So, we were telling an American friend about the freak catch that did for Ed Joyce (the ball lodged in a fielder’s pocket as he flinched away from it) and were challenged on whether the rules covered it.
“Is that in the rule book? (And, if so, did someone have to look it up? Must be a loooong rule book!)”, came the question.
The obvious answers are “yes, probably not actually, and you have noooo idea”, but we thought we’d back them up by finding the famous seaside tea-towel ‘rules for foreigners’ quote – you know the ones, they go: “When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.”
But instead Google produced for us this long, useful and very patient summary of rules, scoring and basic strategy, written by an American for Americans and posted on Cricinfo. Here’s a sample:
Listen carefully, this is almost always the point that drives baseball players crazy: when the batsmen hit the ball in cricket, they DO NOT HAVE TO RUN!!! If the batsman hits the ball and it only goes ten feet, and there is no chance for him and his “partner” to change places, they don’t. They just stand there.
At first, that sounds like the weirdest thing, but you have to look at it in the context of protecting your wicket. If the bowler bowls the ball really really well, it may be all the batsman can do but protect the wicket. Remember, in cricket you keep batting until you’re out (“your wicket is taken”) so this is vitally important!
Interesting as an illustration of different priorities in two games that essentially involve hitting a ball with a stick, and useful stuff for sharing with people who are genuinely interested but don’t know where to start.
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