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Basics and Future of Cricket

The global governing body for cricket is the International Cricket Council (ICC). Cricket is one of the world's most popular sports with an estimated 2.5 billion fans. The global governing body for cricket is the International Cricket Council (ICC). The ICC governs and administers the game and works with its 105 members to grow the sport. Cricket is a bat and ball sport that involves two competing sides of 11 players each.

An official Cricket match is played in a grass field, which is oval, with a flat strip of ground at the middle, which is 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. In the game of cricket, this pitch plays a vital role in deciding the fate of the match.

Construction of three parallel wooden stakes driven vertically into the ground is present at each end of the pitch, which is known as stumps. At the top, small cross pieces are laid which is known as bails. The objective of cricket is to score more runs than the opponent.

Cricket - 2.5 billion fans globally : Basics and Future of the Game

Key Players

There are three key functions a player performs in a match - Batting, Bowling and Fielding. In cricket, the team winning the toss of the coin chooses whether to bat or bowl first.

Batsman

A player who is currently batting in the pitch is known as a batsman. A batsman is one who possesses the skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs or to prevent his wicket. Before the start of a cricket match, the order in which the eleven players will bat is usually disclosed. This order may be altered during play according to the captain's discretion.

Bowler

A bowler is a player who delivers the ball to the batsman. There are different types of bowlers in Cricket.

Fast bowlers - Uses pace as their primary weapon

Swing and Seam bowlers - Make the ball deviate in its course through the air or when it bounces

Spin Bowlers - Puts a spin on the ball, causing it to turn at an angle while bouncing off the pitch, by delivering the ball quite slowly.

Fielder

A member of the team, who is fielding and tries to prevent the other team from scoring. Any part of the body may be used by the fielder to field the ball. The captain of the team may decide to switch players between fielding positions at any time except when a bowler is in the act of bowling to the batsman.

Formats of the Game

There are three formats of Cricket played at the international level - Test matches, One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals.

Unlimited Overs Format

Test Cricket is the traditional and the longest form of the sport. A test match is played over five days, with each day's play lasting six hours and at least 90 overs bowled per day. Test Cricket is regarded by cricket fans as the ultimate test of playing ability as compared to the limited-overs format. Usually, test cricket is considered the pinnacle form because it tests teams over a longer period.

The Players wear a white jersey in Test Cricket because of the reason, that Test matches usually take place during Day time.

White clothing reflects heat better and can be more comfortable to wear in the heat, than any other color. White clothing also reduces the stress levels of the players and prevents them from getting a sun-stroke or dehydration to some extent. Occasionally Day - Night matches are now being organized in Test Cricket.

For Day matches dark red ball is used and for Day - Night matches pink ball is used.

Limited Overs Format

Both One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals are part of the Limited Overs format. In the early days of One-day Internationals, matches could last 60, 55, or 50 overs, although the standard ODI format has been set at 50 overs per side for several years. In Limited overs format, it is all about who can score the most runs in the allotted amount of time.

In this type of format teams, bat only once, and an innings is over when either 10 batsmen are out or all the overs have been bowled. The white ball is used in the limited-overs format. The players of different teams wear jerseys of different colors.

Future Of Cricket

The game of Cricket enjoys its popularity in the world's second most populated country (India), where over 800 million people (57% of India's population) watch this sport. This sport is also popular in countries like Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, West Indies (the Caribbean), South Africa, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe. The future of Cricket looks somewhat similar to Football, as the game is sliding towards the club culture with more number of nations expected to get engaged because of the Twenty20 format. I expect that because of its developing club culture the game will see an exponential increase in the number of fans in the coming years.

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