An Amercian Book Reviewers In Cricket

An Amercian Book Reviewers In Cricket

An American reviewe of a humorous book for older children came upon a story about a game of cricket and made the following remarks:

'Because the book is set in England, there are some jokes and references American children may not understand. For instance, one chapter is about a game of cricket. Having never seen a cricket game, there are a few things I didn't quite understand. In my opinion, this does not make the book any less enjoyable. In fact, it made me interested to find out more about British life. I plan to look up how cricket is played, so I can reread the chapter and see what I missed.'

The American equivalent to cricket is baseball. In both games a small hard ball is thrown at a player armed with a bat. But the bats are different in shape. The baseball bat has a tapered cylindrical form whereas a cricket bat has a flat striking surface. Thus the cricket bat can provide a greater degree of control over the direction in which the ball is propelled. The second obvious difference is in the action of the thrower of the ball. In baseball the pitcher throws the ball with the natural bent arm action. In cricket, the bowler rotates his outstretched arm above his head and is not allowed to bend his arm or 'throw' the ball.

A cricket pitch is set in the centre of a large oval field with two wickets 22 yards apart. Two batsmen are always at the wicket and two bowlers take turns in bowling from opposite ends of the pitch. Each bowler bowls six times to constitute an 'over' before the task reverts to the second bowler. The count is kept by two independent umpires located near each wicket.

The wickets consist of three vertical sticks topped by two small bails located in shallow grooves. If the batsman misses the ball and it strikes the wicket dislodging a bail the batsman is declared 'out' and his 'innings' is over. There are several other ways in which the batsman may be dismissed. His team continues batting until ten batsmen have been given out by the umpires. One player remains 'not out' but cannot continue unaccompanied. The second team then has its turn at batting and the team which scores the most runs is the winner.

The object of cricket is to score runs and a run in its simplest form is the distance between the two wickets. Both batsmen must run and cross from end to end. If the fielders can break the wicket with the ball before the runner has gained his ground, he is 'run out.' Every completed run is counted towards the team's score and a good hit may provide opportunity for two or three runs. If the ball reaches the boundary rope before being stopped by a fielder, four runs are scored, and if the ball sails through the air and lands outside the boundary rope, six runs are scored. It is every batsman's ambition to score a 'century,' while specialist bowlers aspire to take five or more of the ten wickets available in an innings.

Cricket is arguably the world's most complicated sport and cannot be fully described even in thousands of words. Like most games, it is best appreciated by playing, or watching expert players. It is played traditionally by most of the former colonies of the British Empire and in recent years has grown more widely in popularity. Only when it is played extensively in America will its mysteries be fully revealed to Americans.

Saint George, Rusty Knight, and Monster Tamer is a series of nine self-contained historical short stories which introduces George, a hapless knight who has an unusual skill for monster taming, and which, with wit and delightful aplomb takes the young reader on an adventurous journey though some significant moments in history.