Picture in your mind a large field, with two wooden structures situated about 20 yards apart. The field is filled with men dressed in what would ordinarily be some rather ridiculous clothes – some of them sporting ridiculous looking leggings, others carrying rather funny looking bats, and one of them looking like he had dressed for a Bahamas garden party. What do you think you’ve just seen?

Well, as it happens, you’ve just pictured something that is not terribly unlike the game of cricket (though some of the specific details may be somewhat off base). That’s a terrible oversimplification, as the completeness of the game is a rather rich and complex – indeed, we shall spend a while discussing it.

What is cricket? Well, generally speaking, is a game played by two teams of eleven men on a large field, that largely consists of whacking a ball, running around, and catching the ball. That, again, is a gross oversimplification, and the details will be discussed elsewhere. But, for the present, it is safe to say that cricket, taken at a very basic level, can be called a ball game, though it is rather dissimilar from other ball games, such as basketball of volleyball.