CRICKET (of doubtful derivation), a well-known game, is of very ancient date. The author of the Cricket of the best manuals on the subject—believes it to be identical with "club-ball;" a game played in the 14th c.; it went originally by the name of " handyn and handoute." C. is a truly national English game. There is hardly a town, village, or school, that does not own its C. ground, and military authorities hold it in such estimation as a healthy recreation, that soldiers are encouraged to occupy their leisure time in its pursuit. Of late years C. has been introduced largely into Scot land and Ireland, and is rapidly becoming naturalized all over the world. The require ments for carrying on the game are—lst, a piece of level turf an acre or two in extent; 2d, a sufficient number of players to form two sides of eleven each, for double wicket, and a lesser number for single wicket ; 3d, for double wicket (the mode in which the game is usually played), two bats, two sets of wickets and bails, and a ball. When a match is to be played between two " elevens," the first thing to be done is to " pitch " the wickets. Wickets consist of six wooden stumps, 27 in. high, and are placed in the ground in sets of three, at a distance of 22 yards apart. On the top of each set of stumps are placed two small pieces of wood. called bails. The rival sides next toss for first " innings," and the director of the side that is to go in first, places two of his men at the wickets as hatters; while a bowler, wicket-keeper, long stop, and fielders are placed in their several positions by the director of the opposite side. When these arrange ments are satisfactorily made, and the markers or scorers are at their post, the umpires take their places, and the game begins. It may be well to mention here that the relative merits of rival sides are decided by the total number of runs made by each eleven bat ters during two innings—the side whose players score the most being, of course, victo rious.
We may further premise that the bowler's object is to direct his ball, by a swift movement of the arm, towards the opposite wickets, at which one of the batsmen stands, and, if possible, to strike.down the stumps or knock off the bails: while the object of the batsman, on the other hand, is to protect his wickets from the bowler's attack, by either stopping the ball when it reaches him (blocking), or driving it out to the field. And much of the beauty of the game depends upon the precision with which
the bowler can direct ball after ball in a straight line for the wickets, and the correspond ing skill displayed by a good batsman in guarding them.
We will now suppose the two batsmen to be at their places, the bowler at his, ball in hand, and the other players arranged in theirs: at a signal from the umpire the bowler cries " play!" and immediately after, delivers his first ball. If the batsman misses the ball, and it passes the wicket, the wicket-keeper stops it, and returns it to the bowler, who delivers another ball, and so on. When the batsman strikes the ball fieldwards, he immediately runs to the opposite wicket, passing his companion batsman, who crosses to his, and so on, till the ball has been returned. by a fielder to the wicket-keeper or bowler's hand. Thus, if the stroke be a long one, the striker may have time to run per haps three times between the wickets before the ball is thrown up, when three "runs" are accordingly placed at his name by the scorers, on their sheet. If, however, the bowler or wicketkeeper receives the ball, and touches the wickets with it, before the advancing batsman has reached his "ground" or touches it with his bat, the striker is out, and another man takes his place. Besides, if a ball from a stroke of the bat be caught by one of the opposite party before it reaches the ground; or if in striking at a bail the striker hits down his wicket; or if he willfully prevents a ball being caught, or strikes it twice; or if any part of his person stops a ball which would otherwise have hit his wicket, the striker is out. It frequently happens that two skillful batsmen guard their wickets so effectually, and score so many runs, to one particular style of bowling, that a change either of the bowler, or style of bowling, is adopted by the other side. This change, say from swift to slow bowling, or vice wrsd, generally produces the required results, and leads to the speedy retirement of the hitherto fortunate batsmen..