It's a stupid game, I always played baseball…
Cricket 101 (as explained in baseball terms)
Playing Field: First, take a 22-yard-long rectangular pitch (the infield) bounded at either end by a bowling crease (a batter's box); at each crease is a stump or wicket (a base), which is essentially three sticks in the ground connected by a crosspiece called a bail. The remainder of the playing field (fair territory) is delineated by preset boundaries, which are determined by the game's location.
Defense: Each team has 11 players. On defense, there are one bowler (pitcher), one wicket keeper (catcher) and nine fielders. The fielders can be placed anywhere within the boundaries.
Offense: The offensive team has a batsman at one crease, a runner at the opposite crease and nine players on the bench.
Game play: Like baseball, the aim is to score more runs than the opposing team. The bowler bowls the ball, usually with one bounce, toward the batsman who stands in the crease. If the batsman puts the ball in play (gets a hit), he can decide not to move at all or he and the runner can opt to dash toward each other's crease in order to score a run. They can repeat the exchange as many times as they want, scoring a run each time, but if a fielder knocks the bail from the wickets mid-run, the batsman is out.
Outs are also registered when the defensive team catches a popped-up ball or a bowler hits the wickets, thus knocking the bail out. A batsman also can score points by hitting the ball beyond the boundaries, which nets a predetermined number of runs.
Unlike baseball, teams do not alternate their at-bats. Unless a tie-breaker is necessary, each team gets one turn at bat the entire match. A player keeps going until he makes an out. Once all 11 players have had a chance to bat, the other team comes up.
Is this match over yet? The reputation that precedes cricket is that run totals can become unseemly and single matches can last for days, as a batsman can face an unlimited number of balls before he registers an out. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the longest cricket match ever played took place over an 11 day period. The 1939 match between England and South Africa required a total of 43 hours and 16 minutes, during which time 1,981 runs were scored.
The modern version of cricket is a little more fan friendly, as in some circles limits have been placed on the number of balls a batsman can face. JHU's Cricket Club rules dictate that each team is given a maximum of 240 balls.
-G.R.
http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2003/21jul03/21crick.html