Also this issue: Wicket Awesome Haverford College cricket is the area’s best unknown sports tradition. All-arounder Shawn Alexander is one of the sport’s brightest talents.

May 1- 7, 2003

cover story

Rules of Engagement

Tools of The Trade: With gloves, ball, helmet and bat, you are good to go. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Cricket is not only older than baseball, it’s more popular worldwide. Here’s how you play.

Cricket is the nation’s second oldest sport next to lacrosse, and the world’s second most popular next to soccer.

It’s often compared to baseball, but not without error. They both involve a bat and a ball. However, there are only 10 "outs" in cricket compared to 27 in baseball, so each "out," or any would-be catch that’s dropped, is about three times as costly.

Cricket's two umpires, who wear long, lab-like white coats, only give decisions when "appealed" to, and "rhubarbs" aren't allowed, so Bowa would call it a bust.

The cricket "pitch" is the field -- not a ball thrown by a pitcher. In cricket, a pitched ball is simply called a "ball." The "pitch" has two wickets 22 yards apart, each consisting of three round wooden "stumps" standing 28.9 inches high. The distance across these stumps is 9 inches. Lying loosely in grooves across the top of these stumps are two small pieces of wood called "bails."

The bat has a handle about 12 inches long made of laminated cane and a willow blade, flat on one side, 4 1/4 inches wide and 22 inches long. The opposite side is curved like the hull of a canoe. A bat weighs slightly over two pounds.

The ball has a core of cork around which are wound layers of fine twine and thin cork shavings, then a cover of heavy red leather is sewn on with six parallel seams. Its circumference is about 9 inches and it weighs between 5 1/2 ounces and 5 3/4 ounces. It's harder than a baseball.

The game is played between two teams, each with 11 players. Two players are always at bat at the same time, one at each wicket. Each team remains at bat until 10 of its players are out. The bowler, or pitcher, delivers the ball, stiff-armed, toward the wicket. The wicket keeper, or catcher, stands behind the wicket at the opposite end of the pitch.

The bowler, or pitcher, tries to hit the batsman's wicket, thus dislodging the bails and "shivering the stumps" of the Tinker Toy nest. This is the equivalent of a strike out. Also, a good ball could cause a batsman to pop up. The bowler uses speed, or strategy, and usually bounces the ball off the ground in front of the batsman, which adds spin and deception. The bowler gets six balls, then the umpire at his end calls "over," and the fielders flip sides and another bowler bowls from the opposite end.

The batsman's first job is to defend his wicket with his bat; his second job is to produce runs by hitting the ball into the field far enough to run to the other wicket and exchange places with the other batter before the ball is fielded and returned to either wicket.

There are no foul balls as in baseball. Plus, you don't run unless you consider it a safe bet you'll make it to the other wicket. When the ball is hit to the boundary on the ground, it counts for an automatic four runs. If it's hit over the boundary (or home-run wall) on the fly, it counts for six runs.

Instead of first base or second base, there are infield positions such as "mid on," "mid off" and "point," as well as outfielders such as "long on," "long off" and "deep square leg." There are as many as 30 fielding positions in cricket, and when the gloveless infielders move as close as 15 feet from the batsman, they are known as "silly," as in "silly point" or "silly mid off."

A "sticky wicket" is a field that is partly dry and partly wet, creating a treacherous and uncertain bounce that makes the batter's life difficult. By extrapolation, it is any life situation that is full of hazardous uncertainty.

Like baseball, cricket is believed to have its origins in a medieval English game called rounders. It may have been played as early as the 12th century. The first sign of the sport in America was in 1709, when William Byrd of Westover, Va., documented a game at his plantation beside the James River. In 1751, The New York Gazette reported an account of an 11-a-side match, and in 1754 Ben Franklin brought back from England a copy of the 1744 "Laws of Cricket." There's also some evidence that Washington's troops played a game of wickets at Valley Forge in the summer of 1778.