-MR.

PRAVEEN GUPTA
 Introduction
 History
Origin
The early years
Technical development
Organization of sport and types of
competition
 County and university cricket
 The Cricket Council and the ECB
 International cricket
 Test matches
 21st-century developments
 Women’s cricket
 Play of the game
Field of play, equipment, and dress
Rules of the game
 Runs
 Extras
 Over
 Methods of dismissal
Strategy and technique
 Bowling
 Batting
 Fielding
 Wicket keeping
 Famous Cricket Players
Cricket is played with a bat and ball and
involves two competing sides (teams) of 11
players. The field is oval with a rectangular
area in the middle, known as the pitch,
that is 22 yards (20.12 meters) by 10 feet
(3.04 meters) wide. Two sets of three
sticks, called wickets, are set in the
ground at each end of the pitch. Across the
top of each wicket lie horizontal pieces
called bails. The sides take turns
at batting and bowling (pitching); each
turn is called an “innings” (always plural).
Sides have one or two innings each,
depending on the prearranged duration of
the match, the object being to score the
most runs. The bowlers, delivering the ball
with a straight arm, try to break (hit) the
wicket with the ball so that the bails fall.
This is one of several ways that the
batsman is dismissed, or put out. A bowler
delivers six balls at one wicket (thus
completing an “over”), then a different
player from his side bowls six balls to the
opposite wicket. The batting side defends
its wicket.

Location of wickets and principal playing positions on cricket field.

Location of wickets and principal playing

positions on cricket field.
There are two batsman up at a time, and
the batsman being bowled to (the striker)
tries to hit the ball away from the wicket. A
hit may be defensive or offensive. A
defensive hit may protect the wicket but
leave the batsmen no time to run to the
opposite wicket. In that case the batsmen
need not run, and play will resume with
another bowl. If the batsman can make an
offensive hit, he and the second batsman
(the non-striker) at the other wicket
change places. Each time both batsmen
can reach the opposite wicket, one run is
scored. Providing they have enough time
without being caught out and dismissed,
the batsmen may continue to cross back
and forth between the wickets, earning an
additional run for each time both reach the
opposite side. There is an outside
boundary around the cricket field. A ball
hit to or beyond the boundary scores four
points if it hits the ground and then
reaches the boundary, six points if it
reaches the boundary from the air (a fly
ball). The team with the highest number of
runs wins a match. Should both teams be
unable to complete their number of
innings before the time allotted, the match
is declared a draw. Scores in the hundreds
are common in cricket.
Matches in cricket can range from
informal weekend afternoon encounters on
village greens to top-level international
contests spread over five days in Test
matches and played by leading
professional players in grand stadiums.
Cricket is believed to have begun possibly
as early as the 13th century as a game in
which country boys bowled at a tree stump
or at the hurdle gate into a sheep pen.
This gate consisted of two uprights and a
crossbar resting on the slotted tops; the
crossbar was called a bail and the entire
gate a wicket. The fact that the bail could
be dislodged when the wicket was struck
made this preferable to the stump, which
name was later applied to the hurdle
uprights. Early manuscripts differ about
the size of the wicket, which acquired a
third stump in the 1770s, but by 1706 the
pitch—the area between the wickets—was
22 yards long.
The ball, once presumably a stone, has
remained much the same since the 17th
century. Its modern weight of between 5.5
and 5.75 ounces (156 and 163 grams)
was established in 1774.
The primitive bat was no doubt a shaped
branch of a tree, resembling a modern
hockey stick but considerably longer and
heavier. The change to a straight bat was
made to defend against length bowling,
which had evolved with cricketers in
Hambledon, a small village in southern
England. The bat was shortened in the
handle and straightened and broadened in
the blade, which led to forward play,
driving, and cutting. As bowling technique
was not very advanced during this period,
batting dominated bowling through the
18th century.
The earliest reference to an 11-a-side
match, played in Sussex for a stake of 50
guineas, dates from 1697. In 1709 Kent
met Surrey in the first recorded
intercounty match at Dart ford, and it is
probable that about this time a code of
laws (rules) existed for the conduct of the
game, although the earliest known version
of such rules is dated 1744. Sources
suggest that cricket was limited to the
southern counties of England during the
early 18th century, but its popularity grew
and eventually spread to London, notably
to the Artillery Ground, Fins bury, which
saw a famous match between Kent and All-
England in 1744. Heavy betting and
disorderly crowds were common at
matches.
The aforementioned Hambledon Club,
playing in Hampshire on Broadhalfpenn
Down, was the predominant cricket force
in the second half of the 18th century
before the rise of the Marylebone Cricket
Club (MCC) in London. Formed from a
cricket club that played at
White Conduit Fields, the club moved
to Lord’s Cricket Ground in St. Marylebone
borough in 1787 and became the MCC and
in the following year published its first
revised code of laws. Lord’s, which was
named after its founder, Thomas Lord, has
had three locations over its history. Moving
to the current ground in St. John’s Wood in
1814, Lord’s became the headquarters of
world cricket.
In 1836 the first match of North counties
versus South counties was played,
providing clear evidence of the spread of
cricket. In 1846 the All-England XI,
founded by William Clarke of Nottingham,
began touring the country, and from 1852,
when some of the leading professionals
(including John Wisden, who later
compiled the first of the famous Wisden
almanacs on cricketing) seceded to form
the United All-England XI, these two teams
monopolized the best cricket talent until
the rise of county cricket. They supplied
the players for the first English touring
team overseas in 1859.

Until early in the 19th century

all bowling was underhand, and most
bowlers favored the high-tossed lob. Next
came “the round-arm revolution,” in which
many bowlers began raising the point at
which they released the ball. Controversy
raged furiously, and in 1835
the MCC rephrased the law to allow the
hand to be raised as high as the shoulder.
The new style led to a great increase in
pace, or bowling speed. Gradually bowlers
raised the hand higher and higher in
defiance of the law. Matters were brought
to a head in 1862 when an England team
playing against Surrey left the field at
London’s Kenning ton Oval in protest over
a “no ball” call (i.e., an umpire’s decision
that the bowler has thrown an illegal
pitch). The argument centered on whether
the bowler should be allowed to raise his
arm above the shoulder. As a result of this
controversy, the bowler was in 1864
officially accorded liberty to bowl overhand
(but not to cock and straighten the arm).
This change dramatically altered the game,
making it yet more difficult for a batsman
to judge the ball. Already a bowler was
allowed to take a running start from any
direction and for any distance. Once the
bowler was allowed to release overhand,
the ball could then reach speeds above 90
mph (145 km/hr). Though this is not as
fast as the pitching speed
in baseball, cricket has an additional twist
in that the ball is usually delivered so as to
bounce on the pitch (field) before the
batsman can hit it. Thus, the ball may
curve to the right or the left, bounce low or
high, or spin toward or away from the
batsman.
Batsmen learned to protect themselves
with pads and batting gloves, and a cane
handle increased the resilience of the bat.
Only the best batsmen, however, could
cope with fast bowling, because the poor
condition of most pitches made it yet more
difficult for a batsman to predict the
motion of the ball. As the grounds
improved, however, batsmen grew
accustomed to the new bowling style and
went on the offensive. Other new bowling
styles were also discovered, causing
batsmen to adjust their technique further.
In the early 20th century so many runs
were being scored that debate ensued on
reforming the “leg-before-wicket” law,
which had been introduced in the 1774
laws to prohibit a batsman from using his
body to prevent the ball from hitting his
wicket. But the heavy scores were actually
due to the performances of several
outstanding batsmen, such as W.G.
Grace, Sir John Berry Hobbs, and K.S.
Ranjitsinhji (later the maharaja of
Nawanagar). This was cricket’s golden age.

W.G. Grace (right), batting in an 1890s match.

In the 20th century there was a series of
attempts to aid the bowler and quicken the
tempo of the game. Nevertheless, the game
by the mid-20th century was characterized
not by overwhelming offense but by
defensive play on both sides and by a slow
pace. In an attempt to shore up a declining
fan base, one-day, or limited-over, cricket
was introduced. One-day cricket had first
been played internationally when, after a
Test match was rained out for the first
days, on the last scheduled day of play a
limited-over match was held in order to
give the fans some game to watch. The
response was enthusiastic, and one-day
cricket came into being. In this version of
cricket the limited number of over (usually
50 per side) leads to a faster paced
though much-altered game. In one-day
cricket there are some restrictions on
placement of fielders. This led to new
batting styles, such as the paddle shot
(wherein the ball is hit behind the wicket
because there are usually no fielders
there) and the lofted shot (where the
batsman tries to hit the ball past the
fielders and over their heads). Twenty20
(T20), a style of one-day cricket consisting
of 20 over per side, debuted in 2003 and
quickly became an international sensation.
The first Twenty20 world championship
was held in 2007, and one-day cricket,
particularly Twenty20, became more
popular than Test matches worldwide,
although Test cricket retained a large
following in England. The pace of Test
matches increased dramatically in the late
20th century with the introduction of new
bowling strategies.
County and university cricket
Some of the earliest organized cricket
matches were between amateur and
professional players. From 1806 (annually
from 1819) to 1962, the Gentlemen-
versus-Players match pitted the best
amateurs against the best professionals.
The series was ended in 1962 when the
MCC and the counties abandoned the
distinction between amateurs and
professionals. Other early cricket matches
took place between British universities.
The Oxford-versus-Cambridge match, for
example, has been played mainly at Lord’s
since 1827 and became a high point of the
summer season in London.
University cricket was a kind of nursery
for county cricket—i.e., matches between
the various counties of England. Although
the press acclaimed a “champion county”
(Sussex) as early as 1827, qualification
rules for county cricket were not laid down
until 1873, and it was only in 1890 that
the format of the county championship was
formalized by the counties
themselves. Gloucestershire dominated the
1870s, thanks to W.G. Grace and his
brothers E.M. and G.F. Grace. From the
1880s to World War
I, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Yorkshire, Lan
cashire, Kent,
and Middlesex constituted the Big Six that
dominated county cricket. After World War
I the northern counties, led by Yorkshire
and Lancashire, largely professional
teams, were the leaders. Surrey, with
seven successive championships,
dominated in the 1950s and Yorkshire in
the 1960s, followed by Kent and Middlesex
in the 1970s. The 1980s were dominated
by Middlesex, Worcestershire, Essex, and
Nottinghamshire. Other counties in first-
class county cricket
are Leicestershire, Somerset, Hampshire,
Durham, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Sussex
, Northamptonshire, and Glamorgan.
After a postwar boom, slow play and lower
numbers of runs characterized the 1950s,
and this defensive nature of county cricket
led to progressively decreased attendance.
In the 1960s the MCC and the counties
introduced a one-day knockout
competition—called the Gillette Cup
(1963–1980), the NatWest Bank Trophy
(1981–2000), the C&G Trophy (2000–
06), and the Friends Provident Trophy
(2006–09)—and a separate Sunday
afternoon league (the two competitions
were merged in 2010 as the Clydesdale
Bank 40), which revived public interest,
although most counties remained
dependent financially on proceeds
from football pools and money received
from Test matches and broadcasting fees.
The immediate registration of overseas
players was permitted, and each county, as
of the early 1980s, was allowed one such
player, who could, however, still play for
his national team. The change worked well
for the counties, and it also strengthened
the national teams for whom those players
appeared. In county cricket, bonus points
were created to encourage batsmen and
bowlers to play less defensively, and from
1988, to help the development of young
batsmen and spin bowlers, four-day games
increasingly replaced the three-day format.
The longer game gives batsmen more time
to build an innings and relieves them of
the pressure to score runs quickly. Spin
bowlers benefit from the longer game
because the pitch wears as the game
progresses and permits greater spin.

The Cricket Council and

the ECB
A reorganization of English cricket took
place in 1969, resulting in the end of the
MCC’s long reign as the controlling body of
the game, though the organization still
retains responsibility for the laws. With the
establishment of the Sports Council (a
government agency charged with control of
sports in Great Britain) and with the
possibility of obtaining government aid for
cricket, the MCC was asked to create a
governing body for the game along the
lines generally accepted by other sports in
Great Britain. The Cricket
Council, comprising the Test and County
Cricket Board (TCCB), the National Cricket
Association (NCA), and the MCC, was the
result of these efforts. The TCCB, which
amalgamated the Advisory County Cricket
Committee and the Board of Control of
Test Matches at Home, had responsibility
for all first-class and minor-counties
cricket in England and for overseas tours.
The NCA consisted of representatives from
clubs, schools, armed services cricket,
umpires, and the Women’s Cricket
Association. In 1997 there was another
reorganization, and the TCCB, the NCA,
and the Cricket Council were all subsumed
under the England and Wales Cricket
Board (ECB).

International cricket
International cricket in the early part of
the 20th century was dominated by the
original members of the Imperial Cricket
Conference, England, Australia, and South
Africa. Later renamed the International
Cricket Conference and then
the International Cricket Council, the ICC
gradually took over more responsibility for
the administration of the game and shifted
its power base from west to east. When in
2005 the ICC moved its offices from Lord’s
in London—home of the MCC, the game’s
original rulers and still its lawmakers—
to Dubai, the shift away from the old ways
of governance was complete. The priorities
of the game changed too. By the turn of
the 21st century, only Australia and
England still played Test cricket to full
houses. Everywhere else, and particularly
in India and Pakistan, crowds flocked to
see limited-overs internationals. Test
cricket became almost an afterthought.
Although the power to change the laws of
the game have remained with the MCC, the
ICC developed its own Code of Conduct for
players, officials, and administrators,
which sets out disciplinary procedures and
protects the spirit of the game. It also
organized major international
tournaments, including the one-day and
Twenty20 World Cups and the Champions
Trophy. In 2000 the ICC set up the Anti-
Corruption Unit (renamed the Anti-
Corruption Unit and Security Unit in 2003)
to combat the growing threat of illegal
gambling and match fixing. At the
beginning of the 2010s, the ICC had 10
full members and dozens of associate
and affiliate members.

Lord's Cricket Ground, London.

Australia
One of the founding members of the
ICC, Australia remains one of its most
powerful countries both on and off the
field. The history of cricket in Australia
dates to 1803 when the game was
introduced by the crew of a British ship.
The first intercolonial match took place in
1851 between Victoria and Tasmania, and
by the end of the 19th century teams from
England were touring Australia regularly.
The first official Test match was played
in Melbourne in 1877 by Australia and
England, beginning the oldest rivalry in
international cricket, a series that became
known as The Ashes
 D.M. Jones, batsman for Australia's team in a cricket Test match,
placing the ball to the leg side against England's team.

Cricket is played throughout Australia, and

matches are ferociously competitive at
every level. All the great Australian players
from Sir Don Bradman to Shane
Warne developed their skills in club cricket
before graduating to the state and national
teams, and the Australian style of cricket
is marked by aggressiveness with bat, ball,
and, often, voice in an attempt to
intimidate opponents. Through the 20th
century, Australia produced a series of
outstanding teams, and the country
dominated international cricket into the
new century, winning three successive one-
day World Cups (1999–2007) and twice
recording runs of 16 consecutive Test
victories (1999–2001 and 2005–08). In
2005 England’s Test victory over Australia,
the first since 1987, was celebrated with
an open-top bus ride through the city of
London.

Bangladesh
In June 2000 Bangladesh became the 10th
country to be accorded full Test status. It
played its first Test match in November of
that year, against India in Dhaka. Known
as the Tigers, the Bangladeshi team
struggled to perform at the highest level,
winning only three of its first 68 Tests.
However, Bangladesh has defeated the
nine countries that preceded it to Test
status in one-day matches, a feat
completed with a victory over England
in Bristol in 2010. Bangladesh’s first
appearance in an
international tournament had come in
England in the ICC Trophy competition for
associate members in 1979. In 1997
Bangladesh won the trophy and qualified
for the 1999 World Cup, beating Pakistan
in the group stages. A domestic first-class
tournament between six regional teams
was established in 2000–01. Since
Bangladesh gained Test status, cricket
arguably has become the most popular
sport in the country.

India
Cricket is played in every corner of India,
on city streets, in village fields, and
on maidens—open playing fields, the
largest of which (such as the Azad, Cross,
and Oval maidens in South Mumbai) can
host dozens of overlapping matches.
Historically, Indian cricketers have
displayed a good eye and strong wrists,
and Indian batsmen, most notably Sunil
Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, have been
some of the most productive and stylish in
the history of cricket. The dry flat pitches
of the subcontinent have also traditionally
produced high-class spin bowlers.

Sunil Gavaskar.

The origins of the game in India date to

the 18th century. A touring team led by the
English gentleman cricketer Lord Hawke
played a match against the “All India”
team in January 1893. India played its
first Test in 1932 and waited 20 years for
its first Test victory, against England in
Madras (now Chennai). The game
developed so fast in India, however, that by
the end of the 20th century India was one
of the world’s foremost cricketing
countries. With the growth of the Indian
Premier League in the early 21st century,
it became the undisputed home
of Twenty20 cricket and the financial hub
of the international game, though the
popularity of Test cricket has declined
dramatically in India. India’s prominence
in one-day cricket was further confirmed
when it won the Cricket World Cup in
2011.

New Zealand
Cricket has always taken second place
to rugby in the sports priorities of New
Zealanders, but, as in Australia, the game
has a strong national structure in New
Zealand. The long history of domestic
cricket in the country is often dated from
the first representative interprovincial
match, between Auckland and Wellington,
in 1860, though there is evidence that
unofficial matches between provinces were
played in New Zealand decades earlier. The
NZ Cricket Council was formed in 1894
and was admitted to full membership of
the ICC in 1926. With only a small base of
players on which to draw, New Zealand has
always struggled to compete with England
and Australia in Test cricket. As in most
cricketing countries, the one-day game has
proved more popular in New Zealand. In
Richard Hadlee, who was knighted in
1990, the country produced one of the
greatest cricketers of any era.
2015 Cricket World Cup New Zealand's Ross Taylor batting a ball as South
African wicketkeeper Quinton De Kock (right) watches during a Cricket
World Cup semifinal in Auckland, New Zealand, March 24, 2015.

Pakistan
The development of cricket in Pakistan has
been chaotic, quixotic, and exotic in
roughly equal measure. Under the
leadership of Imran Khan, Pakistan won
the 1992 World Cup, but often its cricket
was blighted by political interference and
scandal. A low point was reached in 2010:
To begin with, the national team was in
virtual exile, unable to persuade other
countries to play in Pakistan for fear of
terrorist attacks in the wake of an assault
in Lahore on the visiting Sri Lankan team
bus in March 2009 that left six policemen
dead and several players injured.
Moreover, three members of the Pakistani
team touring England were involved in
allegations of “spot fixing”—that is, fixing
the results of certain bowls in return for
money—and were banned by the ICC. Huge
profits could be made in illegal betting
markets in Asia by predicting the results of
individual bowls. Only a few years earlier
several Pakistan players also had been
banned as a result of investigations over
match fixing. Yet Pakistan has also
produced a host of talented cricketers
such as Khan, Wasim Akram, Abdul Qadir,
and Inzamam-ul-Haq and has proved itself
adept at Twenty20 cricket, winning the
T20 World Cup in 2009.
South Africa
South Africa played its first Test, against
England in Port Elizabeth, as early as in
1889. Cricket has been at the heart of the
country’s sporting culture ever since.
When South Africa was banned from the
ICC from 1970 to 1991 because of
its apartheid policies, cricket
administrators worked quietly
to integrate nonwhite players into the
system, which was based largely on
traditional all-white schools and state
teams. When apartheid was abolished,
cricket was far more prepared to cope with
the social and political changes than
was rugby union. Makhaya Ntini, a world-
class fast bowler, who made his
international debut for South Africa in
1998 and played in more than 100 Tests,
served as a role model for the new
generation of black cricketers. On the
other hand, in 2000 Hansie Cronje, the
captain of South Africa, was banned for
match fixing in a scandal that brought into
question the integrity of South African
cricket. It was not until 2003, when South
Africa hosted a successful World Cup, that
the rehabilitation of country’s cricketing
reputation was complete. South Africa has
always been a great exporter of cricketers,
mainly to England. Allan Lamb and Robin
Smith were prominent members of the
England team in the 1980s and ’90s;
Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott were
mainstays of the Ashes-winning side of
2010.

Sri Lanka
Even before Test status was awarded to Sri
Lanka in 1981, the island country was a
popular destination for touring teams,
particularly for English teams on the way
to Australia by boat. Given the
disadvantages of its relatively small
population and of the civil war that
disrupted life on the island for three
decades, Sri Lanka developed into a top
cricketing country with surprising speed.
In 1996 it won the World Cup, beating
Australia in the final by playing aggressive,
innovative cricket under the inspired
leadership of Arjuna Ranatunga. The
victory instilled belief in a new generation
of players that included Sanath
Jayasuriya; Mahela Jayawardene, an
elegant and aggressive batsmen;
and Muttiah Muralitharan, who in 2010
became the first bowler to take 800 Test
wickets. The Indian Ocean tsunami of
2004 devastated the cricket-playing
regions of southern Sri Lanka, including
the Test match ground at Galle, and took
the lives of many promising young players.
Nonetheless, Sri Lanka recovered to reach
the World Cup final again in
2007. Calamity struck again in 2009,
when the Sri Lankan team’s bus was
attacked by terrorists on the way to the
ground for the second Test against
Pakistan in Lahore.

West Indies
Cricket has been a unifying force in the
Caribbean since the West Indies became
the fourth Test-playing side in 1928. The
islands have generally played other sports
as independent countries, but British
colonial influence contributed to the
formation of a united regional team. For a
time in the 1970s and ’80s, when the West
Indian team featured a quartet of fast
bowlers—led by Michael Holding, Malcolm
Marshall, Andy Roberts, and Joel Garner—
and batsmen of the destructive capacity
of Sir Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd, the
West Indies were virtually unbeatable.
Blessed with an abundance of talented
players and true pitches, Caribbean cricket
has always been played with an
unorthodox flourish, seen most clearly in
the batsmanship of Sir Garfield Sobers,
Richards, and Brian Lara.
In the 21st century cricket declined in
popularity in the West Indies, a result of a
lack of strong administrative leadership
and because of the increasing appeal of
potentially more lucrative sports such
as athletics (track and
field), football (soccer) and basketball.
After playing in the finals of the first three
World Cups (1975, 1979, and 1983) and
winning the first two, the West Indian team
failed—with the exception of 1996—to
reach even the knockout stage of
subsequent World Cups, including in
2007, as the host of the event.

Zimbabwe
Until Test status was granted
to Zimbabwe in 1992, the country’s best
cricketers, such as Colin Bland, played for
South Africa. Indeed, the history of the
cricket in the two countries has been
inextricably linked. Long before the newly
independent and renamed Zimbabwe
became an associate member of the ICC in
1980, teams representing its Rhodesian
forerunner states had participated in the
Currie Cup, the South African domestic
first-class tournament (first in 1904–05,
then in the early 1930s, and again after
World War II). Competing in its first World
Cup in 1983, Zimbabwe surprised the
world by beating Australia, yet Graeme
Hick, arguably the country’s best batsman,
left shortly thereafter to play for England.
Zimbabwean cricket in the early 21st
century has been marked by chaotic
administration and political interference.
In 2004 Heath Streak was sacked as
captain of the national team, precipitating
a crisis from which Zimbabwe took years
to emerge, including an exile from Test
cricket that began in 2006 and ended in
2011. The country’s political volatility
during this period had much to do with the
situation. In the 2003 World Cup, for
example, England forfeited its match in
Zimbabwe, citing security concerns.
During the same tournament, two
Zimbabwe players, Andy Flower and Henry
Olonga, wore black armbands to “mourn
the death of democracy” in their country.

Test matches
The first Test match, played by two
national teams, was between Australia
and England in Melbourne in 1877, with
Australia winning. When Australia again
won at the Oval at Kenning ton, London, in
1882, the Sporting Times printed an
obituary notice announcing that English
cricket would be cremated and
the ashes taken to Australia, thus creating
the “play for the Ashes.” The Ashes, kept
in an urn at Lord’s irrespective of which
country is victorious, are supposed to be
those of a bail burned on the England tour
of Australia in 1882–83. For the rest of
the 19th century, the two countries met
almost yearly. With W.G. Grace, the
greatest cricketer of Victorian England, on
its side, England was often too strong for
the Australians, though Australia had the
greatest bowler of this era in F.R.
Spofforth and the first of the great
wicketkeepers in J.McC. Blackham.
 Ashes Ashes urn.

In 1907 South Africa first played Test

matches in England and also took on
Australia, whose dominance between the
two World Wars was symbolized by the
prodigious run scoring of Sir Don
Bradman. This period saw a notable
growth in the number of Test match
countries with the arrival of the West
Indies in 1928, New Zealand in 1930, and
India in 1932.

Don Bradman, 1934.

The visit of the English side to Australia in

1932–33 severely strained relations
between the countries because of the use
of “bodyline” bowling tactics, in which
the ball was bowled close to or at the
batsman. This scheme was devised by the
English captain, D.R. Jardine, and involved
fast short-pitched deliveries bowled to the
batsman’s body so that the batter would be
hit on the upper body or head or,
alternatively, would be caught out by one
of the fielders on the leg side (the side
behind the striker when in a batting
stance). The plan was devised to curb
Bradman’s scoring, but it led to a large
number of serious injuries on the
Australian team. The practice was felt to
be unsportsmanlike by the Australians,
who protested vigorously. The series was
played out (with England winning 3–1), but
it created bitter feeling on the part of
Australia for some time to come. Bodyline
bowling tactics were banned soon after the
series.
After World War II there were Test matches
in England every summer, Australia being
the most frequent visitor, and the Test
ranks were increased by the addition of
Pakistan in 1952. There was a steady
escalation of tours between the Test-
playing countries to the extent that, while
the first 500 Test matches were spread
over 84 years, the next 500 occupied only
23. Sri Lanka’s entry in 1982 as the
eighth Test-playing country came during
an era dominated by the West Indies,
whose devastating attack was founded, for
the first time in cricket history, on four
fast bowlers. Zimbabwe was admitted as a
Test country in 1992 and Bangladesh in
2000.
One-day internationals—answering the
complaint that Test matches went on too
long—began in 1972. In 1975 the
first World Cup was contested in England
in a series of one-day matches of 60 overs
a side (the number of overs was reduced
to 50 in 1987). The event was a great
success and continued at four-year
intervals. It was held outside England, in
India and Pakistan, for the first time in
1987.
Test cricket has faced a number of crises
since the late 1960s. In one such case in
1969–70, a South African tour of England
was canceled because of opposition to
South African apartheid. Violence, damage,
and disruption of play had been
threatened. A further threat to Test cricket
was posed by an Australian television
network executive, Kerry Packer, who
signed many of the world’s leading players
for a series of private contests between
1977 and 1979. Reprisals were brought
against the players but were overruled
after court action in England. The players
returned to the fold, but commercialism
had taken hold of the game. In 1982 the
agreement of 12 first-class English players
to take part—in breach of official
guidelines—in a commercially sponsored
South African tour with fees of up to
£50,000 per player led to the players’
being banned from Test cricket for three
years. Cricketers from Sri Lanka and the
West Indies also toured South Africa and
received more stringent sanctions, and the
engagement of English professionals as
players and coaches in South Africa
threatened a serious division between the
Test-playing countries that ended only with
the repeal of apartheid.
Test cricket was again rocked by a scandal
that began in 1999 regarding match
fixing. While betting on matches had been
common in England in the early days of
cricket, many Test countries had banned
such betting in the modern era. In India
and Pakistan betting on cricket was legal,
however, and cricketers playing
international matches there reported being
asked by bookmakers and betting
syndicates to underperform in return for
money. Members of the Australian, South
African, Indian, and Pakistani national
teams were all tainted by this scandal,
several players were banned from cricket
for life, and the integrity of the game was
called into question.

21st-century developments
The advent of Twenty20 cricket (T20) and
the wild success of the IPL in the first
decade of the 21st century led to a period
of great innovation in the game. The new,
truncated form of the game privileged
batting, partly by restricting the placement
of fielders and shortening the boundaries.
To counter free-scoring batsmen with
heavy bats, bowlers began to perfect a
great variety of different balls (deliveries).
Disguise became an essential part of the
bowler’s armory. Slow spin-bowling, which
forces the batsman to generate “pace”
(that is, to provide the bulk of the power to
propel the batted ball, whereas fast
bowling contributes more force to the
batsman’s swing), proved a surprisingly
effective weapon. Among the new shots
that became commonplace for batsmen in
T20 cricket was the reverse sweep,
wherein a right-handed batsman, in mid-
delivery, changes hands to swing at the
ball like a left-hander (or a left-hander
swings like a right-hander). Batters also
began employing the scoop, a shot played
almost vertically over the wicketkeeper’s
head. Test cricket also benefited from
these new techniques and from the new
era of creativity, not least from the
introduction of the doosra, a delivery
disguised to look like an off-spinner that
actually turns away from the right-handed
batsman like a leg-spinner. Developed by
the Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq
and taking its name from the Urdu
expression meaning “the other one,” the
ball was perfected by Muttiah
Muralitharan of Sri Lanka,
Cricket also followed other sports in its
use of video technology in making on field
decisions. Initially, from its first trial in
1992, only line decisions such as run outs
were decided by referral to a third umpire
off the field. But in 2008 a new referral
system, in which players were allowed to
refer any on field decision to the third
umpire, made its international debut in a
series between India and Sri Lanka (it had
been put on trial in English county cricket
in 2007). Each side receives two referrals
every innings (down from three when the
system was first tried out). Referrals that
result in the umpire changing an original
decision are not counted against this total.
The system was designed to eradicate an
umpire’s innocent but obvious mistake and
has been greeted with more enthusiasm by
players than umpires.
Women’s cricket
Women first played cricket in England in
the 18th century. In 1887 the first
club, White Heather, was formed, and it
survived to 1957. In 1890 two
professional teams known collectively as
the Original English Lady Cricketers were
in action.
In 1926 the Women’s Cricket Association
was founded, and in 1934–35 it sent a
team to Australia and New Zealand.
Australia paid a return visit in 1937, and,
since World War II, tours have increased.
The International Women’s Cricket Council
was formed in 1958 by Australia, England,
the Netherlands, New Zealand, and South
Africa and later included India, Denmark,
and several West Indian islands. A World
Cup was instituted in 1973, two years
ahead of men’s cricket, and England and
Australia played in the first women’s
matches at Lord’s in 1976.

Indian Women’s Cricket Team

Cricket grounds vary in size from great
arenas, such as the main playing area at
Lord’s in London (5.5 acres [2.2
hectares]) and the even larger Melbourne
Cricket Ground, to village greens and small
meadows. Level turf of fine texture is the
ideal surface, but where this is unavailable
any artificial covered surface—such as coir
(fiber) matting or artificial turf on a firm
base—may be used. The limits of the
playing area are usually marked by a
boundary line or fence.
A wicket consists of three stumps, or
stakes, each 28 inches (71.1 cm) high and
of equal thickness (about 1.25 inches in
diameter), stuck into the ground and so
spaced that the ball cannot pass between
them. Two pieces of wood called bails,
each 4.37 inches (11.1 cm) long, lie in
grooves on the tops of the stumps. The
bails do not extend beyond the stumps and
do not project more than half an inch
above them. The whole wicket is 9 inches
(22.86 cm) in width. There are two of
these wickets, which a batsman defends
and a bowler attacks, and they are
approximately in the centre of the ground,
facing one another at each end of the
pitch.
Lines of whitewash demarcate
the creases at each wicket: the bowling
crease is a line drawn through the base of
the stumps and extending 4.33 feet (1.32
meters) on either side of the centre stump;
the return crease is a line at each end of
and at right angles to the bowling crease,
extending behind the wicket; and
the popping crease is a line parallel with
the bowling crease and 4 feet in front of it.
The bowling and return creases mark the
area within which the bowler’s rear foot
must be grounded in delivering the ball;
the popping crease, which is 62 feet (18.9
meters) from the opposing bowling crease,
demarks the batsman’s ground. When a
batsman is running between wickets, the
crease represents the area in which he is
“safe” (in baseball parlance) and only a
cricketer’s bat need be in the crease; thus
a batsman will often place just the tip of
the bat over the line of the crease and then
begin to run for the opposite wicket.
The blade of the paddle-shaped bat is made
of willow and must not be broader than
4.25 inches (10.8 cm). The length of the
bat, including the handle, must not exceed
38 inches (96.5 cm). The ball, which has a
core of cork built up with string, was
traditionally encased in polished
red leather, although white is now
frequently used, especially for night
games. The halves of the ball are sewn
together with a raised seam (the seam
being like the equator on a globe, not like
the curved seam of
a baseball or tennis ball). Slightly smaller,
harder, and heavier than a baseball, it
must weigh between 5.5 and 5.75 ounces
(156 and 163 grams) and measure
between 8.8 and 9 inches (22.4 and 22.9
cm) in circumference. In the early days
of cricket it was common to use the same
ball for an entire match, which allowed for
pitches with more swerve and movement
as the match wore on. Even today a cricket
ball may stay in play for an entire day of a
match, and, as the ball gets more used, it
is progressively more difficult to hit.
Cricket attire has evolved with men’s
fashion. In the 18th century cricketers
wore tricorne hats, knee breeches, silk
stockings, and shoes with buckles. More
colorful dress was common on the field in
the 18th century, and only in the late 19th
century did the uniform long associated
with cricket arrive: white flannel trousers
with a white shirt and V-necked sweater,
the sweater often trimmed with club
colors. Players have worn a myriad of hat
styles, including top hats and straw hats,
but in the 1880s the colored cap became
the norm. White buckskin shoes also
became popular for men in the 1880s, and
cricketers then adopted the white shoes
(known, however, as boots) that are
traditionally worn with flannels. In a break
with tradition, late 20th-century players
began to wear brightly colored clothing
to differentiate between teams on the
grounds. By the 21st century the
predominant outfit for cricket was a loose-
fitting polo shirt (either short- or long-
sleeved) with matching trousers and
spiked cleats for traction.
With the advent of fast bowling, cricketers
adopted protective dress. The batsman
wears white pads (leg guards), an
abdominal protector, and batting gloves to
protect the fingers; batsmen may also wear
helmets and other protection. The
wicketkeeper also wears pads and
reinforced gauntlets (the other fielders do
not wear gloves).

One player on each team acts as captain.

There are two umpires—one standing
behind the bowler’s wicket, the other at the
position called square leg about 15 yards
from the batsman’s popping crease (see
the figure)—to control the game according
to the laws; two scorers record its
progress. The object of the game is for one
side to score more runs than the other.
At the start of a match, the captain who
wins the toss of a coin decides whether his
own or the other side shall take
first innings—i.e., proceed successively as
batsmen, the first two as a pair together,
to the wicket and try to make as many
runs as possible against the bowling and
fielding of their opponents. There are three
methods by which an innings is completed:
(1) when 10 batsmen have been dismissed
(the remaining batsman, having no
partner, is declared “not out”); (2) when
the captain of the batting side declares his
innings closed before all 10 men are out
(a captain may decide to declare if his
team has a large lead in runs and he fears
that the innings will continue so long that
the opposing team will not have time to get
in their full innings and the game will
therefore be a draw); or (3) in a match of
one innings a side, when the allotted
number of overs expires. Results are
recorded by the margin of runs or, if the
side batting last passes the other side’s
total before all their batsmen have been
dismissed, by the number of their wickets
(i.e., batsmen still to be dismissed)
outstanding.
Matches are decided either by the number
of runs scored in one innings each
(usually for one-day matches) or on
the aggregate of runs made by each side in

two innings. Test matches last five days

(30 playing hours), other first-class
matches from three to four days, and the
bulk of club, school, and village matches
one day.
The non-batting side takes up positions in
the field. One man is the bowler (similar to
the pitcher in baseball), another is
the wicketkeeper (similar to the catcher),
and the remaining nine are positioned as
the captain or the bowler directs (see
the figure). The first batsman (the striker)
guards his wicket by standing with at least
one foot behind the popping crease. His
partner (the non-striker) waits behind the
popping crease at the bowler’s end. The
bowler tries to hit the batsman’s wicket or
to dismiss him in other ways.

Runs
The batsman tries to keep the bowler from
hitting the wicket, while also trying to hit
the ball sufficiently hard to score a run,
i.e., enable him to run to the other end of
the pitch before any fieldsman can pick up
the ball and throw it to either wicket to
knock off the bails. If the wicket is broken,
either by a thrown ball or by the
wicketkeeper or bowler with ball in hand,
before either batsman is in his ground, the
batsman is dismissed. The striker does not
have to run after he has hit the ball, nor
does it count in any way if he misses the
ball or if his body is struck by it. But if he
gets a good hit and thinks he can score a
run, he races for the opposite wicket and
his partner runs toward him. When each
has made good his ground by touching his
bat beyond the popping crease at the
opposite end, one run is recorded to the
striker; if there is time, each will run back
for a second or more runs, crossing again.
If an even number of runs is scored, the
striker will receive the next ball; if an odd
number, then the non-striker will be at the
wicket opposite the bowler and will face
the next ball. Any runs thus made count to
the batsman, otherwise they are extras.
When a ball from a hit or any of the extras
mentioned below goes as far as the
boundary, the runners stop and four runs
are scored. If the batsman hits the ball full
pitch over the boundary (on the fly), he
scores six runs.

Extras
Only runs scored from the bat count to the
batsman, but to the side’s score may be
added the following extras: (1) byes (when
a ball from the bowler passes the wicket
without being touched by the bat and the
batsmen are able to make good a run);
(2) leg byes (when in similar
circumstances the ball has touched any
part of the batsman’s body except his
hand); (3) wides (when a ball passes out of
reach of the striker); (4) no balls
(improperly bowled balls; for a fair delivery
the ball must be bowled, not thrown, the
arm neither bent nor jerked, and in the
delivery stride some part of the bowler’s
front foot must be behind or covering the
popping crease), off which a batsman
cannot be out (except as noted
under Methods of dismissal below) and
which, apprised in time by the umpire’s cry
of “no ball,” he may try to hit.

Over
When a bowler has bowled six balls
(occasionally, eight balls), not counting
wides and no balls, he has completed an
over. The batsmen remain where they are
and a new over is begun by a different
bowler at the opposite wicket, with a
corresponding adjustment of the positions
of the players in the field. If a bowler
delivers a complete over without a run
being scored from the bat (even though
the opponents may have scored extras by
means of byes or leg byes), he has
achieved a maiden over. In one-day cricket,
no bowler is allowed to bowl more than 10
overs in a 50-over match.
Methods of dismissal
It is important to remember that in cricket,
unlike in baseball, a batsman need not hit
the ball bowled at him to maintain his at
bat. Further, should the batsman hit the
ball and, in his judgment, be unable to
reach the other wicket before a fieldsman
can handle the ball, he may stay put at his
wicket and no penalty occurs. The
batsman’s primary task is to defend the
wicket, not to get hits or score runs. That
being said, there are 10 ways in which a
batsman or striker can be dismissed (put
out); they are listed from most common to
least:
1. The batsman is “caught out” if a ball hit
by the batsman is caught before it touches
the ground.
2. He is “bowled out” if the bowler breaks
the wicket, i.e., dislodges a bail with the
ball, which includes when the batsman
hits the ball into his own wicket.
3. The batsman is out “leg before wicket”
(lbw) if he intercepts with any part of his
person (except his hand) that is in line
between wicket and wicket a ball that has
not first touched his bat or his hand and
that has or would have pitched (hit the
ground) in a straight line between the
wickets or on the off side provided the ball
would have hit the wicket. The batsman
may also be out lbw if he intercepts the
ball outside the off-side stump having
made no genuine attempt to play the ball
with his bat.
4. Either batsman is out by a “run out” if,
while the ball is in play, his wicket is
broken while he is out of his ground (that
is, he does not have at least his bat in the
 crease). If the batsmen have passed each
other, the one running for the wicket that
is broken is out; if they have not crossed,
the one running from that wicket is out.
5. He is “stumped” if, in playing a stroke,
he is outside the popping crease (out of
his ground) and the wicket is broken by
the wicketkeeper with ball in hand.
6. The batsman is out “hit wicket” if he
breaks his own wicket with his bat or any
part of his person while playing the ball or
setting off for a run.
7. Either batsman is out for handling the
ball if, with the hand not holding the bat,
he willfully touches the ball while it is in
play, unless with the consent of the
opposing side.
8. A batsman is out if he hits the ball,
except in defense of his wicket, after it has
 been struck or stopped by any part of his
person.
9. Either batsman is out if he willfully
obstructs the opposite side by word or
action.
10. An incoming batsman is “timed out”
if he willfully takes more than two minutes
to come in.
Regardless of the means of dismissal, a
batsman is not given out until the fielding
side has appealed to an umpire and that
umpire has declared the player out. Thus,
when a play occurs in which the batsman
could be out, a fielder will appeal to the
umpire with the phrase “How was that?”
(pronounced “Howzat?”). Only then will the
umpire rule on the play. (If a player knows
himself to have been out, however, he can
declare himself out.) No matter how a
player was dismissed, even if by leg before
wicket or timed out, the vernacular of
cricket is such that it is said that the
batting side has “lost a wicket.”

The disposition of the field will vary widely

according to the technique of the bowler
or of the batsman, the condition of the
pitch, the state of the game, and the
tactics determined by the captain. He may
place his fieldsmen as he thinks best, and
he may alter their positions, if he wishes,
after each ball. There are no foul lines
in cricket, so a hit in any direction is a fair
ball. The objectives of the captain of the
fielding side are: (1) to place his men in
positions where the batsman may give a
catch, i.e., hit a drive or a fly ball to a
fielder and (2) to save runs, i.e., to block
the path of the ball from the batsman’s
scoring strokes (intercept or trap
grounders). The tactical possibilities for a
captain in directing his bowlers and
fieldsmen and the batsmen are manifold
and constitute one of the attractions of the
game. In one-day cricket, however, there
are some restrictions on the placement of
fielders.
As there are 11 players on a team and 2 of
them must be the bowler and
wicketkeeper, only 9 other positions can
be occupied at any one time. The field is
spoken of as being divided lengthwise
into off and on, or leg, sides in relation to
the batsmen’s stance, depending upon
whether he bats right- or left-handed; the
off side is the side facing the batsman, and
the on, or leg, side is the side behind him
as he stands to receive the ball. The
fieldsmen will reposition themselves at the
end of each over and will adjust the field
for a left- or right-handed batsman.
To sum up, the objective of the bowler is
primarily to get the batsman out and only
secondarily to prevent him from getting
runs, though these objectives have tended
to become reversed in limited-overs
cricket. The objective of the batsman is to
protect his wicket first and then to make
runs, for only runs can win a match. The
objective of each fielder is, first, to dismiss
the batsmen, and, second, to prevent the
striker from making runs.

Bowling
Bowling can be right- or left-arm. For a fair
delivery, the ball must be propelled,
usually overhand, without bending the
elbow. The bowler may run any desired
number of paces as a part of his delivery
(with the restriction, of course, that he not
cross the popping crease). The ball
generally hits the ground (the pitch)
before reaching the batsman, although it
need not. The first requisite of a good
bowler is command of length—i.e., the
ability to pitch (bounce) the ball on a
desired spot, usually at or slightly in front
of the batsman’s feet. The location varies
with the pace of the bowler, the state of
the pitch, and the reach and technique of
the batsman. The second requisite is
command of direction. On this foundation
a bowler may elaborate with variations—
finger spin (in which the ball rotates on its
axis as it moves towards the batsman),
swerve (which describes a ball that curves
towards or away from the batsman once it
has bounced on the pitch), alteration of
pace (the speed of the ball)—that lend
deceptiveness and uncertainty as to exactly
where and how it will pitch. A good-length
ball is one that causes the batsman to be
uncertain whether to move forward to play
his stroke or to move back. A half volley is
a ball pitched so far up to the batsman
that he can drive it fractionally after it has
hit the ground without having to move
forward. A yorker is a ball pitched on or
inside the popping crease. A full pitch is a
ball that the batsmen can reach before it
hits the ground. A long hop is a ball short
of good length.
The primary purpose of the spin is to bring
the ball up from the pitch at an angle that
is difficult for the batsman to anticipate.
The two swerves (curves) are the “in
swinger,” which moves in the air from off
to leg (into the batsman), and the “away
swinger,” or “out swinger,” which swerves
from leg to off (away from the batsman). A
“googly” (coined by cricketer B.J.T.
Bosanquet on the 1903–04 MCC tour) is a
ball bowled with finger spin that breaks
unexpectedly in the opposite direction
from that anticipated by the batsman given
the motion of the bowler. A more recent
variation in bowling is known as reverse
swing. This delivery was pioneered by
Pakistani players, particularly by
bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younnus.
If a bowler is able to deliver at speeds of
greater than 85 mph (135 kph), he can
achieve reverse swing, meaning that
without altering the grip on the ball or the
motion of delivery, the bowler can cause
the ball to swing (curve) in either
direction. This makes it difficult for the
batsman to gauge the direction in which
the ball will move, as nothing about the
bowler’s motion is different between the
swing and the reverse swing delivery.
Bowlers worldwide now employ this
delivery, especially at the end overs as the
batsmen look to dominate the bowler. If a
bowler does not have the pace (speed) to
deliver the reverse swing, another way to
cause the ball to move in that fashion is to
tamper with the surface of the ball (by
scratching or scuffing it). Charges of ball
tampering increased dramatically in the
1990s.

Batting
A batsman may hit right-handed or left-
handed. Good batting is based on a
straight (i.e., vertical) bat with its full face
presented to the ball, although a cross
(i.e., horizontal) bat can be used effectively
to deal with short bowling. The chief
strokes are: forward stroke, in which the
batsman advances his front leg to the pitch
(direction) of the ball and plays it in front
of the wicket (if played with aggressive
intent, this stroke becomes the
drive); back stroke, in which the batsman
moves his rear leg back before playing the
ball; leg glance (or glide), in which the ball
is deflected behind the wicket on the leg
side; cut, in which the batsman hits a ball
on the uprise (after it has hit the ground
on the off side), square with or behind the
wicket; and pull or hook, in which the
batsman hits a ball on the uprise through
the leg side.
Fielding
The ideal fieldsman is a fast runner with
quick reactions and the ability to throw
quickly and accurately. He should be able
to anticipate the batsman’s strokes, to
move quickly to cut off the ball in its path,
and to judge the flight of the ball in the air
to make a safe catch.

Wicket keeping
The wicketkeeper is a key member of the
fielding side. He takes position behind the
striker’s wicket, 10 to 20 yards back for
the fast bowlers or directly behind for
those of slower pace. He must concentrate
on every ball, being ready to stop a ball
that passes the wicket, to stump a batsman
if he leaves his ground, or to receive a ball
returned to him by a fielder.
Don Bradman, by name of Sir Donald George
Bradman, (born August 27,
1908, Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia—
died February 25, 2001, Adelaide, South
Australia), Australian cricketer, one of the greatest
run scorers in the history of the game and often
judged the greatest player of the 20th century.
In Test (international) matches Bradman scored
6,996 runs for Australia and set a record with his
average of 99.94 runs per contest. He scored 19
centuries (100 runs in a single innings) in Test
matches against England between 1928 and 1948.
On his first visit to England, in 1930, he
established a Test record (eventually broken) by
scoring 334 runs in one innings; in 1934, also in
England, he had an innings of 304 runs. In 1948
he was captain of the Australian team that was
victorious in England, four matches to none. He
retired from first-class cricket in 1949 and was
knighted in the same year.

Don Bradman

Bradman, as a youth, perfected his timing by

hitting a golf ball against a water tank. He
developed a quick eye, deft footwork, and an
uncanny judgment of bowling and also became a
brilliant outfields man. He wrote a volume of
reminiscences, Farewell to Cricket (1950), and a
coaching manual, The Art of Cricket (1958).
Sachin Tendulkar, in full Sachin Ramesh
Tendulkar, (born April 24,
1973, Bombay [Mumbai], India), Indian
professional cricket player, considered by many to
be one of the greatest batsmen of all time. In
2012 he became the first cricketer to score 100
centuries (100 runs in a single innings) in
international play.

Sachin Tendulkar

Tendulkar was given his first bat when he was 11

years of age. As a 14-year-old, he used it to score
329 out of a world-record stand of 664 in a school
match. A year later he scored a century on his
first-class debut for Bombay (Mumbai), and at age
16 years 205 days he became India’s youngest
Test (international) cricketer, making his debut
against Pakistan in Karachi in November 1989.
When he was 18 he scored two centuries
in Australia (148 in Sydney and 114 in Perth), and
in 1994 he scored 179 against the West Indies.
In August 1996, at age 23, Tendulkar was made
captain of his country’s team.
Tendulkar made history in December 2005 when
he scored his record-breaking 35th century in Test
play against Sri Lanka. The feat was accomplished
in a total of 125 Tests and allowed Tendulkar to
surpass the prolific Indian run scorer Sunil
Gavaskar. In June 2007 Tendulkar reached
another major milestone when he became the first
player to record 15,000 runs in one-day
international (ODI) play, and in November 2011 he
became the first batsman to score 15,000 runs in
Test play. One month later he scored a historic
“double century” in a contest against South Africa,
becoming the first man in history to record 200
runs in a single innings of ODI play. He was named
the 2010 International Cricket Council (ICC)
Cricketer of the Year.

Viv Richards, in full Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander

Richards, (born March 7, 1952, St. John’s,
Antigua), West Indian cricketer, arguably the finest
batsman of his generation.

Sir Vivian Richards

The son of Malcolm Richards, Antigua’s leading

fast bowler, Viv Richards followed in a family
tradition that included two brothers who also
played cricket for Antigua. Richards began his Test
(international) match career for the West
Indies team at age 22 in 1974. In the course of a
career that encompassed 121 Test matches and
lasted until 1993, he distinguished himself as one
of the most feared and productive batsmen of all
time.
Though he did so in an era when some of the
game’s most dominant fast bowlers thrived, he
defiantly and famously refused to wear a batting
helmet. In the process of scoring 8,540 runs and
averaging more than 50 runs per innings in Test
competition, Richards recorded 24 centuries (100
runs in a single innings), leading the West Indian
team that he captained from 1985 to 1991 to
sweeping international success. Richards was also
an “off-spin” bowler and took 32 wickets in Test
competition. But it was as a batsman that the
“Master Blaster,” who also had a distinguished
career in English county cricket, will always be
remembered. Richards was knighted by the
Antiguan government in 1999. His
autobiography, Sir Vivian: The Definitive
Autobiography, written with Bob Harris, was
published in 2000.
Ricky Ponting, in full Ricky Thomas Ponting,
byname Punter, (born December 19,
1974, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia),
Australian cricketer who was the country’s premier
batsman in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Ricky Ponting,

Ponting gained a reputation as a cricket prodigy

when he scored four centuries (a century is 100
runs in a single innings) for the Under-13s in a
Tasmanian cricket week and two more when
promoted to the Under-16 team. By age 20 he had
made his Test (international match) debut and had
been hailed by some as the new Don Bradman,
who was considered by many the best cricketer of
the 20th century. A maiden Test century came at
Leeds on the 1997 tour of England. Ponting was
criticized for his inconsistent performances early
in his career (caused, in part, by off-field personal
troubles), but, after rededicating himself to the
sport, he became a key factor
in Australia’s dominance in international cricket
over the next decade.
In 2002 he was rewarded with the captaincy of
Australia’s one-day international side, and the next
year he led the side to victory in the Cricket World
Cup in South Africa, one of three World Cups won
by Australia with Ponting on the squad (1999,
2003, 2007). When Test captain Steve
Waugh retired in 2004, Ponting was his natural
successor. In 2005 Australia lost to England in the
first Ashes series under Ponting’s leadership.
Ponting followed that with an impressive 2005–06
season, wherein he scored 1,483 runs (an average
of 78 per match), including seven centuries. In
January 2006 he marked his 100th Test with
innings of 120 and 143 not out against South
Africa in Sydney.
Sunil Gavaskar, in full Sunil Manohar Gavaskar,
bynames Sunny and the Little Master, (born July
10, 1949, Bombay [now Mumbai], India),
Indian cricket player who is considered one of the
sport’s greatest opening batsmen of all time.
Gavaskar skillfully captained the Indian team in 47
Test (international) matches and dominated the
game during a career that spanned 16 years and
125 total Test contests.

Sunil Gavaskar

Gavaskar was instigated into playing cricket in

Bombay under the guidance of his Test-playing
uncle, Madhav Mantri. Gavaskar’s impressive
performance in domestic cricket soon attracted
national notice, and he was selected for the
extremely tough tour of the West Indies in 1971.
Not only on that tour—when he scored 774 runs—
but also in subsequent tours, Gavaskar was the
one batsman the fearsome West Indian bowlers
could never suppress. His world record of 34 Test
centuries (100 runs in a single innings) stood for
19 years until it was broken by his
countryman Sachin Tendulkar in 2005. Just 5 feet
5 inches (1.65 metres) tall, Gavaskar was a
master of short-pitched bowling; very few fast
bowlers could claim to have completely dominated
him.
Gavaskar went on to break many records, setting
his own long-standing Indian Test record of 236
not out (subsequently broken by Tendulkar). He is
also the only Indian to have scored two centuries
in a Test match on three occasions. A superb
driver and cutter of the ball, Gavaskar was the first
player to score 10,000 runs in Test matches. He
was also an excellent fielder, with 108 catches
during his career; he was the first Indian apart
from wicket keepers to reach the landmark of 100
catches.

Brian Lara, in full Brian Charles Lara, (born May

2, 1969, Cantaro, Trinidad), West Indian cricketer,
one of the sport’s most renowned contemporary
players. The compact left-handed batsman is the
record holder for most runs scored in an innings
in both Test (international) and first-class cricket.
One of a family of 11, a natural athlete, and a
member of the national under-(age)14 football
(soccer) team, Lara was expected from an early
age to be the next great West Indian cricketer. He
was first selected for the West Indies national team
in 1990 at age 21, but he did not make his mark
until 1994, when he broke the two most coveted
batting records in cricket, scoring 375 runs
against England (besting Sir Garfield Sobers’s 36-
year-old record) and 501 runs (not out) for
Warwickshire, his English county team. In 2004
Lara then became the first player to retake the
Test batting record when his 400 runs (not out)
against England surpassed the 380 runs posted by
Australian Matthew Hayden in 2003.

Brian Lara

Between these Herculean feats, Lara sometimes

struggled to perform at the level expected of him,
and some questioned his dedication to the sport.
Likewise, under his captaincy the record of the
West Indies national team was undistinguished.
However, there is no doubt that he ranks with the
likes of Sobers, Sir Don Bradman, Clive Lloyd, and
Sir Viv Richards as among cricket’s greatest
batsmen.
Wasim Akram, byname King of Swings, (born June
3, 1966, Lahore, Pakistan),
Pakistani cricket player generally regarded as the
greatest left-handed bowler of all time, arguably
among the very best fast bowlers ever, and an
outstanding all-rounder, who helped
lead Pakistan to the World Cup championship of
one-day international (ODI) cricket in 1992.

Wasim Akram,

Akram was born into an upper-middle-class family

and was brought up in the comfortable suburb of
Modeltown. His father was a successful
businessman, and Akram was sent to the
Cathedral School in Lahore, where his main
sporting obsession was table tennis. From age 10
he lived with his grandparents, and his
grandfather, a passionate cricket follower,
introduced Akram to the sport. He studied fine arts
at Islamia College, Lahore, but his success in local
club cricket brought him to the attention of the
state selectors and the international side. He made
his first-class, ODI, and Test debuts within the
space of three months at the turn of the 1984–85
season as a teenager, and, barring periods of
injury or political upheaval, was thereafter a
regular member of the Pakistan side, which he
captained frequently before his retirement in
2003. Polite and eloquent, Akram was a great
favourite in all parts of the world, most notably
in England, where he produced several devastating
performances with both bat and ball for his
county, Lancashire.
In the 1998–99 season Akram captained Pakistan
to the final of the Cricket World Cup, but
inexperience emerged in their defeat by Australia..
At the end of his career he had taken 414 wickets
in Test cricket and 502 in ODI.
In the 1998–99 season Akram captained Pakistan
to the final of the Cricket World Cup, but
inexperience emerged in their defeat by Australia.
Also that season Pakistani cricket was dominated
by allegations of match fixing. Akram was

implicated but never charged, and he was officially

cleared in September 1999. At the end of his
career he had taken 414 wickets in Test cricket
and 502 in ODI. Nevertheless, Dev played several
match-winning innings for India. The most famous
of these include his “5 for 28” (taking five wickets
while conceding only 28 runs) against Australia to
give India victory in the 1981 Melbourne Test;
taking nine wickets against the West Indies in
1983; scoring 119 off of 138 balls to save India
from a Test defeat against Australia in 1986; and
slamming four consecutive sixes (balls that pass
the boundary without ever touching the playing
field) against England in 1990. He became only
the second player in cricket history to claim 400
wickets, and in 1994 he broke Richard Hadlee’s
record of 431 wickets.

Kapil Dev

Dev received two of India’s highest civilian

honours: the Padma Shri (1982) and the Padma
Bhushan (1991). In 2002 he was named the
Indian Cricketer of the Century, and he was
inducted into the International Cricket Council’s
Hall of Fame in 2010.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, also called M.S. Dhoni,
(born July 7, 1981, Ranchi, Bihar [now
Jharkhand] state, India), Indian cricketer whose
rise to prominence in the early 21st century
culminated in his captaincy of the Indian national
team that won the one-day Cricket World Cup in
2011.

Mahendra Dhoni,

Dhoni made his international debut in 2004. His

talent with the bat came to the fore in an innings
of 148 runs against Pakistan in his fifth
international match. Within a year he joined
the India Test team, where he quickly established
himself with a century (100 or more runs in a
single innings) against Pakistan. Despite his
inexperience, Dhoni took over the captaincy of the
one-day side in 2007 and led India to
the Twenty20 (T20) world title. Series wins
over Australia and Sri Lanka, among others,
moved India to the top of the International Cricket
Council (ICC) Test rankings for the first time in
December 2009. Dhoni was honoured for his play
with the ICC One Day International Player of the
Year Award in 2008 and 2009. In the 2011 one-
day World Cup, Dhoni’s dashing innings of 91 not
out—in front of a home crowd in Mumbai—paved
the way for India’s victory over Sri Lanka in the
final. He also led India to an appearance in the
semifinals of the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Dhoni
stopped serving as India’s captain in 2017, having
led his country in 331 international matches, the
most for a captain in the sport’s history.
The explosion of T20 cricket on the Indian
subcontinent paved the way for the formation of
the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008. In the
league’s inaugural season, Dhoni signed with
the Chennai Super Kings for $1.5 million, which at
the time was the largest contract in the IPL. He
subsequently led the team to two consecutive titles
(2010, 2011). The Super Kings franchise earned a
two-season suspension from the IRL in 2016 for
its role in a match-fixing scandal, and Dhoni then
joined the Rising Pune Supergiant. In 2018 he
returned to the Chennai Super Kings, and that
year the team won the IPL championship.

Muttiah Muralitharan, (born April 17,

1972, Kandy, Sri Lanka), Sri Lankan cricketer
whose unorthodox delivery made him one of the
most effective and controversial spin bowlers in
history and enabled him to take more wickets in
both Test and one-day international
(ODI) cricket than anyone else who had ever
played the game.
Muralitharan attended St. Anthony’s College in
Kandy and began bowling off-spin on the advice of
his coach. He made his Test debut
against Australia in 1992 at age 20, taking two
wickets with successive balls.
When England toured Sri Lanka the following year,
many batsmen found Muralitharan’s spin difficult
to read and expressed concern about the
legitimacy of his bowling action. To the naked eye,
Muralitharan appeared not to bowl the ball but
rather to flick it with a bent arm and flexible wrist.
According to the rules of cricket, if his arm was
bent and then straightened at the point of delivery,
the ball would be deemed a throw (hence illegal),
but Muralitharan’s arm remained bent throughout
the action. Exhaustive studies by the International
Cricket Council (ICC) of both his action and the
physiology of his right arm showed that the bend
was a natural deformity and therefore not illegal.
In 1995 Muralitharan was called for “chucking”
(illegal delivery) seven times in one day by an
Australian umpire and again in a one-day
international match by two other Australian
umpires. But it was not until four years later, once
more in Australia, that he was again charged with
throwing. Muralitharan’s development of a new
type of delivery, nicknamed the “doosra,” in which
the ball turns away from a right-handed batsman,
prompted still further allegations of throwing in
2004; however, in early 2005 the ICC modified the
rules to allow Muralitharan’s unusual arm
movement.
 Muttiah Muralitharam

If controversy was nearly constant for

Muralitharan, so too was his dominance of
batsmen. In 2007 he became the second bowler to
collect 700 Test wickets in a career, and when he
took his 709th wicket, he passed Australian Shane
Warne to become the most prolific bowler in the
history of Test cricket. In February 2009
Muralitharan also assumed the record for most
career wickets taken in ODI, surpassing the 502
wickets amassed by Pakistan’s Wasim Akram. In
the final match of his Test career, against India in
July 2010, Muralitharan took his 800th Test
wicket, becoming the first bowler in cricket history
to reach that seemingly unreachable mark. The
following year he retired from international play.