Wednesday, July 21, 2010

cricket

Cricket

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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
Nickname(s) "The Gentleman's game"
First played 16th century (modern) [1]
Characteristics
Team members 11 players per side
substitute fielders (only) are permitted in cases of injury or illness
Mixed gender Yes, separate competitions
Categorization Team, Bat-and-ball
Equipment Cricket ball, cricket bat,
wicket: stumps, bails
Venue Cricket field
Olympic 1900 Summer Olympics only
Cricketball.png Cricket portal

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.[2] With its greatest popularity in the Test playing countries, cricket is the world's second most popular sport after Association football.[3][4][5]

The rules of the game are known as the Laws of Cricket.[6] 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. 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.






sports_info

Sport

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Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which also provides social actions.

A sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play.[note] It is governed by a set of rules or customs. In a sport the key factors are the physical capabilities and skills of the competitor when determining the outcome (winning or losing). The physical activity involves the movement of people, animals and/or a variety of objects such as balls and machines. In contrast, games such as card games and board games, though these could be called mind sports and some are recognized as Olympic sports, require only mental skills. Non-competitive activities such as jogging and rock-climbing, are usually classified as recreations.

Physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first often define the result of a sport. However, the degree of skill in some sports such as diving, dressage and figure skating is judged according to well-defined criteria. This is in contrast with other judged activities such as beauty pageants and body-building shows, where skill does not have to be shown and the criteria are not as well defined.

Accurate records are kept and updated for most sports at the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news. Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay in good physical condition. However, professional sport is a major source of entertainment.

Although they do not always succeed, sports participants are expected to display good sportsmanship, and observe standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and congratulating the winner when losing.