
i almost understood cricket one time ... then a bunch of badgers came out from
the floor and i was completely lost again

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fake44637
I was hoping to see this when I clicked:
[http://cricket.csail.mit.edu/](http://cricket.csail.mit.edu/)

