Cricket is the English summer sport, played on village greens and in enormous stadiums, and it is the game from which a remarkable amount of everyday English is drawn. To be bowled over, stumped, caught out, on a sticky wicket, to have a good innings, or to do something that is simply not cricket — all of it comes from here.
The basics
Two teams of eleven. One bats, one fields. A bowler delivers the ball overarm at a batter defending three wooden stumps; the batter tries to hit it and run between two sets of stumps 22 yards apart, scoring one run per completed length. Hit the ball to the boundary rope and you get four; clear it without bouncing and you get six.
A batter is out if bowled, caught, run out, stumped, or leg before wicket — the last of which is complicated enough that even lifelong followers argue about it. When ten of the eleven are out, the innings ends and the sides swap.
The formats
- Test cricket — five days, two innings each, white clothing, red ball. The purest and longest form, and the one that can end in a draw.
- One Day Internationals — 50 overs each, one day, coloured kit.
- Twenty20 — 20 overs each, about three hours, deliberately loud and fast. This is the format to start with.
The draw
The concept Americans find hardest. If the match runs out of time before one side has bowled the other out twice, the game is a draw regardless of who was ahead. Five days, no winner.
This is not a flaw. It creates a third possible outcome and therefore a whole extra dimension of tactics: a team facing certain defeat can play for survival, batting out the final day purely to avoid losing, and a tense last-hour rearguard is among the most gripping things in sport.
The Ashes
England against Australia, the oldest and fiercest rivalry in the game. It began after Australia beat England on English soil for the first time in 1882, prompting a mock obituary in the Sporting Times declaring that English cricket had died and “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia”.
The trophy is a tiny terracotta urn, about six inches tall, said to contain the ashes of a burnt bail. It is so fragile it lives permanently at Lord’s and the winners are given a replica.
Tea and rain
Play stops for lunch and for tea. This is a formal part of the day’s schedule, not a joke. Play also stops for rain and for bad light, and the covers coming on is a familiar English summer image.
Village cricket
The version that shapes the national image: a green, a pavilion, a scoreboard operated by a volunteer, teas made by members’ families, and standards ranging from decent to comic. It is one of the pleasantest ways to spend a summer afternoon in England, and free.