Cricket
About 500 years ago, a group of Englishmen began playing a little game using a bat, a ball, and a few sticks with pieces of wood on top of them. Little did they know that in a few short centuries, this little game would become the 3rd most popular sport ever.
Cricket is a widely known sport today that originated in England and was invented and first played by an unknown group of Englishmen sometime around the 13th century. Today, the only sports more popular than cricket are soccer and basketball. This game was not played in the United States at first, though. The first arrival of cricket to the United States occurred in the early 18th century. Only minor changes have been made to this game since its invention, such as the exact equipment used for playing the official game.
Cricket has very specific requirements; the weight of the ball must be between 156 and 163 grams, and cannot have a circumference of over 23 cm. The bat cannot be longer than 97 cm or wider than 11.5 cm, but has no set weight limit. There is one person who fields with gloves: the wicket-keeper, who catches any missed pitches. It is played in a circular, grassy area called a ground, and the pitches are thrown by the bowler on a long strip of special grass called the pitch. An important object is the wicket, which is a setup of three stumps arranged parallel to each other. Two small wooden pieces called bails stand on top of the three stumps; they can easily be knocked off. The wicket must be 71 cm high and 23 cm wide for legal play.
On the pitch, there are several lines to be noted. There are two popping creases, which are chalk-drawn lines four feet in front of the wicket. There are also the return creases, which are lines in the middle of the pitch, 8.7 feet apart.
The bowler stands in the center of the pitch with the batter in front of him and the batter's partner behind him with a bat; the batter and his partner each stand in front...
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