Cricket player

Cricket

A cricket game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Highest governing body	International Cricket Council
First played	15th century; south-east England
Characteristics
Contact	no
Team members	11 players per side (substitutes permitted in some circumstances)
Mixed gender	yes, separate competitions
Type	team sport, bat-and-ball
Equipment	cricket ball, cricket bat, wicket (stumps, bails), various protective equipment
Venue	cricket field
Presence
Country or region	worldwide but most prominent in Australasia, Great Britain & Ireland, Indian sub-continent, southern Africa, West Indies
Olympic	no (1900 Summer Olympics only)

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players each on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a target called the wicket (a set of three wooden stumps topped by two bails) at each end. Each phase of play is called an innings during which one team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, whilst their opponents field. Depending on the type of match, the teams have one or two innings apiece and, when the first innings ends, the teams swap roles for the next innings. Except in matches which result in a draw, the winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained.

Before a match begins, the two team captains meet on the pitch for the toss (of a coin) to determine which team will bat first. Two batsmen and eleven fielders then enter the field and play begins when a member of the fielding team, known as the bowler, delivers (i.e., bowls) the ball from one end of the pitch towards the wicket at the other end, which is guarded by one of the batsmen, known as the striker. In addition to the bowler, the fielding team includes the wicket-keeper, a specialist who stands behind the striker's wicket. The nine other fielders are tactically deployed around the field by their captain, usually in consultation with the bowler. The striker "takes guard" on a crease drawn on the pitch four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball from hitting the stumps by using his bat and, simultaneously, to strike it well enough to score runs. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the opposite end of the pitch near the bowler. The bowler's objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. A dismissed batsman, who is declared to be "out", must leave the field to be replaced by a teammate. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler. The next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler.