Ice Cricket!

In 2018, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, an ice cricket match was held on frozen Lake St. Moritz. The playing field was packed snow rather than ice which would have made play difficult and possibly dangerous. Apparently, the only exception to the regulation cricket rules was to allow the fielders to wear gloves for warmth (rather than for protection). 

It was a T20 match between Team Royal comprised of players from England, Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand, and the Badrutt's Palace Diamonds players came from India, Sri Lanka, Australia and the West Indies. And these were not just any players — they came from the countries' nation teams. They played two matches and Team Royal won both.

 

Cricket bat

Cricket bats are made in two pieces: the handle and the blade.

The handle is a composite of laminated layers of various materials. Top quality bats are made with Sarawack cane (Calamus sarawakensis) and fiberglass or carbon fiber; in the past rubber was used with the cane. In less expensive bats regular cane is used. One end of the handle is cut into a long V-taper that is spliced into a corresponding V-notch in the blade.

The blade is almost always made from willow, and must be made of wood. In top quality bats this is always a particular species of white willow or English willow (Salix alba v. caerulea) also called, fittingly, cricket bat willow; in lesser quality bats Kashmir willow is used (which is the same species as English willow, but the different growing conditions affect its quality). Willow has the distinct properties of being tough but very light which makes it the ideal material for such a large blade (English willow is the lighter variety of the two).

The handle is glued into the blade, and then twine is tightly wound around the handle to securely bind the laminations together. Finally, a rubber sleeve is pulled over the handle.

Bats can be no more than 38 inches long, and the blade no more than 4.25 inches wide and 2.64 inches deep. The weight is usually between 2lb 7oz and 3lb (1.2 to 1.4 kg), though there is no specified weight. Modern bats are heavier than older ones because of the desire for the extra weight needed to make more boundaries. Donald Bradman used a 2lb 2oz bat. (My bat is 2lb 8oz and 33¼ in long.)

After the bat is complete, a knocking-in process is used with a special mallet to compress the fiber of the blade. This makes it tougher and more resilient. Finally the blade is oiled or waxed to protect it and to help maintain proper moisture content. The Gray Nichols knocking-in mallet shown below has a removable handle which serves as a tool to aid the installation of the rubber grip on the handle.

Gray Nichols knocking-in mallet

WikiHow has detailed information on cricket bat maintenance.

The major commercial bat manufacturers are DSC, Gray Nichols, Gunn & Moore, Kookaburra, Slazenger, Salix, Sanspareils Greenlands, and Spartan. There are also custom bat manufacturers usually catering to professionals, such as DKP of England and Laver & Wood of New Zealand.

Sources: SixesCricket.com

ECB Counties

The 18 first-class county cricket clubs with their team logos, date of founding and their date of debuting as a first-class club.

1870 (1871)	1882 (1992)	1876 (1894)	1888 (1921)	1870 (1870)	1863 (1864)

1870 (1870)	1864 (1865)	1879 (1895)	1864 (1864)	1878 (1905)	1841 (1835)*

1875 (1882)	1845 (1846)	1839 (1839)	1882 (1894)	1865 (1899)	1863 (1863)

* - teams were playing under the Nottinghamshire name before the club was officially formed. 

Some of the teams have different logos for One Day games (T50 & T20) and most of those also have a team nickname.

Durham	Essex Eagles	Kent Spitfires	Lancashire Lightning	Northants Steelbacks

Northants Steelbacks	Notts Outlaws	Sussex Sharks	Worcestershire Rapids	Yorkshire Vikings

Some teams keep their regular logo for One Day games but have a nickname: Derbyshire Falcons, Leicestershire Foxes, Birmingham Bears (Warwickshire) and Hampshire Hawks. (Gloucestershire once used the nickname "Gladiators" for One Day games but dropped it in 2013.)

Here is a map showing the location of the various counties:

Watching cricket

There are a number of sources for cricket videos. Some are live stream and some replay past games. Some are free and some have a subscription fee.

The ICC has videos, mostly highlights, from games around the world.

Youtube

There are lots of cricket channels on Youtube and many live stream their matches, as well as archiving past matches. A nice feature is that live streamed matches typically have no advertising.

These below are for County Cricket. (The asterisk indicates those that live stream).

Men's First Class Counties on Youtube
Of course, Gloucestershire*
Derbyshire*
Durham*
Essex*
Glamorgan*
Hampshire*
Kent*
Lancashire*
Leicestershire*
Middlesex*
Northamptonshire
Somerset*
Surrey*
Sussex*
Warwickshire*
Worcestershire*
Yorkshire*
Minor Counties
Berkshire
Cumbria
Northumberland
Oxfordshire*

Women's Counties on Youtube
The Blaze
Central Sparks
North West Thunder
Northern Diamonds
South East Stars
Southern Vipers
Sunrisers

A good source for live streams is the reference site LiveTV which provides links to multiple sources besides Youtube. These streams typically are free with advertising. The feeds can be finicky to use with multiple popup ads to be closed and sometimes it is difficult to unmute the audio. (They also provide links to most popular sports around the world.)

WillowTV is a Canadian cable service for cricket matches around the world. It is available on most cable channels as well as on laptop, phone, tablet and on apps for Apple TV and FireTV. The cost is $8.95 per month. Video quality is usually 720p. They carry mostly Asian games but also carry some European and English games, particularly when they are playing Asian teams.

See the ECB website for County regular games, and for One Day Cup fixtures.

 

Gloucestershire

International Test Cricket

Fixtures for Test matches can be found on the ECB website. This site also provides the date and time of the matches in EST. This is especially handy for distant games like Australia that are on a different date from EST.

The site Fancode has live streaming of India regional and other international matches plus England women's league. (They also provide live streaming of NFL football, NBA basketball, MLB baseball, and some European football.) The cost is 99INR (~$2.00CDN) per month.

The European Cricket Network (ECN) have replay videos of games in the European league.

Listen Live

You can listen live to game commentary via the BBC Live website.

Umpire signals

To properly view a game it helps to understand the umpire's hand signals because, compared to other field games, there are lots of signals during a match.

 

The complete laws of cricket can be found at the MCC, or download a PDF version here.

Gloucestershire App

Like most things today, there is an app for it, and there is one for G.C.C.C. Available for iOS and Android.

Books

The first book I read on cricket was Hugh Formhals', The Jolliest Game under the Sun. Written by an American living in England, it tells of his experiences learning the game. Humorous and informative — a great read.

Know the Game: Cricket. Marylebone Cricket Club. London: A&C Black, 1994  

The Jolliest Game under the Sun. Hugh Formhals. Albuquerque, NM: Western Mountain Pr., 1983  

Great Tests Recalled. Peter Hayter, ed. London: Bloomsbury, 1990  

The Art of Cricket. Donald Bradman. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1958

Wisden's The Laws of Cricket. Don Oslear. London: Ebury Pr., 2000

Bowling

This graphic shows the various bowling tosses:

For a detailed description on the bowling statistics used to rate a bowler's performance see here.

The Greatest Sportsman in History

Sir Donald Bradman

Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman passed away on February 25, 2001 at the age of 92. He is universally considered to be the greatest batsman who ever lived. And some consider that his achievements rank him as the greatest sportsman ever.

His lifetime batting average was so far above all others that it is hard to believe. I have compiled a comparison to lifetime baseball batting averages and lifetime basketball points-per-game averages to give some context to those not familiar with cricket, of the extraordinary accomplishment he made to sports.

The average lifetime batting average for the next 9 players below Bradman is 59.68 runs per match. Bradman's lifetime average is 99.94, a full 67.45% about the average of the next 9 players immediately below him! He is 61.53% above the next best player!
By comparison, Major League Baseball's leader in lifetime batting average is Ty Cobb. He had a career batting average of .366 which is 5.45% above the average of the next 9 players below him and only 2.2% above the next best player.
The NBA's leader in lifetime points per game is Michael Jordan. His average of 30.12 is 11.39% above the average of the next 9 players below him but is almost equal to the next best player (0.16%).

According to sports statistician Charles Davis, Bradman's career batting average would translate into a baseball career batting average of .392 or a basketball career points average of 43 — Phenomenal!

Commentators in other sports have asked if these comparisons are really a true indication of his level of play over the rest of the players. The answer is always, "Yes, he was that good."

"He was unique, a batsman appearing not just once in a lifetime but once in the life of a game." - Denis Compton

An unparalleled accomplishment that must make him the greatest sportsman of all time.

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Another phenomenal player is Brian Lara who played for West Indies, now retired. He is a Trinidadian, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He holds several cricketing records, but two are the most coveted. The record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994 (beating the 35-year-old record of 499 by Pakistan's Hanif Mohammed). The record for the highest individual score in a single international Test innings, after scoring 400 not out at Antigua during the 4th test against England in 2004. That 400 was scored over a period of 12 hours and 58 minutes at bat!

Fielding Positions & Batting

Here is a diagram of the various field positions. There are 9 fielders out in the field (apart from the wicket keeper). These are moved around according to the bowler's requirements based on his bowling style and each batter's known hitting abilities. Thirty two fielding positions are shown plus a number of slip positions.  (The positions shown below assume a right-handed batsman; it would be flipped horizontally for left-handed.)

The various batting strokes played (again, for a right-handed batsman).

Cricket pitch and stumps

Cricket Pitch

 

Stumps and bails

Cricket explained

 

 CRICKET

(as explained to foreigners)

There are two sides, one out in the field and one in.

Each man that's in the side that's in goes out and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. 

When all the men in the side that's in are out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out. 

Sometimes you get men still in and not out! 

When both sides have been in and out including the not outs, that's the end of the game.

Here is a good video giving a clearer explanation of the game rules.

Cricket organizations

The first ruling body for cricket was the Marylebone Cricket Club (M.C.C.) which was founded in 1787. It is based at the famous Lord's Cricket Grounds in St. John's Wood, London. 

The ruling body for cricket today is the International Cricket Council (I.C.C.), although the M.C.C. is still influential.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the organization of British County Cricket.

 

 

 

Lord's Cricket Grounds, London

The European Cricket Network (ECN) have information on the T20 & T50 teams from all over Europe.