This past week I have gone out to support my fellow St. John’s residents in two games of cricket. Before going all I really knew was that many people compared it to baseball and that there were two batters at once. I know a fair amount about baseball and am a huge Yankee fan at home, so I thought I could pick up on the game if they are in fact so similar. The first game I went to I could only stay for about an hour, maybe a little less. Well, needless to say that hour was the most confusing hour I have ever spent watching a sport. I didn’t understand why no one was really moving and why the two teams didn’t switch fielding and batting. I couldn’t even tell who was winning and what was good or not. I would just clap and cheer when other people in Johns did. After this game I thought my cricket watching days would be over.
I went back again, this time making sure I got there early and sat with my Australian friends. They told me that these games could go on for hours on end. I also learned that each team only got one inning at bat, and one in the field, and in order to end the inning you must get 10 out of the 11 players batting out. When the ball is hit you don’t have to run, but to get a run you have to run to the opposite set of sticks. That is the equivalent of just one run, but most of the time the players at bat scored at least two runs. If the ball rolls past the cones that line the field, that counts as an automatic four runs. If the ball is it on the fly and goes over the cones that is an automatic six runs. In order to get a player out the ball must be caught on the fly or the stick that lies on top of the other three needs to get knocked over either by throwing it when bowling (pitching) or when they are running.
All the different rules and conditions make cricket an acquired taste and I am still working on it!
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