Cricket Rules

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Cricket can definitely be traced back to Tudor times in early 16th-century England. It is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field. The game is played particularly in Australasia, the Indian subcontinent, the West Indies, Southern Africa and the British Isles.

Rules

The Cricket is played by rules most knowns as "Laws of Cricket"

Content


  • Law 1 – The players
    • Number of players - A match is played between two teams, each of eleven players. One team is a captain;
    • Nomination of players - Each captain shall nominate his players in writing to one of the umpires before the toss;
    • Captain - If at any time the captain is not available, a deputy shall act for him.
  • Law 2 – Substitutes and runners
    • Substitutes - In normal circumstances, a Substitute shall be allowed to field only for a player who satisfies the Umpires that he has become injured or become ill during the match. The opposing captain shall have no right of objection to any player acting as a substitute on the field, nor as to where the substitute shall field;
    • Runners -A Runner shall be allowed for a Batsman who during the match is incapacitated by illness or injury. The player acting as Runner shall be a member of the batting side and shall, if possible, have already batted in that innings;
  • Law 3 – The umpires - there are two Umpires in each cricket game. Before the toss for innings they shall be appointed, one for each end, to control the game. No Umpire shall be changed during a match without the consent of both Captains. The Umpires shall satisfy themselves before the start of the match that the wickets are properly pitched. The Umpires shall stand where they can best see any act upon which their decision may be required;
  • Law 4 – The scorers - All runs scored shall be recorded by Scorers appointed for the purpose. The Scorers shall accept and immediately acknowledge all instructions and signals given to them by the Umpires. Whenever a batsman hits the ball during a delivery, he may score runs. The batsmen usually stop taking runs when a fielder is throwing the ball back towards the pitch area;
  • Law 5 – The ball - All balls used in matches shall be approved by the Umpires and Captains before the start of the match.
  • Law 6 – The bat - It is usually made of willow wood.The blade is connected to a long cylindrical cane handle, similar to that of a tennis racquet, by means of a splice. the length of the bat may be no more than 38 in (965 mm) and the width no more than 4.25 in (108 mm);
  • Law 7 – The pitch - it's between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards (20.12 m) long and 10 feet (3.05 m) wide. A cricket pitch should be is well maintained and highly protected of cricket field as it is the most important part. It is hard to maintain and is only used in game and never used in the practice session.
  • Law 8 – The wickets - The wicket consists of three wooden stumps that are 28 inches (71 cm) tall. Two wooden bails are placed on top of the stumps. There are also specified lengths for the barrel and spigots of the bail.
  • Law 9 – The bowling, popping and return creases -they are marked in white.
  • The bowling crease - The bowling crease must be 8 ft 8 in/2.64 m in length, with the stumps in the centre;
  • The popping crease - The popping crease (the back edge of the crease marking), shall be in front of and parallel to the bowling crease;
  • The return creases - The return creases (the inside edges of the crease markings), shall be at right angles to the popping crease at a distance of 4 ft 4 in/1.32 m either side of the imaginary line joining the centres of the two middle stumps.
  • Law 10 – Preparation and maintenance of the playing area - The pitch shall not be rolled during the match. If there is more than one roller available the captain of the batting side shall choose which one is to be used. The rolling permitted shall be started not more than 30 minutes before the time scheduled or rescheduled for play to begin.
  • Law 11 – Covering the pitch
    • Before the match - The use of covers before the match is the responsibility of the Ground Authority and may include full covering if required;
    • During the match - The pitch shall not be completely covered during the match unless provided otherwise by regulations or by agreement before the toss;
  • Law 12 – Innings - In cricket, a team's innings usually lasts until 10 of the 11 batsmen in the team are out, leaving the not out batsman without a partner and thus unable to continue, or until another event intervenes;
  • Law 13 – The follow-on - In a two innings match of 5 days or more, the side which bats first and leads by at least 200 runs shall have the option of requiring the other side to follow their innings. If no play takes place on the first day of a match of more than one day’s duration, 1 above shall apply in accordance with the number of days remaining from the actual start of the match;
  • Law 14 – Declaration and forfeiture - A captain may forfeit either of his side’s innings at any time before the commencement of that innings. A forfeited innings shall be considered to be a completed innings;
  • Law 15 – Intervals - The following shall be classed as intervals:
    • The period between close of play on one day and the start of the next day’s play;
    • Intervals between innings;
    • Intervals for meals;
    • Intervals for drinks;
    • Any other agreed interval.
  • Law 16 – Start of play; cessation of play
    • Call of Play - The bowler’s end umpire shall call Play at the start of the match and on the resumption of play after any interval or interruption;
    • Call of Time - The bowler’s end umpire shall call Time when the ball is dead on the cessation of play before any interval or interruption and at the conclusion of the match;
    • Removal of bails - After the call of Time, the bails shall be removed from both wickets;
    • Starting a new over - another over shall always be started at any time during the match, unless an interval is to be taken in the circumstances set out in 5 below, if, walking at his normal pace, the umpire has arrived at his position behind the stumps at the bowler’s end before the time agreed for the next interval, or for the close of play, has been reached.
  • Law 17 – Practice on the field - There shall be no practice of any kind, at any time on any day of the match, on the pitch or on either of the two strips parallel and immediately adjacent to the pitch, one on either side of it, each of the same dimensions as the pitch;
    • In limited over matches (one innings matches), the team that scores more runs wins. In First-class cricket (two innings match), the team that scores more runs, having dismissed its opponents twice, is the winner. In cricket the term draw only refers to a match which does not reach a conclusion, usually through a lack of time. The term used in cricket to refer to the rare occurrence of two teams getting exactly the same score is a tie. In most one day competitions based on leagues, 2 points are awarded for a win and 0 for a loss, regardless of the margin of victory.
  • Law 27 – Appeals - A batsman is dismissed if either he is given out by an umpire, on appeal or he is out under any of the Laws and leaves his wicket as in 1 above. For an appeal to be valid, it must be made before the bowler begins his run up or, if he has no run up, his bowling action to deliver the next ball, and before Time has been called.;
  • Law 28 – The wicket is down - The wicket is put down if a bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the ground, by the ball or by the striker’s bat if he is holding it or by any part of his bat that he is holding;
  • Law 29 – Batsman out of his ground - A batsman shall be considered to be out of his ground unless his bat or some part of his person is grounded behind the popping crease at that end;
  • Law 30 – Bowled - If the balls hits the stump while batsman is batting, then the batsman is said to be out by bowled out. But, if the ball be in the contact of wicket and the bail is not completely removed from the stump, then the batsman is not considered out. Bowled out is considered as the impressive way to get a wicket of batsman. So, no batsman wants getting out by bowled out;
  • Law 31 – Timed out - The incoming batsman must be in position to take guard for his partner to be ready to receive the next ball within 3 minutes (1 minute in T20 game). If batsman fails to reach crease in 3 minute and the opposing team appeal for the out, then the batsman is given out and such type of dismissal in cricket is called time out;
  • Law 32 – Caught - is the most common way of batsman dismissal. While a batsman is batting when ball is in contact with bat ( or glove ) and is caught by fielder or wicket keeper before it touches the ground, then batsman is out in cricket and such type of batsman dismissal is caught out;
  • Law 33 – Handled the ball - If the batsman touches the ball with his hand for any purpose other than, with the approval of the fielders, to return the ball to the bowler, batsman is out on appeal. It is considered etiquette for the fielding team not to appeal if the handling of the ball does not affect the play of the game, although there are occasions when this etiquette has been ignored;
  • Law 34 – Hit the ball twice - The batsman is out hit the ball twice if, while the ball is in play, it strikes any part of batsman or is struck by his bat and before the ball has been touched by a fielder, he willfully strikes it again with his bat or batsman himself, other than a hand not holding the bat, except for the sole purpose of guarding his wicket. Getting out by hit the ball twice is very unusual. Among 10 ways of getting out(batsman dismissal) in cricket, it is most rare.And, no batsman has been out in test cricket hitting the ball twice;
  • Law 35 – Hit wicket - The batsman is out Hit wicket out if, while the ball is in play, his wicket is put down either by the striker's bat or cricketer himself. This law is not applied if batsman hits wicket while trying to take run. Kevin Pietersen hit wicket dismissal against West Indies in the very uncommon and interesting way of getting out(batsman dismissal) by hit wicket;
  • Law 36 – Leg before wicket - L.B.W refers to the leg before wicket. If the ball hits batsman body (especially leg) without touching bat or glove, then the batsman is said to be out by l.b.w out if and only if ball is going to hit wicket after hitting batman body. The law of Leg before wicket (LBW ) is very complicated. There are many controversial cases of batsman dismissal by lbw out;
  • Law 37 – Obstructing the field - If a batsman by action or by words obstructs fielder, then he is given out obstructing the field. However, batsman is allowed to obstruct fielder by standing in front of him. There are only four occasion batsman getting out by obstructing the filed, 1 time in test match cricket and three time in ODI cricket;
  • Law 38 – Run out - Run out is another common way of getting out of cricket. If ball hits stump while batsman is taking run before batsman reaches crease, then the batsman is considered out. And such type of dismissal in cricket is called run out;
  • Law 39 – Stumped - If the batsman steps out side the crease to play the ball, leaving no part of bat or leg inside the crease, and wicket keeper is able to remove bail with a ball in his glove, then the batsman is out. And such type of batsman dismissal in cricket is known as stumped out. Generally, batsman are stumped out in spin ball and some time in the medium-pace ball;
  • Law 40 – The wicket-keeper - he stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike. It is essentially a specialist role although a keeper is occasionally called upon to bowl, in which case another member of the fielding side temporarily keeps wicket;
  • Law 41 – The fielder - The fielders are placed by the captain, depending on his tactics. This is a challenge in itself, because out of the eleven players on the field, one must bowl and another must keep wicket. The nine remaining fielders are simply too few to defend all parts of a cricket field, so their deployment depends on the captain’s skill and the bowler’s accuracy. No captain can set cricket fielding positions for bad bowling. However, a bowler who “bowls to his field” can pressurise batsmen, and pressure leads to falling wickets.
  • positions:
    • standard position - There are standart positions in the Cricket game for a right handed batsman;
    • long / deep position - If a position is described as “deep” or ”long”, then the fielder is usually placed on the boundary, eg deep mid off;
    • short position - A position labelled as “short” is usually closer to the batsman than normal, eg short cover;
    • "silly" position - And a position prefixed by “silly” is very close to the batsman, eg silly mid off.
    • other positions - Other variations use the terms “square” and “fine”.