Cricket is a game played between two teams, generally of 11 members each. In essence, it is single combat, in which an individual batsman does battle against an individual bowler, who has helpers known as fielders. The bowler propels the ball with a straight arm from one end of the 22-yard pitch in an attempt to dismiss the batsman by hitting a target known as the wicket at the other end, or by causing the batsman to hit the ball into the air into a fielder?s grasp, or by inducing one of a number of other indiscretions.
The batsman attempts to defend the wicket with the bat and to score runs ? the currency of the game ? by striking the ball to the field boundary, or far enough from the fielders to allow the batsman to run to the other end of the pitch before the ball can be returned. At least two bowlers must take turns, from alternating ends; also, there are always two batsmen on the field, each to take a turn as required. When all but one of the batting team have been dismissed ? or after an agreed period ? the teams? roles are reversed. After all the players required to bat on both sides have done so either once or twice (which can take from a few hours to five days) the total number of runs accumulated determines the winner.
But sometimes there isn?t oneBack in the 1970s an enterprising soul in England came up with an amusing explanation of cricket, clearly aimed at the kind of American tourists who buy plastic policemen's helmets and who believe that Dick van Dyke's cockney accent in Mary Poppins was exactly how 98% of England spoke (the other 2% being West County yokels with straw poking out of every available orifice).
The batsman attempts to defend the wicket with the bat and to score runs ? the currency of the game ? by striking the ball to the field boundary, or far enough from the fielders to allow the batsman to run to the other end of the pitch before the ball can be returned. At least two bowlers must take turns, from alternating ends; also, there are always two batsmen on the field, each to take a turn as required. When all but one of the batting team have been dismissed ? or after an agreed period ? the teams? roles are reversed. After all the players required to bat on both sides have done so either once or twice (which can take from a few hours to five days) the total number of runs accumulated determines the winner.
But sometimes there isn?t oneBack in the 1970s an enterprising soul in England came up with an amusing explanation of cricket, clearly aimed at the kind of American tourists who buy plastic policemen's helmets and who believe that Dick van Dyke's cockney accent in Mary Poppins was exactly how 98% of England spoke (the other 2% being West County yokels with straw poking out of every available orifice).
What started as a novel marketing ploy has burgeoned into a beast utterly out of control. Thirty years on, the tea towels refuse to die, and anyone who enjoys cricket will have almost certainly been given one of the infernal things by a distant aunt or newly acquired mother-in-law who thought it would be "ideal for Christmas".
Anyone who receives one is allowed to be rude to the giver, and is also duty-bound to burn the cloth immediately.
But, as requested by some masochists, here is the text in full ...
Source:http://www.liveindia.com/cricket/VirenderShewag.html
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