Cricket An Introduction!

Cricket a game which was made popular by the English people is played between 2 teams both consisting of 11 players, 2 umpires. It can be said as a contest for out playing the other team by the means of Ball and Bat (The two instruments used to play the game!)...

It all starts with spin of a coin to decide who (which team) gets a chance to choose what to do? Two captains (Leaders of the two teams!) assemble on the ground and the Umpires (Referees) toss the coin! Either of the captains calls for head or tail and one who wins the toss decides what his own team will do? Ball or Bat? (These the two options available to the Teams) Well To Ball means do the act of hurling the ball to the opponent team saving and runs (points in this are called Runs!) and the act of Accumulating Runs is called Bating!

Now the match starts, the team that elects to bat sends two players (a pair of batsman) called opening batsmen! They are normally specialist who can handle the opening Bowlers who are again specialist. So you see the game starts off with the specialists! The roles of these specialists are very simple get out there and do their job (either of scoring runs or getting wickets ;-) depending on profile) “clinically”! The contemporary teams use a combination of an attacking batsman and more stable and technically sound batsman! Where as the opening bowlers are usually Fast and furious kinds (i.e. the ones who can throw the ball quick and with ferocity to the batsman and can take initial wickets!). These ballers are few in number and do not constitute more than 3 in a team! Unless that team heavily relies on the FAST BOWLERS!

The teams usually constitute of a balanced combination of specialist and all-rounder! Now Specialist in various areas are required, Bating expertise is something that is needed for filling the batting expert/specialist slot, same criteria is applied to the Balling! some players who come handy in both the departments of the game are called all-rounder. These all-rounder players are most sort after as they are a rare find and can chip in when the team needs it the most! Historically teams with more all-rounder player are considered stronger and a better candidate for wining the match! (Favorites) and not so strong team is called "The Under Dogs!!!”

Batting expertise can be of many types, for instance "Opening Batsman" now that’s a responsibility that is given to a batsman who has an ability to see the fast approaching cricket ball really well and gauge how it would move! He should be the one who can move his legs to mitigate the swing and movement of the new ball! Then comes the slot of the middle order batsman who plays the role of a sheet anchor! They occupy the crease (A box that is the home of the Batsman! it is mandatory for the batsman to stay with in that) and keep rotating the strike to their partner! They are cool tempered players who can handle the pressure situation with care and strength!

About the Ballers they are again specialists who are separated as per their speed of balling! The Fast ballers is a breed of them that can bowl above the average speed of 130 KMs per hour and the ones that are below this but can turn the ball on the deck (Pitch, a place where this match is played!) are called spinners. Both the type of ballers are necessary in the team to give a good balance!

Well an act of saving runs is called fielding this is a very interesting part of the game as the players of the fielding team who are not balling do this. They are spread over the ground to prevent the batsman from accumulating runs! These runs can be accumulated by either batsman hitting the ball and running between the two creases or by hitting the ball so hard that it reaches the rope called boundary! The contest between the Batting team and the fielding team minimize opponents’ gains when given equal chances to perform both the jobs (balling and batting) is the MOST INTRESTING PART OF THE GAME!!!

Now does that sound like a Knapsack Problem? (An Comp Science aware person would understand that! other may Google for Knapsack Problem!) ;-)...

Now that was a small introduction to what the game is all about! If you have any more questions then please reply to this blog and let me know. I will try to answer as many as I can! :) hope u liked it!

Next articles in queue are the ones that will concentrate on every department of the game individually and go in more details of the technicality!

Hope you liked this article. Feel free to send across your views about it!