The Cricket : (an official R Report)
We're hooked. Cricket = baseball + brunch + a day at the park + drama + civility. Now when we vacation, all idle moments involve cricket on TV, replays of Australia's 2003 victory, the great Pakistan players of 70s & 80s, on and on. We arrived early in Hamilton for the second day of the 5-day test match between Pakistan and the NZ Black Caps. NZ loves black - they are the Raiders - with a similar record. A silver history and tarnished but hopeful present.
There are many important nuances to cricket, plus tremendous skill and physical prowess. For Richard K, betting = punting. Lots of opportunity.
It is complex game - but before you criticize any rules, explain the balk to your wife and then to half the managers in the NBL.
Quick, Highly Over- Simplified Cricket rules:
1. The Field = 360 deg: no foul balls; homers in any direction - cool; the fence is a rope.
2. Bases = 2, called creases (goal lines) with wickets (micro-goalposts). Each crease/wicket is 22 yards apart on the "pitch" = base path, pitching alley. Each crease/wicket doubles as home plate and pitching mound.
3. The Wicket - 3 vertical 28" rods (stumps) & two 4.5" rods (bails) bridging the tops. The wicket = home plate. If the bails get knocked off by a pitch, it is a full strikeout. Bad, dude.
4. Teams: 11 men. No subs. All bat. On defense, 1 pitcher (bowler), 1 catcher (wicket-keeper), 9 fielders. Most are utility players, bowling & fielding. You can switch roles at any time, bowl badly to start, rest, and come back in to wipe 'em out.
5. Two runners, all the time. One bats, both run. Basically a permanent "man on first" situation. Every play is a potential force play. Double play very hard, but possible.
6. Offense - score runs, dude.
- Six runs - a US homer - past the rope on the fly. Whack!
- Four runs - drive to the rope on the ground. Like a hard single.
- Three, two, one runs - hit the ball, run to the opposite crease. Both runners must switch without getting thrown out. Number of switches = number of runs.
7. Batsman's options
- Let the ball go by - no penalty - but if it dislodges the bails you are out
- Swing and miss - - no penalty - but if it dislodges the bails you are out
- Swing and foul tip - - no penalty - but if it dislodges the bails you are out, get it?
- Swing, miss, tip, etc. and bounces off your leg - don't let it ... etc.
- Hit the ball and stay put because you can't advance safely. This is the big difference. In baseball, you have to run when you hit the ball in play. In cricket, you may stay put. This is equivalent to the foul ball. Just block or smack weakly, and stay home until you get something to drive. No difference. This enables a lot of time for beer sales.
- Hit the ball and run - you'd better be sure you can make it - these guys can thread the needle!
- Hit for 4 or 6, then just stay put because that's where you'd end up anyway. However, if the fielder gets to the ball before it hits the rope, he can throw you out or restrict the number of runs. Or in big parks, you might get 5 runs if you run for it.
8. Defense - get the whole 11 man side out, Abner Doubleday. No tagging. You just hit the stumps to knock off the bails. But watch yourself ... quite few players get hit.
9. Outs - there are ten ways, Paul Simon, but I'll give you the biggies. It is so hard to get an out that each is celebrated like a touchdown.
- bowled = struck out (swinging or not) - the bowler blasted it by you and hit the wicket.
- stumped = struck out and put out by the wicket keeper (catcher). Complex but cool. You have to keep your back foot on the crease to be safe. You can attack the pitch by stepping into the ball hard, but if you miss and are off the crease, the catcher can tag the stumps = stumped. Like batting from first base. If you miss, get back to the bag. By the way, the bat counts as an extension. You can touch the crease with it.
- caught = caught fly ball or line drive. Only the catcher has gloves. Manly sport, dude. The ball is hard and line drives sting.
- run out = thrown out. You hit the ball, but the fielder threw you out by hitting the bails off the wicket you were running toward. Again, these guys throw strikes.
- leg before wicket = illegal block of the ball with a leg pad without a legit swing. This is the half-swing/full-swing controversy of cricket. Very cool. All the fielders scream and throw their arms up when they think it is LBW. If the ump gives no sign, there is no sound. If he gives one index finger on an outstretched arm, the batsman is 'dismissed.' And the fielder's celebrate while the onlookers have a beer. The complication is that if the ball is not on a path to the wicket, and the leg pad deflects it into play, it can score runs as a "leg by."
11. Length of the game - lets leave this vague for now. Roughly, two long innings equivalent to about 8 US baseball innings of at bats ... with a lot of runs and many breaks - like lunch and tea for the players. Let's say it takes all day or several days to finish a game, ending in a draw (because the number of required pitched balls was not achieved), a win/loss, or a tie (like, never).
Lunchtime. Doesn't everyone go on the field in NYC to play a little touch football at halftime at Jets VS Panthers?
12. Job of the fans. Clap. Drink beer. Have lunch, Drink beer. Clap. Nap. Have tea. Birdwatch. Clap and cheer at the end. Nothing bad happens. You even clap for opposing players who perform well ... like batting in 100 runs or more at one bat.
