A Sticky Wicket: A Brief Cricket Primer

For those of you out there who do not work in a major Software Company, you might not know that the Cricket Championships are happening right now. Since I do work at a Software Company, with a large British and East Indian population, I can't avoid it. 

Every TV in every common area and cafeteria has the games on now, and has had them running for several days. Cricket is usually the odd British game that I hear made fun of when someone starts ragging on Baseball as being a slow game. But since no one that I knew had any clue about cricket, until now, I was really in the dark as to the appeal of the game.

My initial confusion has broken into curiosity, so I asked around and did the required research, and posted here to help out my other cricket-impaired readers know what is happening right now. 

This games on now are the ICC Twenty20 Championship, with Twenty20 referring to this particular style of cricket being played. Twenty20 is a faster, modern variation of cricket. Of course, that means little coming from someone who has no idea what cricket should look like, but i did a little research on the basic game, and apparently the basics are as follows:

The Pitch is the infield of cricket, with two batters and two bowlers. Each batter stands in front of his wicket, which is the collection of stumps and bails assembled behind the batter. The batter is effectively trying to protect is wicket. The bowler throws at the wicket, and if it breaks, the batter is out. 

If the batter hits the ball, he and the second batter can choose to run, basically switching ends of the pitch. That is good for a single point (or 'run'). They can keep switching as long as the ball is in the field. If the batter is away from their wicket (they have a marked box called a crease) and a fielder throws and breaks their wicket, they are out. 

If the ball is hit past the field boundary, that is worth either four (with bounce(s)) or six (no bounce) points. 

Once the bowler throws six good throws (in the cricket equivalent of the "strike zone") then that completes the Over, and the other bowler starts throwing to the other batter. 

This repeats until the inning is over, once all the batters on the team have been up, or the number of overs has been used up. Then the teams switch. 

If it sounds confusing to read, try watching. The bowlers look like an octopus shot from a cannon, and I cannot get the faintest clue of the tactics of the teams. But it is curiously compelling to watch. I highly recommend it for those out there who are looking for something new to occupy your time with. 

Now I need to ask what is up with the funny shaped bats...