cricket, sport
cricket, ball-and-bat game played chiefly in Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries.Basic Rules
Cricket is played by two teams of eleven on a level, closely cut oval "pitch" preferably measuring about 525 ft (160 m) by about 550 ft (170 m). Two wickets are placed 66 ft (20.12 m) apart near the middle of the field. A wicket consists of two wooden crosspieces (bails) resting on three wooden stumps 28 in. (71.1 cm) high.
At each wicket stands a batsman. If the opposing bowler, delivering the ball from near the opposing wicket, knocks down the bails of the batsman's wicket, the batsman is retired. In delivering the hard, leather-covered ball, the bowler throws overarm but may not bend the arm, and the ball usually approaches the batsman on one bounce. After six bowls to one batsman, an umpire (there is one at each wicket) calls "over," and another bowler begins bowling to the batsman's partner at the opposing wicket. The players in the field shift position according to the batsmen.
If the batsman hits the ball with his willow paddle-shaped bat far enough so that both batsmen may run to exchange places, a run is scored. When the ball is hit a long distance (in any direction, since there are no foul lines), up to four exchanges or runs may be made. (If the ball crosses the boundary of the field on the ground, four runs are scored automatically; if it clears the boundary in the air, six are scored.) However, if the opposing team recovers the ball and uses it to knock down the bails of a wicket before the batsman reaches it, the batsman is out. A batsman is also retired if an opposing fielder catches a batted ball on the fly (as in baseball baseball, bat-and-ball sport known as the national pastime of the United States. It derives its name from the four bases that form a diamond (the infield) around the pitcher's mound.
..... Click the link for more information. ), or for any of several more technical reasons. An outstanding turn at bat may result in more than 100 runs, a "century."
A game usually consists of two innings; in one innings all players on each team bat once in a fixed order (unless a team, having scored what it considers runs adequate to win, chooses to retire without completing its order); a game may take several days to complete. Substitutions are allowed only for serious injury.
Origin of Cricket
Cricket's origin is obscure. Evidence suggests it was played in England in the 12th–13th cent., and it was popular there by the end of the 17th cent. By the mid-18th cent. the aristocracy had adopted the game. In 1744 the London Cricket Club produced what are recognizably the rules of modern cricket. The Marylebone Cricket Club, one of the oldest (1787) cricket organizations, is the game's international governing body.
Principal Modern Matches
In Great Britain the principal cricket matches are those between the universities (especially Oxford and Cambridge) and between largely professional teams representing the English counties. Among international, or test, matches (begun 1877), the most famous is that between Australia and Britain for the "Ashes." Since the 1970s the West Indies (a team assembled from several nations), India, Pakistan, and South Africa have challenged English and Australian claims to world dominance.
Bibliography
See Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1864–); R. Bowen, Cricket (1970); J. Ford, Cricket (1972).
cricket, in zoology
cricket, common name of the slender, chirping, hopping insects insect, invertebrate animal of the class Insecta of the phylum Arthropoda. Like other arthropods, an insect has a hard outer covering, or exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed legs. Adult insects typically have wings and are the only flying invertebrates...... Click the link for more information. forming the family Gryllidae in the order Orthoptera. Most crickets have long antennae, muscular hind legs for jumping, and two pairs of fully developed wings. In some subfamilies the wings are reduced or absent.
In most subfamilies the males have song-producing, or stridulatory, organs on the front wings. Both sexes possess auditory organs on the forelegs. The stridulatory apparatus is most highly developed in the field crickets and the tree crickets. Members of these subfamilies have a ridged region, which acts as a file, and a hardened region, which acts as a scraper, on each front wing; sound is produced by rubbing the wings together.
Crickets reproduce sexually, producing from one to three generations per year. The females usually lay eggs in the ground or in soft-stemmed plants during the late summer or fall. The eggs hatch in the spring and the emerging young are similar to the adults except for their smaller size and lack of wings.
Crickets occur mostly in the temperate climates. The common field crickets of the United States are species of the genus Gryllus; all are brown to black, about 1 in. (2.5 cm) long, and are found in fields and meadows and often in houses. The tree crickets are slender, pale green or whitish insects of trees and shrubs; most U.S. species belong to the genus Oecanthus. The rate of chirping of tree crickets increases with increasing temperature. In the snowy tree cricket, Oecanthus fultoni, this variation is so regular that if the number 40 is added to the number of chirps per 15-sec interval, the sum is a fair approximation of the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. Ant-loving crickets are tiny wingless forms 1-8 in. to 1-5 in. (3–5 mm) long that occur in ant nests, where they feed on an oily secretion produced by the ants.
In addition to the true crickets of the family Gryllidae, insects of the family Gryllacrididae are also called crickets. These are the cave, or camel, crickets, found throughout the world in dark, moist places, and the stone, sand, or Jerusalem crickets of W North America, found under stones in sandy soil. Mole crickets (genus Gryllotalpa, family Gryllotalpidae) are nocturnal insects that have strong front legs adapted for digging and burrowing rather than strong hind legs for jumping. They live in moist soil. All crickets belong to the phylum Arthropoda Arthropoda [Gr.,=jointed feet], largest and most diverse animal phylum. The arthropods include crustaceans, insects, centipedes, millipedes, symphylans, pauropodans, and the extinct trilobites.
..... Click the link for more information. , class Insecta, order Orthoptera.
cricket
(from Middle French criquet, “goal stake”) Game played by two teams with a ball and bat on a large field centring on two wickets. Each wicket is two sets of three sticks. The teams have 11 players each. A bowler from the defending team throws the ball (with a straight-arm overhand delivery), attempting to hit the wicket, which is one of several ways the batsman may be put out. The team batting fields two batsman at a time, and the batsman being bowled to (the striker) tries to hit the ball away from the wicket. If the batsman hits the ball away from the wicket but has no time to run to the opposite wicket, he need not run; play will resume with another bowl. After a hit, when possible, the striker and the second batsman (the nonstriker) at the other wicket change places. Each time both batsmen can reach the opposite wicket, one run is scored. The batsmen may continue to cross back and forth between the wickets, earning an additional run for each time both reach the opposite side. Matches are divided into innings consisting of one turn at bat for each team; depending on pregame agreement, a match may consist of either one or two innings. Cricket's origins are uncertain, but the first set of rules was written in 1744. During England's colonial era, cricket was exported to countries around the world.
cricket
Any of the approximately 2,400 species of leaping insects (family Gryllidae) known for the musical chirping of the male. Crickets vary in length from around 0.1 to 2 in. (3–50 mm) and have thin antennae, hind legs modified for jumping, and two abdominal sensory appendages (cerci). Their two forewings are stiff and leathery, and the two long, membranous hind wings are used in flying. Male crickets chirp by rubbing a scraper located on one forewing along a row of 50–250 teeth on the opposite forewing. The most common cricket songs are the calling song, which attracts the female; the courtship, or mating, song, which induces the female to copulate; and the fighting chirp, which repels other males.
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cricket [′krik·ət]
Cricket
a team sport played with a ball and bats. Cricket originated in England, where the game was known in the Middle Ages. Since the 18th century, official competitions have been held between cricket clubs, using rules unchanged to this day.
Cricket is played on a grass field (usually 80x60 m), in the center of which two wickets (67.5 cm high and 20 cm wide) are set up 20 m apart. The ball weighs 170.5 grams and is 23 cm in circumference; the oarlike bat is no more than 95 cm long, and its “blade” is 6.5 cm wide. The point of the game is to bowl the ball and hit the opposing team’s wicket; the opponents defend their wicket, returning the ball with their bats. There are 11 men on a team. The game of cricket includes running and “getting players out,” which makes it similar to Russian lapta and American baseball. The game lasts several hours (on agreement between teams).
Cricket is popular in Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and a number of the African states; national and international matches are held, some of which have become traditions —for example, the teams of Great Britain and Australia have met regularly since the late 19th century.
V. A. PRAVDIN
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