Cricket-All you need to know

 CRICKET

Cricket is one of the most famous sports in the world coming right after football and has huge number of 2.5 billion fans for this ecstatic game.Cricket is played in international tournaments like the ODI and T20 World Cups.They are also played in the form of test match or unlimited overs till all the players get out.

Cricket originated in England in the late 16th century.It was originally played with a woollen or wooden ball and a stick or farm tool for a bat and stool or gates for stumps.It became the England’s national sport and world popular from then through the british colonies of West Indies,India, Australia,South Africa and Netherlands.It was first played by the children living in the weald.

Now the Game is played with a wooden bat which is shaped like a slab with a handle made of English,Kashmir or Poplar Willow and is hollowed on the inside.It also uses a ball made of cork or leather and wooden or metal sticks called stumps.Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by hitting the ball bowled at one of the wickets with the bat and then running between the wickets, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this (by preventing the ball from leaving the field, and getting the ball to either wicket) and dismiss each batter (so they are "out").Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and makes the bails fall down, and by the fielding side either catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease in front of the wicket. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. An over is when a bowler bowls six balls.

This game became popular when the British royalty got to know about it and it spread throughout the British colonies around the world.Famous batsmen include Sachin Tendulkar,Sir Donald Bradman,Virat Kohli,Sir Vivian Richards,MS Dhoni,AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle.Famous bowlers include Anil Kumble,Lasith Malinga,Shane Warne,Muttiah Muralitharan and Joel Garner.

The uniqueness of cricket is that it uses all parts of your body like your legs,hands,stomach for body weight changing and even the brain for reflexes and quick thinking.

Cricket is one of the most fantastic and enjoyable sports on Earth.To anyone of you who haven’t heard about it or played it you can start right now.