Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long

pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the runs scored by the batting team. A run is scored by the striking batsman hitting the ball with his bat, running to the opposite end of the pitch and touching the crease there without being dismissed. The teams switch between batting and fielding at the end of an innings.

In the sport of cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball with a cricket bat to score runs or prevent the loss of one's wicket. A player who is currently batting is denoted as a batsman, while the act of hitting the ball is called a shot or stroke Various runs that can be taken by the batsmen in 1 ball: Singles or Doubles 3 runs Four: if the ball clears the boundary with one or more bounces Six: if the ball clears the boundary without any bounces To register a run, both runners must touch the ground behind the crease with either their bats or their bodies A skilled batsman can use a wide array of "shots" or "strokes" in both defensive and attacking mode

In the sport of cricket, bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman.

A single act of bowling the ball towards the batsman is called a ball or a delivery. Bowlers bowl deliveries in sets of six, called an over.
The Laws of Cricket govern how a ball must be bowled. If a ball is bowled illegally, an umpire will rule it a no ball. If a ball is bowled too wide of the striker for the batsman to be able to play at it with a proper cricket shot, the bowler's end umpire will rule it a wide. Three different types of bowling techniques: Fast bowling Medium pace bowling Spin Bowling

No one knows when or where cricket began but there is a body of evidence, much of it circumstantial, that strongly suggests the game was devised by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England that lies across Kent and Sussex.
It is quite likely that cricket was devised by children and survived for many generations as essentially a childrens game. Adult participation is unknown before the early 17th century. Possibly cricket was derived from bowls, assuming bowls is the older sport, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball from reaching its target by hitting it away.

Cricket certainly thrived after the Restoration in 1660 In 1664, the "Cavalier" Parliament passed the Gaming Act 1664 which limited stakes to 100. Cricket had certainly become a significant gambling sport by the end of the 17th century. There is a newspaper report of a "great match" played in Sussex in 1697 which was 11-a-side and played for high stakes of 50 guineas a side. With freedom of the press having been granted in 1696, cricket for the first time could be reported in the newspapers

In the 18th century it arrived in other parts of the globe. It was introduced to the West Indies by colonists and to India by British East India Company mariners in the first half of the century. It arrived in Australia almost as soon as colonization began in 1788. In 1744, the Laws of Cricket were codified for the first time and then amended in 1774, when innovations such as lbw, middle stump and maximum bat width were added. The codes were drawn up by the so-called "Star and Garter Club" whose members ultimately founded MCC at Lord's in 1787. The game continued to spread throughout England and, in 1751, Yorkshire is first mentioned as a venue. Scorecards began to be kept on a regular basis from 1772. The first famous clubs were London and Dartford in the early 18th century. The Opening of Lord's Cricket Ground in 1787. On June 17th 1815, on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo British soldiers played a cricket match in the park in Brussels.

The "Great Cricketer", W G Grace, made his first-class debut in 1865. The first ever international cricket game was between the USA and Canada in 1844International cricket was introduced in the 19th century. In 1862, the first English team toured Australia. In 1877, an England touring team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that are now regarded as the inaugural Test matches. No Tests were played on that tour but more soon followed and, at The Oval in 1882, arguably the most famous match of all time gave rise to The Ashes. South Africa became the third Test nation in 1889. In 1889 the immemorial four ball over was replaced by a five ball over and then this was changed to the current six balls an over in 1900. The 1947 Laws of Cricket allowed six or eight balls depending on the conditions of play. Since the 1979/80 Australian and New Zealand seasons, the six ball over has been used worldwide and the most recent version of the Laws in 2000 only permits six ball overs.

When the Imperial Cricket Conference (as it was originally called) was founded in 1909, only England, Australia and South Africa were members. India, West Indies and New Zealand became Test nations before the Second World War and Pakistan soon afterwards. In the late 20th century, three teams also beacame test nations: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The greatest crisis to hit international cricket was brought about by apartheid, the South African policy of racial segregation. The situation began to crystallise after 1961 when South Africa left the Commonwealth of Nations and so, under the rules of the day, its cricket board had to leave the International Cricket Conference (ICC). In 1970, the ICC members voted to suspend South Africa indefinitely from international cricket competition. Ironically, the South African team at that time was probably the strongest in the world. In the 1960s, English county teams began playing a version of cricket with games of only one innings each and a maximum number of overs per innings. Starting in 1963 as a knockout competition only, limited overs grew in popularity and in 1969 a national league was created which consequently caused a reduction in the number of matches in the County Championship.

Cricket remains a major world sport in terms of participants, spectators and media interest. The ICC has expanded its development programme with the goal of producing more national teams capable of competing at Test level. Development efforts are focused on African and Asian nations; and on the United States. In 2004, the ICC Intercontinental Cup brought first-class cricket to 12 nations, mostly for the first time. In June 2001, the ICC introduced a "Test Championship Table" and, in October 2002, a "One-day International Championship Table". Australia has consistently topped both these tables in the 2000s. Cricket's newest innovation is Twenty20, essentially an evening entertainment. It has so far enjoyed enormous popularity and has attracted large attendances at matches as well as good TV audience ratings. The inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup tournament was held in 2007 with a follow-up event in 2009. The formation of Twenty20 leagues in India the unofficial Indian Cricket League, which started in 2007, and the official Indian Premier League, starting in 2008 raised much speculation in the cricketing press about their effect on the future of cricket.

Although cricket has been played throughout what was once the British Empire since its beginnings in the 16th century, the world at large is unaware of the beauty of this game and its spirit of competition. Introducing cricket to new fans and encouraging match play around the world is the forward movement of the game at present as innovations like the evening matches televised by Twenty20 present themselves. Now, the game of cricket has earned world-wide popularity. It has been popular in India too. Indian cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Tendulker have earned name and fame in world cricket. Still then, more and more Indian should come forward to learn this game.