Is it possible to understand cricket? Yes, even if, at first glance, it is not. Nobody likes cricket as much as Indians do. That's why there are more cricket fans here than anywhere else. Those pale gentlemen who once played their favorite sport with nosey accents and needed something to pass the time are forgotten. Today, a rickshaw driver earning 200 rupees a day spends hours in front of the television or at least listening to a radio broadcasting a test match as he virtuously navigates through city traffic. It should be noted that casino online India is as popular in the country as cricket.
Cricket is one of the oldest and most popular sports in the world. But unfortunately, this does not apply to European countries, where the sport is virtually unknown. It is a shame because cricket is one of the world's most demanding and challenging games. Let's analyze the reasons for the popularity of the sport.
Cricket popularity
- Cricket is a good-weather sport, and it is played predominantly in the Commonwealth. Because many of these countries are located in the southern hemisphere, it can be summers, such as in South Africa and Australia, or tropical, such as Sri Lanka and India. Cricket brings summer into the living room and supplies virtual vitamin D for free.
- Perhaps no other sport has as many technical terms as cricket. For example, words such as long-on, short-leg, midwicket, slip, gully, and many others have become commonplace to describe the various positions of the fielder around the batsman. There are almost as many terms for hitting. It is handy for explaining even to radio listeners where the ball is and how it got there, but it's confusing to beginners. It's a good thing we're locked in our apartments now and have time to deal with such topics
- This niche sport, by the way, is made for the closed home office. Most of the time, nothing happens, or at least almost nothing, so it's perfect as background noise for productive digital work at home. It's like a radio, only without the ominous music. A few balls are thrown back and forth, and the team on the bat defends and sometimes scores. Sometimes several balls are scored, various runs are reached, or even a wicket falls, allowing a brief distraction at work to watch a slow-motion replay.
It's not all that simple.
In principle, the idea of cricket is pretty simple. Someone from one team throws the ball, and his opponent from the other team tries to bat it away with his batsman and, if possible, send it where no one from the opposing team is standing. Then he can run to the point, the wicket, until the ball comes back. It is the run, and the team that scores more runs than the other team wins.
Yes, if only it were that simple. Because true cricket fans, including at least 500 million Indians, would howl at this explanation, which is as good as reproducing a digital photograph with just 1,000 pixels. After all, what to an outside observer seems relatively monotonous -- in a decent match, this skid-ball race happens several hundred times -- to an insider is a "subtle game," a subtle game with a thousand pitfalls and variations
It all starts with the ball itself. It is the size of a tennis ball, made of cork, tightly wrapped in several layers of twine, and sewn into a red or white leather cover with exactly six precisely spelled stitches. This tough ball, which looks more like a leather ball, is thrown by the bowler to the striker. Usually, the ball bounces once in front of the batsman and, if possible, so that the striker does not hit it correctly.
The arm must be extended above the head. Thus, the bowler's arm catapults the ball, similar to how a medieval throwing machine throws flaming balls into the field. It does this at high speed, up to over 140 km/h, or with a sneaky spin. The latter option works best when one side of the ball is exceptionally smooth and the other is rough. So the thrower polishes one side of the ball on the pant leg - cricket players wear long ones!
Vivid public reaction
Let's move on to the opposite side. The batsman has a helmet with a protective shield. He needs it. Hitting a cricket ball at 140 km/h is no fun. Of course, he has to bounce the ball with the bat, if possible, as far away as possible. He doesn't always succeed because of the hazardous nature of the throw. When he follows, there is jubilation. He scores four points at once if the ball rolls over the elliptical boundary. If he throws the ball into the stands, he gets six runs. Then the spectators in the stadium jump with delight.
But if the striker fails to hit the ball, the ball goes into the wicket, behind the striker. Then the batsman is out of the game, and the pitching team cheers. Just as badly, when the striker hits the ball, but one of the opponents catches it in flight before it bounces. It, too, counts as a wicket, and the unlucky batsman walks away.
After each wicket, a new batsman enters the field, and when their dozen are worn out, it's over. Now the roles are reversed, and the former batsmen get a chance to try out as bowlers. Note that India gave the world not only cricket but also Live Teen Patti and other colorful games.
ODI
International Test matches are a full day of lively firefighting between throws and strikes. But since most people, especially in India, can't sit in front of the TV for days, there are now ODI (One Day Internationals) matches, which, as the name implies, must be completed in one day. And more recently, there is even a compact version that lasts only three hours. In the summer, the Twenty-20 league is held in India with eight teams in just six weeks
The league is a great success. Players earn more in six weeks than they usually do in a year. That's why even visiting Australian stars have joined the tournament.
We have not yet mentioned the subtleties of cricket, such as innings, overs, balls, or wicket-keeper. Each of these terms would entail complex explanations and reasoning, which can only be fully understood after years of working with the problematic general art of cricket. Nor was there any mention of the importance of the type of surface, whether hard or soft, grass or sand. Or the temperature and humidity and the degree of wear and tear on the ball. Indian newspapers fill their sports pages with them daily. And cricket is on television even more often than Shahrhukhan, and that's saying something. But let's leave it at that: Those not born into cricket will never fully understand it.