Cricket FAQs

To an outsider, cricket can seem a confusing game - but it’s really not, and we’re here to help. We’re passionate about getting more people into cricket, so we have created this Cricket FAQ guide to help beginners learn all they need to know about this summer sport. From the real basics to the essential knowledge for anybody watching cricket, plus an all-important jargon buster, this guide will make you a cricketing expert in no time!

Cricket Explained

Cricket can be a bit complicated if you’re new to it, so have a read of our Cricket Explained section to get all the info you need to get into the game. From the origins of cricket to the basics of the game itself, this guide has it all.

England invented cricket, with the earliest documented reference to the game way back in 1597, having developed as a kids’ bat-and-ball game during medieval times.

Both teams have 11 players during a game of cricket, including a wicket-keeper.

An ‘over’ is six balls, bowled by the same bowler. The bowling team must then swap bowlers for the next over and so on.

A cricket pitch is 22 yards long and is the strip of grass in the centre of the field with the stumps at either end.

A cricket ball is made of a cork centre which is string wound and then wrapped in a stitched leather case.

A wicket in cricket is a batsman getting out. Confusingly, though, the stumps can also be referred to as the wickets.

The score in cricket works by displaying how many runs a team has scored and how many wickets they have lost to get them, generally in the format of runs-wickets, e.g. a score of 100-3 would tell you a team has 100 runs but has lost 3 wickets. At the end of the game, the team that has the most runs is the winner, with each team only able to lose a maximum of 10 wickets.

There are 10 ways to get out in cricket. These are: bowled, caught, lbw (leg before wicket), run out, stumped, timed out, double hit, retired out, obstructing the field and hit (own) wicket. Up until 2017, there was an 11th way to get out - ‘handled the ball’ - but this is now covered in obstructing the field.

When batting in cricket, you wear batting pads , batting gloves and a helmet , while you also wield your bat, which is a form of protection in itself. In terms of cricket clothing, all cricketers wear whites for red-ball games and often coloured clothing for white-ball games. For footwear, it’s important to have the right cricket spikes/shoes so you stay on your feet.

Only 12 countries play test cricket and they are: England, India, Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan. In addition to test nations, a further 96 countries play international cricket as ICC ‘associate members’, including Netherlands, Scotland, UAE, Namibia, Nepal, USA, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and many others. International cricket is dominated by the test nations - all of whom are former members of the British Empire.

‘White-ball cricket’ is a term used for any limited-overs cricket, derived from the fact they tend to use white balls in Twenty20, 40-over and 50-over cricket so that players can easily see the ball at night.

In theory, there is no limit to the amount of overs in a test cricket match. Generally, though, test cricket games are a maximum of 5 days long with 96 overs a day.

How long a cricket game is depends on the format. Test matches last five days, 50-over games last 100 overs and 20-over games last 40 overs. Generally, a test match day is from 11am to 6pm, a 50-over game takes a similar amount of time and a Twenty20 fixture lasts around three hours.

A T20 cricket game lasts around three hours, with rules in place to ensure the teams get through the game in a timely fashion.

No, cricket is a summer sport and is not played when it is raining. This is due to the wet weather making it unsafe for players as they may slip or the wet ball may fly out of somebody’s hand and cause injury. You also cannot play cricket in dark overcast weather as it is deemed dangerous when the batsmen struggle to see the ball easily.

The Ashes are the prize for the winning team of any test cricket series between England and Australia, with the series now being known as The Ashes in general. The name of The Ashes derives from when an English sporting newspaper suggested that after losing to Australia in 1882, English cricket had ‘died’ and ‘the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.’ The following series, the England captain declared their quest to ‘regain those ashes’ and so the name stuck.

The hundred in cricket is a new tournament launched in England in 2021 whereby either side has just 100 balls to score as many runs as they can to win the game. The 100 introduced 8 new franchise teams focussed on the biggest cricket stadiums in large cities around England and Wales.

The IPL is short for Indian Premier League which is a domestic Twenty20 tournament in India which attracts the best players in the world and is watched by hundreds of millions.

Cricket Jargon Buster

There is some truly baffling jargon used in cricket, so we’re making it easier to understand with our Cricket Jargon Buster which will make everything the commentator is saying a lot clearer!

The Powerplay is a period at the beginning of a 20-over or 50-over innings where there is a limit to the amount of fielders the bowling side are allowed beyond a 30-yard circle. In 20-over games, the Powerplay is 6 overs, in 50-over games, the Powerplay is 10 overs.

DRS in cricket is the Decision Review System where players can challenge an umpire’s call and go to the ‘third umpire’ who checks camera angles to ensure the correct call is made.

A batsman’s strike rate in cricket is how many runs they would score if they faced 100 balls, assuming they carry on scoring at the same rate of runs per ball. A bowler’s strike rate in cricket is the amount of balls it takes them to take a wicket, worked out by their total balls bowled divided by wickets claimed.

A ‘googly’ is where a leg-spinner cleverly adapts their bowling action to spin the ball the other way in an attempt to out-fox and bamboozle the batsmen.

A ‘dot ball’ in cricket is where a batsman does not score a run off a ball and it is also not a wicket or an illegal delivery.

A king pair is where a batsman is out to the first ball he faces in both innings of a two-innings match.

A ‘yorker’ in cricket is where a bowler bowls a ball which lands exactly at a batsman’s feet, making it really difficult to strike cleanly.

A bowler takes a hat-trick in cricket when he takes three wickets in three consecutive balls.

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