Cricket

This article is about the sport. For the insect, see Cricket (insect). For other meanings of the term "cricketer", see Cricketer (disambiguation). For other uses, see Cricket (disambiguation).
Cricket Pollock to Hussey.jpg
A bowler bowling to a batsman. The paler strip is the cricket pitch. The two sets of three wooden stumps on the pitch are the wickets. The two white lines are the creases.
Highest governing body     International Cricket Council
Characteristics
Team members     11 players per side
substitute fielders (only) are permitted in cases of injury or illness
Mixed gender     Yes, separate competitions
Categorization     Bat-and-ball
Equipment     Cricket ball, cricket bat,
wicket: stumps, bails
Venue     Cricket field
Olympic     1900 Summer Olympics only

Cricket is a bat-and-ball team sport that is first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, cricket had developed to the point where it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international matches were being held. Today, the game's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), has 104 member countries.[1] With its greatest popularity in the Test playing countries, cricket is widely regarded as the world's second most popular sport[2][3][4].

The rules of the game are known as the Laws of Cricket.[5] These are maintained by the ICC and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which holds the copyright. A cricket match is played on a cricket field at the centre of which is a pitch. The match is contested between two teams of eleven players each.[6] One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible without being dismissed ("out") while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the other team’s batsmen and limit the runs being scored. When the batting team has used all its available overs or has no remaining batsmen, the roles become reversed and it is now the fielding team’s turn to bat and try to outscore the opposition.

There are several variations in the length of a game of cricket. In professional cricket this ranges from a limit of 20 overs per side (Twenty20) to a game played over 5 days (Test cricket). Depending on the form of the match being played, there are different rules that govern how a game is won, lost, drawn or tied.