Tell me all i need to know about cricket?

Question

Enough so i can talk to my boyfriend about cricket! As i know he plays!

Answer 1

Well cricket is an exciting, but very tactical bat and ball game featuring two teams of 11 players per side. The object of the game is simply to score more runs than your opponents.
One side "fields", ie all 11 players take to the field, whilst the other side "bats", two of their players go out to the middle and try to score runs off the bowling of the fielding side.
Unlike baseball, where the two sides swap over regularly, in cricket one side bats the whole way through their innings, then the other side bats the whole way through their innings.
Their are two main types of cricket. One is limited overs, where typically each side gets 50 overs each, or first class and test cricket where both sides get as many overs as they like, so long as all 11 players get a turn to bat.
An over is 6 balls thrown, or bowled by the bowler. Once he has bowled 6 balls, his over is complete, and another bolwer must bowl an "over" before the first bowler is allowed to resume.
He bowls from one end of the long narrow "pitch" to the batsman at the other end, who tries to hit it. He must try to score, but also try to avoid getting out, or also called losing his wicket.
If he does hit the ball, he can swap ends of the pitch with his partner, and a run is scored. They can do this as many times as the wish, but must be safe inside their base or "crease" when the ball is returned by the fielders, or they can be run out, and lose their turn to bat.
The bowler can also get the batsman out whilst bowling, by either hitting his three wooden "stumps" he is gaurding, called bowled, by hitting his legs with the ball in front of the stumps, out "Leg Before Wicket", making the batsman hit the ball in the air, and having a fielder catch it before it touches the ground. There are a couple of other ways to get out, but these are the most common. Once all of the batsmen are out, or the limited number of overs is completed. Once this happens, the side's innings is over, and the total of runs they have scored is the ammount the other side must also make to win the game.
For a more detailed overview of the rules, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket
If you already know baseball, look at this great comparision between the games:
http://members.tripod.com/~sccwa/crick.html
OR:
http://www.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ABOUT_CRICKET/EXPLANATION/CRICKET_EXPLAINED_AMERICAN.html

Answer 2

Cricket is a bat and ball sport, played between two teams of eleven players each. A cricket match is played on a grass field (which is usually roughly oval), in the centre of which is a flat strip of ground 22 yards (20.12 m) long, called a pitch. At each end of the pitch is a set of three parallel wooden stakes (known as stumps) driven into the ground, with two small crosspieces (known as bails) laid on top of them. This wooden structure is called a wicket. A player from the fielding team (the bowler) bowls a hard, fist-sized cork-centred leather ball from one wicket towards the other. The ball usually bounces once before reaching a player from the opposing team (the batsman), who defends the wicket from the ball with a wooden cricket bat. The batsman, if he or she does not get out, may then run between the wickets, exchanging ends with the other batsman (the "non-striker"), who has been standing in an inactive role near the bowler's wicket, to score runs. The other members of the bowler's team stand in various positions around the field as fielders. The match is won by the team that scores more runs.

Cricket has been an established team sport for hundreds of years. It originated in its modern form in England and is popular mainly in the present and former members of the Commonwealth. In the countries of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, cricket is the most popular sport. It is also a major sport in places such as England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bermuda, and the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean, which are collectively known in cricketing parlance as the West Indies. There are also well established amateur club competitions in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Kenya, Nepal and Argentina, among others; there are over one hundred cricket-playing nations recognised by the International Cricket Council.[1]

The sport is followed with passion in many different parts of the world. It has even occasionally given rise to diplomatic outrage, the most notorious being the Basil D'Oliveira affair which led to the banning of South Africa from sporting events. Other examples include the Bodyline series played between England and Australia in the early 1930s, or the 1981 underarm bowling incident involving Australia and New Zealand.

Plese check the following link for complete details about cricket:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket