Perfect Strangers: Cricket and Baseball
Perfect Strangers was a hit sitcom during the late 1980's where the premise of the series was a man from Europe moves to live with his Midwestern American distant cousin, in which they live and learn from each other through their cultural differences.
This is the precise connection between Cricket and Baseball, as they are distant cousins from different continents. Baseball is America's favorite pastime sport and cricket is our older cousin that was born in England in the 16th century. Cricket spread to England's colonies and the legacy of this still lingers on. Former British colonies that are now top International Cricket Council member countries include Australia, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Zimbabwe.
So let's learn about our distant cousin from England, named Cricket.
Scoring
The basic idea of scoring is something cricket and baseball have in common. In both sports, players score “runs” by running. A big difference is that in cricket, there are exactly two runners / batsmen at a time. That means while we have home runs and grand slams in baseball, cricket has fours and sixes. When a player hits the ball to the boundary of the field on the ground, they score four runs. When a player hits the ball over the boundary in the air, that counts as six runs.
Bowling/Pitching
A pitcher is to baseball as a bowler is to cricket. Instead of throwing the ball as a pitcher would, a bowler throws the ball into the ground and bounces it. This motion of bowling often uses the whole body. There are two main kinds of bowling: fast bowling and spin bowling.
Wicket
The wicket is the object the batsman has to defend by hitting the ball away. If the opposing team “takes” the wicket, that means the batsman is out. There are various ways to get a batsman out, much like in baseball.
Batting
In baseball, the rule for batting is “three strikes and you’re out”—or four “balls” and then you walk to first base. A batsman in cricket, however, gets unlimited balls until he is out, so it is possible for one batsman to play for the whole game.
Though this is not a thorough guide of Cricket, I hope that with this blog—you and your child can learn about the differences and find an appreciation for your distant cousin named Cricket.
Here are some video resources:
Or if you want to sign up and play:
I would like to acknowledge the Alliance Tire Group for their generous donation of the Cricket set used in my PE classes.
