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Betting
System
Sports betting is the general
activity of predicting sports results by making a wager on the
outcome of a sporting event. Perhaps more so than other forms of
gambling, the legality and general acceptance of sport betting
varies from nation to nation.
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Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport contested by two teams, usually of
eleven players each. A cricket match is played on a grass field, roughly
oval in shape, in the centre of which is a flat strip of ground 22 yards
(20.12 m) long, called a cricket pitch. A wicket, usually made of wood,
is placed at each end of the pitch.
The bowler, a player from the fielding team, bowls a hard, fist-sized
cricket ball from the vicinity of one wicket towards the other. The ball
usually bounces once before reaching the batsman, a player from the
opposing team. In defence of the wicket, the batsman plays the ball with
a wooden cricket bat. Meanwhile, the other members of the bowler's team
stand in various positions around the field as fielders, players who
retrieve the ball in an effort to stop the batsman scoring runs, and if
possible to get him or her out. The batsman — if he or she does not get
out — may run between the wickets, exchanging ends with a second batsman
(the "non-striker"), who has been waiting near the bowler's wicket. Each
completed exchange of ends scores one run. Runs are also scored if the
batsman hits the ball to the boundary of the playing area. The match is
won by the team that scores more runs.
Cricket has been an established team sport for hundreds of years and
more than 100 countries are affiliated to the International Cricket
Council, cricket's international governing body. The sport's modern form
originated in England, and is most popular in the present and former
members of the Commonwealth. In many countries including Bangladesh,
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the English-speaking countries of the
Caribbean, which are collectively known in cricketing parlance as the
West Indies, cricket is the most popular sport. In Australia, while
other sports are more popular in particular areas, cricket has been
described as the "national sport" and has had a role in forming the
national identity. It is also a major sport in England, New Zealand,
South Africa and Zimbabwe. Many countries also have well-established
amateur club competitions, including the Netherlands, Kenya, Nepal and
Argentina.
The sport is followed with passion in many different parts of the world.
It has even occasionally given rise to diplomatic outrage, notoriously
the Basil D'Oliveira affair (which led to the banning of South Africa
from sporting events) and the Bodyline Test series in the early 1930s
(which led to a temporary deterioration in relations between Australia
and the United Kingdom).
The aim of the batting team is to score as many runs as possible. A run
is scored when both batsmen successfully move to their respective
opposite ends of the pitch. (The batsmen will usually only attempt to
score runs after the striker has hit the ball, but this is not required
by the rules—the batsmen can attempt runs at any time after the ball has
been bowled.) Runs are also scored if the batsman hits the ball to the
boundary of the playing area (this scores six runs if the ball crosses
the boundary without having touched the ground, or four runs otherwise),
or if the bowler commits some technical infringement like bowling the
ball out of reach of the batsman.
The aim of the bowler's team is to get each batsman out (this is called
a "taking a wicket", or a "dismissal"). Dismissals are achieved in a
variety of ways. The most direct way is for the bowler to bowl the ball
so that the batsman misses it and it hits the stumps, dislodging a bail.
While the batsmen are attempting a run, the fielders may dismiss either
batsman by using the ball to knock the bails off the set of stumps to
which the batsman is closest before he has grounded himself or his bat
in the crease. Other ways for the fielding side to dismiss a batsman
include catching the ball off the bat before it touches the ground, or
having the batsman adjudged "leg before wicket" (abbreviated "L.B.W." or
"lbw") if the ball strikes the batsman's body and would have gone on to
hit the wicket. Once the batsmen are not attempting to score any more
runs, the ball is "dead", and is bowled again (each attempt at bowling
the ball is referred to as a "ball" or a "delivery").
The game is divided into overs of six (legal) balls. At the end of an
over another bowler from the fielding side bowls from the opposite end
of the pitch. The two umpires also change positions between overs (the
umpire previously at square-leg becomes the bowler's umpire at what is
now the bowling end, and vice versa). The fielders also usually change
positions between overs.
Once out, a batsman is replaced by the next batsman in the team's
line-up. (The batting side can reorder their line-up at any time, but no
batsman may bat twice in one innings.) The innings (singular) of the
batting team ends when the tenth batsman is given out, leaving one
batsman not out but without a partner. When this happens, the team is
said to be "all out". (In limited overs cricket the innings ends either
when the batting team is all out or a predetermined number of overs has
been bowled.) At the end of an innings, the two teams exchange roles,
and the side that has been fielding bats.
A team's score is reported in terms of the number of runs scored and the
number of batsmen that have been dismissed. For example, if five batsmen
are out and the team has scored 224 runs, they are said to have scored
224 for the loss of 5 wickets (commonly shortened to "224 for five" and
written 224/5 or, in Australia, "five for 224" and 5/224).
The team that has scored more runs at the end of the completed match
wins. Different varieties of the game have different definitions of
"completion"; for instance there may be restrictions on the number of
overs, the number of innings, and the number of balls in each innings. |
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