Cricket, the British ball game seen on Downtown Abbey is quickly gaining popularity in the US – here are the basics of the game.

Pickle ball, developed in the last century, has swept North America with 36.5 million pickle ball players in the US alone.  But make way, cricket is the new popular sport, and the league is expanding in states around the US. Here are the basic things you need to know about cricket.

In the 18th century it become England’s national sport. In 1844, the first-ever international match took place between what were essentially club teams, from the United States and Canada, in Toronto; Canada won. In 1859, a team of English players went to North America on the first overseas tour. ^{The Brits have been instrumental in spreading the game overseas and by the middle of the 19th century has become established in Australia, the Caribbean, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, North America and South Africa.}

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The lore is cricket originated as a children’s game in the south-eastern counties of England, sometime during the medieval period.  Jump to today and the us has Major League Cricket with teams LA, San Fran, New York, Seattle, DC and Texas. Globally, about 1.6 billion watch and it is the second-most popular sport after soccer.  Being in the US will increase both audience and income.  Here is how to play at home.

Setting Up

• The field has a rectangular pitch in the center, measuring 22 yards (20.12 m) long. At each end of the pitch, three wooden stumps are placed with two small wooden bails on top, forming a wicket.
• One team bats while the other team fields and bowls. The batting team sends two batters to the pitch, while the fielding team has a bowler, wicket-keeper, and nine other fielders spread across the field.

Batting

• The bowler bowls (pitches) the ball from one end of the pitch towards the batter standing at the other end. The batter tries to hit the ball with their bat, aiming to score runs.
• After hitting the ball, the two batters run between the two sets of wickets, exchanging ends. Each completed run scores one run for the batting team.
• If the batter hits the ball over the boundary without bouncing, their team scores six runs. If the ball bounces before crossing the boundary, they score four runs.

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Getting Out

• A batter can be dismissed (get out) in several ways, including being bowled (ball hits the wicket), caught (fielder catches the ball before it bounces), run out (batter is out of their crease when the wicket is dislodged), or leg before wicket (ball would have hit the wicket if not for the batter’s body)
• Once a batter is out, the next batter from their team takes over. The batting team’s innings ends when 10 of their 11 batters are dismissed.

Bowling and Fielding

• The fielding team aims to get the batting team’s batters out and prevent them from scoring runs. The bowler bowls overarm deliveries to the batter, while the other fielders position themselves strategically to catch or field the ball
• After completing their allocated number of overs (sets of six legal deliveries), the teams swap roles, with the fielding team batting and the batting team fielding.

The team with the highest total score after both innings wins the match. Cricket matches can last from a few hours to up to five days, depending on the format being played.