Comparison between cricket and baseball
Encyclopedia
Cricket
and baseball
are the best-known members of a family of related bat-and-ball games
. While many of their rules, terminology, and strategies are similar, there are many differences—some subtle, some major—between the two games.
Other present-day bat-and-ball games include softball
, stickball
, rounders
, stoolball
, pesäpallo
or Finnish baseball, punchball, kickball, and British baseball
, which has similarities with both cricket
and baseball
. Earlier forms include The Massachusetts Game
of baseball, which was similar to rounders, and one old cat and two old cat
.
and delivers it to a member of the other team (the batting team), who tries to hit it. The two opposing teams take turns playing these two distinct roles, which are continuous during a specified interval. This contrasts with "goal-oriented" games, such as all forms of football, hockey and basketball, in which possession of the ball or puck can change in an instant, and thus "attackers" and the "defenders" frequently reverse roles during the course of the game.
In both cricket and baseball, the players of one team attempt to score points known as runs by hitting a ball with a bat, while the members of the other team field the ball in an attempt to prevent scoring and to put batting players out.
In both games, there is a defensive aspect to the batting team concurrent with its "offensive" or "attacking" aspect of trying to score runs. In cricket, the batsman is attempting to defend the wicket. In baseball, the batter is attempting to defend the strike zone.
Once a certain number of batting players are out (different in the two sports), the teams swap roles. This sequence of each team taking each role once is called an inning
in baseball, and an innings
in cricket (the singular form having a terminal 's'). The single/plural usage in cricket is comparable to the baseball slang term for a single inning as the team's "ups". A baseball game consists of nine innings, while a cricket match may have either one or two innings per team.
Despite their similarities, the two sports also have many differences in play and in strategy. A comparison between cricket and baseball can be instructive to followers of either sport, since the similarities help to highlight nuances particular to each game.
Baseball
Baseball is played in a quadrant of fair territory between foul lines. The official minimum distance from home plate to the far edge of fair territory is 250 feet (76.2 m), but the recommended distances are at least 325 feet (99.1 m) along the foul lines and 400 feet (121.9 m) in center field. This produces a recommended fair territory field area just over 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²). Most Major League Baseball
parks have fair territory areas in the range of 110000 to 120000 sq ft (10,219.3 to 11,148.4 ).
Cricket
In contrast, Test
and One Day International cricket is played on a field with a minimum width of 420 feet (128 m) and length 426 feet (129.8 m), giving a minimum area of 140500 square feet (13,052.9 m²), assuming an elliptical
shape. However the shape of a cricket ground is not fixed. Test grounds around the world are typically 450 by, an area of 175000 square feet (16,258 m²), and range up to the Melbourne Cricket Ground
at 479 by or 270000 square feet (25,083.8 m²).
Consequences
Discounting the pitcher/bowler and catcher/wicket-keeper, this means Major League Baseball fielders must cover an average of approximately 16500 square feet (1,532.9 m²) per fielder, while Test cricketers cover 19500 square feet (1,811.6 m²) per fielder. That average is misleading because the difference between area covered on the parts of outfielders (on the one hand) and infielders (on the other), is vast. In baseball, Infielders cover a small area in which the ball moves very fast, while three outfielders must cover an area that encompasses a much greater proportion of the playing surface. Something similar—if not quite as pronounced—is true in cricket. In practice, fielders in both sports cover variable amounts of territory, with outfielders potentially having to run much farther to field a ball than infielders do.
Another consequence is that the maximum distance from the batsman in cricket to the boundary is far smaller than the maximum distance from the batter in baseball and the outfield wall. Since the pitch in cricket lies at the center of the field, a ball can often be driven beyond the boundary at even the greatest distance from the pitch by a blow that travels around 275 feet (83.8 m) . By contrast, a home run to 'dead center' in baseball must travel more than 400 feet (121.9 m). This is possible, also, because the ball leaves the bat in baseball, when hit squarely, at a higher velocity, and travels farther; but this also means that outfielders in baseball must frequently cover considerably greater distances than any cricket fielding a ball are ever obliged to do.
Also, because almost all hits by the batsmen are able to be scored off, even lofting it right behind the wicketkeeper, there is a much larger repertoire of moves a batsman can use to score runs.
Bowling/Pitching distance
In cricket, the distance between the two wicket
s that the batsmen defend is 22 yards (20.1 m), 66 feet, or 1 chain (4 rod
s) in the old English system of measurement. The rectangular area between the two lines is called the pitch. In baseball, the pitcher must deliver from a rubber slab (officially called the "pitcher's plate" and typically called "the rubber") whose front is 60.5 feet (18.4 m) from the point of home plate (officially called "home plate" and often simply "home"). Before the advent of the pitcher's mound and the rubber, the pitcher threw from within a rectangular "pitcher's box". There was a large rectangular dirt area, between the pitcher's box and the batting areas around home, which resembled the cricket pitch.
In cricket, the wicket stumps and the bowling creases are 66 feet apart. The popping creases are 4 feet (1.22 m) in front of the stumps and thus are 58 feet (17.7 m) feet apart. The bowler's release point could be perhaps 1 foot (0.3048 m) beyond his popping crease. The batsman tends to "take guard" or "block" on the popping crease, i.e. he stands 4 feet (1.22 m) in front of his stumps. That nets to a typical distances of about 57 feet (17.4 m) between delivery point and bat. In baseball, the pitcher's release point could be about 55 feet (16.8 m) depending on his delivery style, but the batter also tends to stand back or "deep" in the batter's box, to maximize his time to "look the ball over", up to 2 foot (0.6096 m) farther from the pitching rubber than the point of home plate is. Although the delivery distance, from release of the ball by the pitcher/bowler to its arrival at the batter/batsman, appears to be similar in both sports, the ball actually travels further in cricket as it bounces off the ground first.
The main difference from fielding in the two sports is that the fielders in cricket are not allowed to use any sort of protection for the hands – padded or otherwise, even though a cricket ball is harder than a baseball. The only exception to this rule in cricket is made for the wicket-keeper, who is allowed to wear padded gloves as well as leg guards and a box and also, fieldsmen in close-in positions such as silly point and short leg also wear protective equipment such as shinpads boxes and helmets but are still not allowed to wear any gloves. In baseball, catchers and first basemen normally wear mitts, which have no fingers and are specially designed for each position respectively. The other fielders wear gloves, which have fingers. (Note that early baseball was also played bare-handed; gloves were adopted in the latter 19th Century.) This means that the risk of hand injury due the impact of the ball is far higher in cricket. Also, especially in Test cricket, it is common for several fielders to be stationed close to the bat (slips, short leg, silly point and similar positions) since the value of dismissing a batsman off a catch is higher. Catching at these positions require exceptional reflexes, skill and courage, associated with bare-handed catching of a hard ball traveling at up to 100 miles per hour (160.9 km/h), with reaction times of the order of 0.2 seconds.
Baseball games have far lower scores than cricket matches. The largest combined runs total in a single game in the history of Major League Baseball is 49, whereas first-class cricket
matches, including Tests
, have produced combined totals from both innings of over a thousand runs.
For a more direct comparison, matches in Twenty20
cricket, a form of limited overs cricket in which games last about as long in time as a regulation baseball game, regularly produce combined run totals of 300 or more, with the all-time record being 443. Each run in a baseball game is roughly seventy-five times the magnitude of a run in a Test cricket match; therefore moments of poor pitching (akin to bowling in cricket) and individual fielding mistakes are much more costly. A player who is a good batter, but who is not a competent fielder, will not play regularly, or only in the designated hitter
position in leagues that use it.
Baseball players often need to throw immediately after catching the struck ball (for example, the double play
), while this is unnecessary in cricket as the ball is deemed "dead" when a "dismissal" takes place. Hence, fielders in Cricket have a greater incentive to dive and take a catch.
The configuration of the baseball diamond effectively bars left-handers from the fielding positions that make throwing to first base a primary responsibility. Right-handers can throw to their left—i.e., toward first base—with much greater ease than can left-handers, so virtually all second basemen, shortstops, and third basemen are right-handed. Left-handed catchers are also exceedingly rare; while the reasons appear to be primarily cultural, handling bunts up the third-base line and throws on plays at home pose particular obstacles to left-handed catchers.
While most throws a first baseman must make go to the right, which a left-hander can generally accomplish with greater speed and fluency, this is a relatively small factor in the advantage for left-handed first baseman. More important advantages are related to the position of a left-handed first baseman with respect to the base. First, a left-handed first baseman has an advantage over his right-handed counterpart when catching a pickoff
throw from the pitcher—when a first baseman is in pickoff position, standing in front of the bag, the left-hander can catch the ball and make a tag without having to move his arm across his body. (See the picture in the Strategy over the course of the game section below for the standard pickoff position with a right-handed first baseman.) Second, because the first baseman starts most plays with his left leg closer to the base, the left-hander does not have to make a half-pivot in order to get into the correct position to stretch out for a throw. For these reasons, left-handed throwers are far more common at first base than in the general population of baseball players. In contrast, cricket is fielded in the round: the handedness of the fielder in any given position is of far less consequence, and left-handers and right-handers are found in all parts of the field.
Body contact between runner and fielder is frequent in baseball, particularly at home plate. This is driven to a large extent by the manner in which a runner is put out. In both sports, rules prohibit interfering with runners. However, in baseball, the runner himself (or the base he is advancing to, if forced) must be tagged by a fielder holding the ball, in order to be put out. The catcher awaiting a throw will often stand between the plate and the runner. Once he catches it, the runner might try to go around the catcher, or he might simply bowl the catcher over, if he thinks he can dislodge the ball by such contact; and if the catcher does not have the ball, the runner may still bowl the catcher over, which is considered fair because by rule a fielder without a ball cannot impede a runner. By contrast, in cricket, an out or dismissal is made by the ball dislodging the bails from the stumps. The stumps are the target for "tagging" rather than the runner. No contact of the runners is either necessary or allowed. Contact between opposing sides is rare, and is usually not deliberate. Violent contact between players was once even greater in baseball, as before the Knickerbocker Rules
it was permitted in some versions of the game to literally "throw out" a runner by hitting him (or "soaking" him) with a thrown ball (in lieu of hitting a base or stake that would equate to cricket's wickets). This rule still exists in some versions of the baseball variant called kickball
, which is played with a soccer ball and thus is much less injurious. Kickball also calls for literal "bowling" of the ball, underhand, as with the old rules of both cricket and baseball.
One of the main differences between baseball and Test cricket is the primary intent of the batsman. Usually, in Test cricket, wickets come at a far higher premium, since survival is of primary importance. While nine innings are played in a baseball game within a few hours, only two are played in Test cricket over five days (thirty hours), so the cost of a dismissal is far higher in cricket. It should be kept in mind that a batsman in Cricket isn't obligated to take a run after striking the ball, and there is no limit to the number of deliveries a batsmen can face. Therefor a batsmen with the concentration and technical ability to bat for several hours without being dismissed is able to do so. The nuances of batting technique are also greater in cricket, since the interplays between bowling variations, field placements and scoring strengths are more dynamic. Since cricket is played over an extended duration, it gives the bowler and the fielding captain time to "work over" a batsman. Thus, cricket batting requires a very tight technique and the ability to withstand sustained examinations.
The area for legal deliveries is much larger in Cricket than it is in baseball, overlapping the batsmen's entire body. Deliveries that reach the batsmen at rib or shoulder height are not illegal, and quite common. Depending on the version of the game, a greater or fewer number of deliveries can be bowled to reach the batsmen at throat or head level. Any fear or hesitation can lead to a batsman playing a poor shot and giving away his wicket (being dismissed).
Since the cricket bat
is wide and flat, while the baseball bat
is narrow and round, on the whole cricket batsmen find it easier to hit and direct the ball than baseball batters, resulting in much greater number of runs being scored in a cricket match. While bowlers can influence the ability of the batsmen to do so, perhaps the most famous episode being the now-banned Bodyline
tactic, cricket batsmen are able to use a wider variety of batting strokes to direct the ball in many directions into a field which provides much more open space than in baseball. In addition, cricket batsmen are under no obligation to attempt to score a run after any stroke, but must strike balls in order to prevent them from hitting the wicket. Many strokes are in fact defensive in nature against a well-bowled ball and the quality of defensive batting is often the determining factor of a batsman's success over his career, especially in the longer forms of the game.
By contrast, the balance of power is largely reversed in baseball. While particularly skilled batters have some ability to place hit and direct the ball to desired locations, the pitcher's influence is much more dramatic. Pitchers induce more ground outs, fly outs, or strikeouts, depending on the style of pitch. Thus particular pitchers are known for causing batters to make certain kinds of outs, depending on their mastered pitches. Also, in contrast to cricket, baseball batters must attempt to take first base on any ball put into fair territory, and failing to do so will result in an out, but the size of the strike zone more strictly limits the set of deliveries that must be swung at compared to cricket. Like cricket, baseball batters do have a defensive tactic available; many batters will often attempt to deliberately foul off pitches that are strikes yet difficult to hit well, by hitting them into foul territory, awaiting an easier delivery later in the at-bat. Since an uncaught foul ball cannot be a third strike (unless it was a bunt attempt), this tactic allows the batter to receive more pitches.
In the early generations of baseball, the emphasis was mostly on bat control, place hitting, bunting, etc., and that is still true for the most part today. An accomplished hitter must know how to bunt, 'serve' a pitch down the line or over the infield, collapse his hands and go the other way, pull in his hands in order to turn on the ball inside, and so on. But, starting in 1919, several factors resulted in a dramatic expansion of strategic orientation, supplementing traditional "small ball" with the "power game": a "livelier" ball, because of better materials and a tighter weave; more frequent substitutions of new balls; lighter, more flexible bats; the outlawing of the spitball
; and the increase in attendance which drove owners to build more outfield seating, thus reducing the outfield area significantly. The power game has been encouraged further in recent years, by the construction of new ballparks with smaller outfields than previously, and even the reduction of field size at "classic" ballparks known for spacious outfields; for example, the distance to the fence in deep left field at the original Yankee Stadium was reduced from 430 to 399 ft (131.1 to 121.6 m) between 1984 and 1988 (the post-1988 dimensions were maintained at the current Yankee Stadium
). Still, it is generally agreed that no one can hit a home run at will, and every successful batter knows never to go to the plate intending to hit a home run. Rather, he should attempt a level swing, try to pull only the ball on the inside of the plate, go the other way with balls low and outside, and otherwise start each at bat intending to drive the ball up the middle, which is the most vulnerable part of the infield (especially if the pitcher is not particularly good at fielding his position).
The games emphasize power hitting to different degrees. Cricket requires the accumulation of large numbers of runs, so placement of the ball between the fielders produces runs efficiently and is generally accepted as a better strategy than "swinging for sixes". In baseball, power hitting can produce runs quickly and frequently in many situations, as well as force pitching changes and other fielding moves; but it can also result (because of the great difficulty of driving a ball off a cylindrical bat) in a great many strike outs, fly outs, and ground outs. "Manufacturing runs" or "small ball" is still the soundest means for scoring runs against good pitching and defense. Teams with winning records are those that combine deep pitching and defense with a good balance of small ball and power hitting. In most game situations, the classic methods for manufacturing runs are the most successful. The final play of the 2001 World Series
was a flare single to drive in the winning run. Batter Luis Gonzalez, a power hitting outfielder, stated in the Series DVD commentary that he choked up on the bat and went for a single, a small ball strategy with a much greater likelihood of success than "swinging for the fences". In cricket, however, situations can arise in a match where power hitting, also called "slogging", is required. This typically occurs towards the final overs of a limited overs game. So, though baseball is the game that features more power hitting, as a strategy there are far fewer situations in baseball in which it would be correct to rely on the power game.
Cricket bowlers, since they are not restricted to a small strike zone
as their target, also use a wide variety of approaches which are not available to baseball pitchers. These involve varying the line and length
of deliveries and using unpredictable movement caused by the ball bouncing on the pitch before it reaches the batsman. Baseball pitchers, by contrast, must use changes in ball speed and movement (cricket bowlers also vary ball speed) caused only by air friction and spin to deceive batters, as most pitches which come near touching the ground are ineffectively allowed to pass as balls. The raised undulating stitching on a baseball allows an accomplished pitcher to create a huge variety of motions in the air; even fastballs are thrown in such a way as to create certain kinds of movement. The cricket ball also moves in the air, to a lesser degree than the baseball, but it achieves its most pronounced movement on the bounce. Furthermore, pitchers must begin their throw from a stationary position, while bowlers may run up to their delivery. (In the early days of baseball, the pitcher pitched from anywhere within a "box" and so had more flexibility as to where to stand when releasing the ball, before the 1880s.) Baseball pitchers also throw from an elevated mound (10 in or 25.4 cm above the level of home plate), while cricket bowlers are at the same height as the batsman and must bowl with an overarm (or roundarm
, a style rarely seen today) rotation of the arm during which the arm must be kept straight within 15 degrees. (This was also a restriction on pitchers in the early days of baseball, abolished in the 1880s.) Despite the differences in delivery action, the delivery speeds are similar for both sports with the fastest bowlers and pitchers propelling the ball in the region of 95 –: the fastest recorded cricket delivery is 100.2 mi/h with baseball's record quicker at 105 mi/h. It is the case, however, that baseball pitches near or at 100 mph are considerably more common than bowled balls of comparable velocity in cricket. The bowler in cricket is not permitted to bend and then straighten his arm by more than 15 degrees in delivering the ball, and this is one very significant reason why baseball pitchers can deliver the ball faster with more frequency.
One main difference, however, is that the ball in cricket is harder and heavier in weight. The legal weight for the ball in baseball must weigh between 5 to 5.25 oz (141.7 to 148.8 g). Whereas, the ball in cricket must weigh between 5.5 to 5.8 oz (155.9 to 164.4 g).
Cricket's bowlers are grouped into different categories based on their bowling style—pacemen
, seamers
, off-spinners
(or finger-spinners
), leg-spinners
(or wrist-spinners
)—though a bowler may fall into more than one category (pace and seam bowling, for instance, largely overlap).
Baseball's pitchers are classified primarily by their throwing hand (left or right) and their usual role in games. A starting pitcher
begins games, typically not more than one game in five, in a rotation with four teammates who are also starters who will start games in a sequential cycle, and usually pitch five or more innings. Starters rarely appear as substitutes in games started by others. A relief pitcher
enters games later, sometimes on short notice in crisis situations in which there are already runners on base and/or the opponent's best hitters due to bat, and usually pitches fewer innings in any given game. But relievers may be called upon to pitch in several games consecutively. Some relievers even specialize further strictly as closers
brought in just to pitch the last inning of a game in which his side leads by a narrow margin. Perhaps the most specialized group of relievers is left-handed specialist
s—left-handed pitchers who pitch almost exclusively to left-handed batters (sometimes to switch-hitters who are weaker batters right-handed). More often than not, such a pitcher will face only one batter in a given game.
Pitchers are sometimes secondarily grouped according to pitching style, type of pitch most often used, or velocity. However, there are many different variations on how the pitch is actually delivered, this includes the conventional overhand, in which the ball is thrown from the 12 o'clock position, and 3/4 styles (with the arm moving towards the plate between 12 and 3 o'clock) as well as the less common sidearm
(3 o'clock arm angle, compare roundarm bowling
in cricket) and 'submarine' (below 3 o'clock, compare underarm bowling
in cricket) deliveries.
For reasons that continue to spur debate, it is historically the case that most right-handed pitchers succeed at higher rates against right-handed hitters than against left-handers, and that most left-handed pitchers succeed at higher rates against left-handed hitters than right-handers.
One substantial strategic element to baseball is to utilize this phenomenon as much as possible. Defenses try to force a match between pitcher and hitter by side, and the attempt by offenses to mismatch them; both sides using substitutions at times to accomplish the desired outcome. One response to this phenomenon is that many hitters, amongst them, a number of the finest and most powerful to play the game, such as Mickey Mantle
, Eddie Murray
, and Chipper Jones
, became adept as youngsters to hitting both left-handed and right-handed to prevent defenses from utilizing that advantage against them. Many professional clubs employ as many as two or three switch hitters so as to neutralize the advantage of side selection. However, no switch pitchers have played in the major leagues in modern times.
In addition, if a baseball batter is struck with a pitch, he is awarded first base; "hitting" the batter includes hitting loose parts of his uniform without hitting his body (baseball rules specify that a player's person includes his uniform and equipment). Pitchers may throw close to the batters, and a "brushback" is often used as an intimidation tactic. Deliberately hitting a batter is fairly uncommon, however, chiefly because it is punished severely. If the umpire believes a batter was intentionally hit, the umpire has his discretion on a first offense to warn both benches that the pitcher for either team will be expelled from the game if there are any further hit batsmen (the one baseball term in which "batsman" is used). The warning—and the power to expel if it is contravened—is intended not only to protect batters but to avert fighting; being hit by a fastball
is taken seriously by batters, and bench-clearing brawls occasionally result when one team decides the other is deliberately throwing at its batters. Amazingly, in the history of the major league game, only one player has ever been killed by a pitched ball striking him in the head. This occurred before the invention of the batting helmet and was the principal cause for introducing this piece of equipment into the game.
In cricket, bowlers consider the right to hit batsmen as part of their armoury; indeed, one of the most common methods of dismissal (leg before wicket
) requires the bowler to hit the batsman's body rather than his bat. A fast bowler will punctuate his overs with deliveries intended to bounce
up toward the batsmen's head, either to induce a poor shot from self-defence which may result in the batsman being caught out, or to intimidate the batsmen, making him less likely to play forward to the next few deliveries for fear of injury. These tactics have long been an accepted part of cricket. In the modern game, batsmen usually wear helmets and heavy padding, so that being struck by the ball only rarely results in significant injury—though it is nevertheless often painful, sometimes causing concussion or fractures. Baseball batters wear helmets, but they are unsecured and lack the "cage" since only one side of the head/face is exposed. Catchers typically wear a helmet with a cage or protective bars. An equivalent ball to striking the batter in baseball would be a beamer
, where the ball hits the batman's upper body area without bouncing first. These are rare and usually caused by the ball slipping out of the top of the bowler's hand. The even rarer intentional beamer provokes strong reaction from batsman and crowd alike. The umpire is authorized to take disciplinary action in such instances. The bowler is generally given a first warning, and is dismissed from the game if the offence is repeated. A notable case of this happening was between Waqar Younis
and Andrew Symonds
in which Younis was banned from bowling by umpire David Shepherd
for delivering a beamer to Symonds During the match between Pakistan and Australia
at the 2003 World Cup
.
There is a major difference in the way in which different bowlers or pitchers contribute to a single game. In baseball, a single pitcher starts the game, and makes every pitch until a point where the coach replaces the tiring pitcher with a relief pitcher. Replaced pitchers cannot return to pitch again in the same game (unless they are shuttled to another position in the field and thus stay in the lineup, a move rarely done in the major leagues), and a succession of pitchers may come into the game in sequence until it ends. In cricket, multiple bowlers begin the game, with those not actively bowling spending time as fielders as every player in the team barring the 12th man is available to be used as a bowler. Bowlers alternate bowling overs
of six balls each, moving to fielding positions to rest before returning to bowl again later in the game. A bowler will usually bowl for a 'spell' of several (alternate) overs, and will generally bowl the entire spell from the same end of the pitch. A second bowler will bowl the overs missed by the first, from the other end of the pitch, for his own spell. Although moving a pitcher to a fielding position and returning him to pitch later in the game is legal in baseball, it is a rarely used and potentially risky strategy, as the pitcher may be unprepared to play another position.
The terms "bowling" and "pitching", as words, both denote underarm deliveries, as were once required in both games. The rules for delivery were also initially very similar. Once overhand deliveries were permitted in the respective sports, and pitchers were compelled to toe the pitching rubber instead of throwing from anywhere within the "pitcher's box", the actions of bowling and pitching diverged significantly.
The "wide" in cricket and the "ball
" in baseball both derive from the concept of a "fair" delivery, i.e. a delivery that the batter or batsman has a fair chance of making contact with his bat. While there is no sharply defined "strike zone" in cricket as there is in baseball, in both cases the umpire must judge whether the ball was delivered fairly. Both the "wide" and the "ball" result in a "penalty". In cricket, like a no-ball a single run is charged and it does not count as one of the six legal balls in an over. In baseball, a ball is called, and if a pitcher gives up four balls the batter is awarded first base, which is called a "base on balls" or a "walk". A walk will only score a run directly if the bases are already loaded, forcing the runner at third base to advance to home (known as "walking in a run"); otherwise the threat is merely of another runner reaching base instead of making an out. However since runs are scored so much more frequently in cricket, that a wide scores a run directly shouldn't be taken too seriously. In both games, a wide or a ball can be the decisive factor in winning a match or a game.
the base) as soon as the ball is live. Base stealing often requires sliding
, in which the runner throws himself to the ground to avoid both being tagged and overrunning the base. The runner may also deliberately slide into the fielder at the base he is trying to steal to keep him from catching the ball or to disrupt a double play. At home plate the runner often will simply, and legally, run into a catcher who is blocking the baseline but who does not have the ball (a defensive player may not impede the runner unless he has the ball or is in the process of catching it).
The equivalent in cricket is almost impossible because the bowler is next to the runner, and in fact used to be able to mankad him if he strayed out of his crease; nowadays the batsman can leave the crease when the bowler's back foot touches the ground during his delivery action without risk of being 'Mankaded'. Tactical running in cricket rarely strays beyond the consideration of "can I make it to the other end before the ball does". One exception of this is towards the end of a limited overs game, where a batsman (normally a tail-ender) would sacrifice his wicket in order to allow the better batsman to remain on strike, usually in the last few balls. While in baseball, steals, sacrificial running, forces, double plays, intimidation, and physical contact enter into the equation.
Making contact with a fielder, as baserunners often do, would be unsportsmanlike in cricket, and unnecessary, as play stops when a single wicket is taken. Occasionally a cricket runner will dive over the crease, but in baseball this is a regular occurrence, as players are frequently forced to run even when their chances are slim.
Since a team almost always scores fewer runs in a baseball game than its number of outs, a baserunner will frequently take risks attempting to advance an extra base or score a run, resulting in close plays at a base. In cricket, since the number of runs scored is much greater than the number of wickets taken in a match, a batsman would be very foolish to risk getting run out
in an attempt to score an extra run without a very high expected chance of success. In general, cricket batsmen are run out due to exceptional fielding, poor judgment, or a combination of both. In baseball, runners are often out not of their own accord - they are simply forced out.
of open field, wide bowling area (target zone), and so on provide for strategic play. Notable exceptions include the limit of two fielders in the leg side quadrant, introduced to prevent the use of Bodyline
tactics, and limiting outfield players in the early stages of one-day cricket matches. In baseball, has very specific rules about the positions of the pitcher and the catcher at the start of each play. The positioning of the other seven fielders is as flexible as cricket, except that each one must start the play positioned in fair territory. The fielders are otherwise free to position themselves anywhere on the playing field, at their discretion based on the game situation.
The aerodynamics of swing in cricket are different from in baseball. Moreover, the raised seam also causes movement off the pitch in cricket, which is a very important part of medium pace bowling. Once a particular hemisphere of the cricket ball is more rough or scratched than the other, the fielding team meticulously works to shine the other half by rubbing it on their clothes or by applying saliva (no "external" substances can be applied to alter the condition of the ball). Bowlers very carefully regulate their wrist position at the point of release to ensure the shine is preserved only on one half of the ball, since it will swing towards the rough side.
The old ball in cricket also tends to generate greater amounts of reverse swing, which is swing towards the polished side. This can be exploited by a captain with genuinely fast bowlers (usually, those who can bowl over 90 mph or 144.8 km/h) at his disposal. Especially on pitches in the Indian sub-continent, which tend to have abrasive surfaces, bowlers might resort to bowling across the seam as early as the tenth over, so as to quickly scruff up the ball and generate reverse swing early on. Strategies that rely on early reverse swing also need the backup of effective spin bowlers to be able to exploit the roughed up ball.
Due to these factors, a batsman in cricket needs to very carefully watch how the bowler grips the ball even during his run-up, as well as the type of revolutions on the ball as it approaches. Master spin bowlers like Shane Warne & Muttiah Muralitharan, who were able to dramatically vary the trajectory, direction and extent of spin, regularly bowled deliveries with a scrambled seam to disguise the type of ball actually bowled.
The team that wins the coin toss has the choice of batting first or last. Selection of batting first or last can be crucial to success; particularly in Test cricket
. As the pitch is used for up to five consecutive days with little maintenance, the deterioration of the pitch
with wear can have a major influence on the result of the match (e.g. Typically the ability of spin bowlers
to ‘turn’ the ball increases toward the end of a Test match, whereas fast bowlers
often prefer a harder and bouncier pitch often found at the start of a test match). It is usual for some amount of grass to be left on the pitch on the first day of a Test, since it helps bind the surface. The presence of grass on the pitch is conducive for pace bowling, so a grassy pitch may also tempt a captain to bowl first. Sometimes, current weather conditions also influence the decision, since a cloud cover has empirically been known to assist swing bowling. Aggressive captains such as Allan Border
of Australia have been known to bat first in Test cricket
regardless of the conditions.
In One Day International cricket, the time of day is also a crucial factor in determining the captain's decision at the toss. In some parts of the world, dew on the ground can be significant. For a day-night game, grounds in some countries like India or South Africa become wet due to dew, which makes it difficult for a spinner to grip the ball. The captain must balance this against a consideration for bowling becoming more effective under lights, since the ball might skid off any dew on the pitch or get assistance in swing from the cooler night-time air. Even for a day game, the captain might be inclined to exploit early morning dew on the pitch.
In baseball, on the other hand, the "home" team always bats last. This was not originally the case. In the early years, the winner of a coin toss could decide whether to bat first or last. The more offense-oriented aspect of the early game might influence a team's decision to bat first and hope to get a quick lead. This led to the occasional unfortunate situation where the home town crowd would have to watch their team lose a game in the last of the ninth inning, in "sudden victory" fashion by the visiting team. By the late 1800s, the rule was changed to compel the home team to bat last. At a "neutral" site, such as the College World Series
, the "home" team may be decided by coin toss, but that "home" team must bat last.
In cricket, since the batsmen can hit the ball with greater variation and different objectives, the field placements are more important and varied. Modern-day coaches and captains have intricate knowledge of the strengths of opposition batsmen, so they try to plug the dominant scoring areas for each batsman. Moreover, since the bowling attack has greater variety in cricket, the field placements required for each type and line of attack also vary greatly.
Depending on the scoring strengths of the batsman (off-side, leg-side, straight, square, front foot, back foot, power hitter, "finds the gap", "clears the field" and so on), the captain must make adjustments to the field each time the batting pair score a run and change ends, which can possibly happen after every ball in an over. To meet the demands of a speedy over-rate (typically, about 15 overs an hour), the captain must arrange the fielders in a way that they can swiftly interchange positions for the two batsmen. This is especially important if one batsman is right-handed, while the other is left-handed. And also in one- day cricket if the umpires deem the over rate of the team fielding first is too slow they can dock them overs so they may have less than 50 overs to reach their target score.
Fielders in cricket can field in all positions, but modern players have specialized field positions. In particular, slip positions require special skills since the slip fielder is placed behind the batsman and the ball comes directly off the edge of the bat. Close catching positions such as forward short leg and silly point, as well as positions for the cut shot such as gully and point, require very fast reflexes and canny anticipation, so they are also specialist positions.
In baseball, although only the positions of pitcher and catcher are prescribed by the rules, fielders' positions are dictated closely by custom, and shifts in fielders' positions according to circumstance are less dramatic; the strike zone and smaller angle of fair territory limit the usefulness of some strategies which cricket makes available to batsmen. The chief occasion on which fielding placement differs markedly from the usual is the presence of a pull, or dead-pull, hitter at bat (such hitters almost never, except on the rare occasion of a fluke or mishit, hit the ball in any direction except towards the same side of the field as they stand at the plate, i.e. a right-handed pull hitter hits everything toward left field). In such case the fielders will move so far in the direction of the pull that one half of the field is almost completely unprotected. This is called an overshift. A six-man infield has also been used when circumstances warrant. For the great majority of batters, however, the traditional fielding arrangement is used, with minor changes in position to accommodate the batter's power or bat-handling ability, the location of runners, or the number of outs. (For example, with a base runner on third with less than two out, the importance of fielders being able to throw quickly to home plate on a bunt is increased, and the infielders will play closer to home plate.) However, Baseball has no equivalent of Cricket's close-in fielders, because it is impractical to have fielders so close to the bat as they would have virtually no chance of latching onto a ball travelling so fast. It is possible to place a close-in fielder to catch a bunt, but this practice is not followed in real life.
In cricket, coaches cannot intervene or direct gameplay; the captain
must make all the calls once the players are out on the field. However, the coach may convey messages to the captain or the players at any time, since there is no restriction on signaling or speaking to players on the field. In dynamic situations, like a run chase with an imminent possibility of rain, it is quite common for coaches to update tactics using signals. Hansie Cronje, the former cricket captain of South Africa, once took the field with a wireless link to the coach, Bob Woolmer. Subsequently, the use of gadgets to transmit messages was banned by the International Cricket Council. Regardless, the coach is merely an adviser, it is almost always the case that the cricket captain has complete authority over the team once play starts. In baseball, by contrast, managers
and coaches will often direct the players (through hand signals) to carry out a play (such as a stolen base
or hit and run
), or to field at a particular depth.
In both sports, strategy varies with the game situation. In baseball, pitcher, batter and fielders all play far differently in the late innings of a close game (e.g., waiting for walks, trying for stolen bases or the squeeze play
to score a decisive run) than they do early, or when one team has already scored many more runs than the other (where batters will be likely to swing at many more pitches and try for extra-base hits and even home run
s). The number, speed, and position of baserunners, which have no equivalent in cricket, all dramatically change the strategies used by pitcher and batter. A runner on first base must decide how large a lead to take off the base—the larger the lead, the greater the chance of advancing on a stolen base or batted ball, but also the greater the risk of being picked off
by the pitcher. In leagues which do not allow designated hitters, strategic thinking also enters into substitutions. For example, in the double switch, the substitution of a relief pitcher
is combined with the substitution of a pinch hitter
who takes the pitcher's spot in the batting order so that the new pitcher will come to bat later (as almost all pitchers are poor hitters). Since players may not return to the game after being substituted for, a manager cannot take lightly the decision when and if to substitute a better-fielding but worse-hitting player if his team is ahead.
The essential action in baseball is either (for the offense) to advance runners around the bases or (for the defense) to halt that advance. As simple as this is in principle, in practice it generates a remarkably large range of strategies. Any given situation—the number of runners on base, the bases they occupy, their skills as runners or base-stealers, the count on the hitter, the number of outs, the specialties of the pitcher and the batter, the catcher's skill at throwing out runners, the positioning of fielders, which inning is being played, and so on—allows for a considerable variety of possible plays, on either side of the ball. At any moment, one manager may be calculating how to advance his runners (whether to call for the steal, the hit-and-run, sacrifice bunt, sacrifice fly, a double steal, the squeeze, and so on) while the opposing manager is calculating how best to thwart his opponent (not only through the pitching approach and positioning of fielders, but by, say, calling for a pitch-out when a steal is anticipated, and so on). Since the variables that determine which strategies are possible or advisable change from pitch to pitch, and according to all the varieties of play situation that may come about in any game, the game played between the two managers is the most intricate aspect of the game, and for many followers of the sport is considered the true 'inner game'. In this sense, baseball is far more of a 'board game' than cricket is.
First-class cricket
also has a number of strategic elements not found in baseball, simply because the maximum time duration of the game is fixed (which can be up to five days for Test cricket
) and a match not completed by the end of the time duration results in a draw regardless of the relative score. By contrast, baseball games are played to completion regardless of the time duration and there is no possibility for a tie or draw (with the exception of certain exhibition games such as the MLB All-Star Game
, or in the case of Japan, where games are declared ties after 12 innings). There are no equivalents in baseball of, for example, deciding when to declare
or to make your opponent follow on
.
) in cricket is of vital significance as, unlike baseball, the ball is deliberately bounced on the pitch before reaching the batsman. While in baseball, playing conditions between different stadia are much the same (except for perhaps small differences in the dimensions of the field, whether the outfield is fast or slow, and if the field is grass or artificial turf), the physical characteristics of the cricket pitch can vary over the course of the game, or from one field to another, or from one country to another. On the Indian subcontinent, for instance, pitches tend to be dry, dusty and soft. These pitches offer less assistance to fast bowlers because the ball tends to bounce slower and lower, where most fast bowlers rely on bounce and speed to defeat the batsman. On the other hand, spin bowlers prefer this surface because it gives greater traction to the ball and will result in the ball breaking or turning more when it hits the surface. When such a delivery is bowled, the ball is said to have "turned". Conversely, pitches in Australia tend to be hard, true surfaces, called "batting wickets" or "roads" because the ball bounces uniformly and thus batsman find it easier to score runs, although these wickets suit fast bowlers more than spinners. Accordingly, teams are generally much harder to beat in their own country, where both their batsmen and bowlers are presumably suited to the types of pitches encountered there. On any given pitch, however, conditions will become more suitable for spinners as time progresses as the pitch becomes softer and worn through use, making the spin bowler something of a cricketing "closer".
Baseball parks are also not completely uniform, however many of the variations in playing conditions in baseball also arise in cricket. Stadiums with retractable roofs, for example, usually play differently with and without the roof. For example, with the roof open the wind will affect how far the ball carries. Against a running team the basepaths may be heavily watered. Many stadiums have idiosyncratic features – for example, the short right field and high left field wall (called the Green Monster
) at Fenway Park
, the hill and flagpole in the outfield (Tal's Hill) at Minute Maid Park
, or numerous "porches" (parts of the grandstands hanging over the outfield, such as the "Short Porch in Right" at Yankee Stadium
) which allow short home runs. There is an equivalent for this in cricket, where the placement of the pitch may render one perpendicular boundary significantly shorter than the other. For example, at a particular ground, the leg-side boundary may be 15 feet closer to the batsman than the off-side boundary. Such a boundary can then be targeted by batmen in search of quick runs.
The altitude of the stadium (most notably Coors Field
) can also impact the distance a batted ball travels and the amount of ball movement a pitcher can generate with his deliveries, although recently balls have begun being placed in humidor
s at high-altitude parks to negate these effects. The baseball behaves differently in those stadiums with artificial turf
as well. The amount of moisture in the dirt on the basepaths can also affect the behavior of ground balls and the ease with which players may steal bases; some teams are known to alter the amount of watering done to the dirt depending on the skills of the home and visiting team. The amount of foul territory is also an important variable, since foul pop-ups that would be outs in some parks (e.g. the Oakland Coliseum) may end up in the stands in other parks, thereby allowing the batter to remain at the plate (e.g. Fenway Park and Coors Field). On the whole, though, these variations do not produce effects as great as variations in cricket pitches, with one arguable exception being Coors Field.
in baseball must be declared before the game begins, and can only be changed if a substitution occurs. Batting out of turn
is a rule violation resulting in a penalty. When a manager makes a substitution, the new player must occupy the same place in the batting order as the old one. To allow more complicated changes in batting order, managers may use the double switch, substituting for two players simultaneously. This is typically used to replace the pitcher but put the new pitcher in a spot in the batting order that will not come up to bat soon, previously occupied by another fielder (pitchers are almost uniformly poor hitters). However, the rule remains that no individual player can ever change his position in the batting order within the same game.
Unlike baseball, the batting order
in cricket is not fixed, and can be changed at any time, provided each player bats at most once. This gives rise to the "pinch hitter" in cricket - a non-specialist batsman promoted up the order to get quick runs -, and the Nightwatchman
. This latter is typically a non-batsman promoted up the order at the end of the day to avoid a better batsman having to make two cold starts, a particular risk. If a batsman is not ready to bat at the fall of a wicket, another batsman- typically the player who occuipes the next spot in the order will go out in his place in order to eliminate the risk of him being timed out.
The roles of individual players in the batting order are strikingly similar. In both sports, the players near the top of the batting order are considered superior batters or batsmen. The initial batters or batsmen generally specialize in avoiding making outs, while the third through fifth batters and batsmen are considered their team's best at providing runs. After that, the talent generally drops off, with the pitchers and bowlers generally being the worst at batting. However, since in baseball a batter who puts the ball in play does not get another at-bat until the entire batting order is cycled through, the opposing team may pitch around a skilled batter, walking him or otherwise relying on getting other batters out. In cricket, a batsman remains at the pitch until he is out (or the team is all out or, his captain declares or, the set number of overs have been bowled), and the other team must bowl to him until he is out. The only way captains can negate the influence of superior batters similar to pitching around is to try and keep the more skilled batsman off-strike. This can be seen at the end of closely fought Test matches, where a captain might try and maximize the number of deliveries his bowlers can bowl at a non-specialist batsman. The exception is if the player is injured and has to leave the field for treatment, the next batsman in the order will take his place. If the original batsman is able to continue later on, he can join the game again when one of his teams batsmen is out and his injury time has expired.
, One Day
and Twenty20
. Of these, the Twenty20
format is similar in terms of the amount of time it takes to play a game of baseball, around three to three-and-a-half hours. Baseball games are generally much shorter than Test and One Day cricket games. Most Major League Baseball
games last between two-and-a-half and four-and-a-half hours. Because the Major League playing season is 6 months long (183 days, between April and October with Spring Training
in February and March), with 81 games played at home and 81 away (162 in all, not counting the postseason or the All-Star Game), baseball teams often find themselves playing double-headers and series games. A doubleheader entails two games, played back to back, in one day. This usually occurs when a game needed to be rescheduled, and is fairly common. A series occurs when two teams play on several consecutive days. This is an even more common occurrence in baseball because of the number of games required in a season, and because there are large distances between stadiums in the U.S. and Canada, thus conserving time and resources by allowing the teams to spend several days in a single location. In Major League Baseball
there is a maximum of 20 days consecutively played before a break in games must be observed.
Test Cricket games can last up to five days with scheduled breaks each day for lunch and tea, giving three sessions of play each day. The one-day games
version of the sport usually lasts from five to seven hours, but can sometimes continue for longer than eight hours. Twenty20
has innings of twenty overs per team. The average time it takes to play an individual game of Twenty20 cricket is similar to the amount of time it takes to play a game of baseball, around three to three-and-a-half hours.
ODI and Twenty20 cricket, with their inherent limit on the number of fair deliveries, do not have an exact equivalent in baseball. The closest comparison would be games that have a pre-set number of innings shorter than the standard 9 (as with the second game of a doubleheader at some levels) or a pre-set time limit of some kind, such as a curfew restriction, or in the case of one of baseball's cousins, recreational softball
, a pre-set length of the game, such as one hour.
Baseball players use thin, round bats and wear gloves to field, while cricketers use wide, flat bats and field barehanded (except for the wicket-keeper, who wears gloves and protective leg pads). In cricket a batsman wears protective gear such as pads, gloves, thigh pads, helmet, a chest guard, an arm pad and a box (which is used to protect the groin area), whereas the only required protective gear for baseball batters is an unsecured helmet (as required in major league baseball rule 1.16); many batters also use elbow, shin, ankle, hand, or groin protectors, and most use batting gloves (similar to golf gloves) to aid grip.
Another difference between the two sports involves the condition of the ball as a match progresses. In cricket, if a ball is hit into the stands, the spectators must return it to the field. Also, a ball that is scuffed or scratched will continue in use; a ball must be used for a minimum number of overs (currently 80 in Test cricket & 34 in One-Day-International Cricket when it is replaced by a re-conditioned ball which is also 34 overs old) before it can be replaced. If a ball is damaged, lost, or illegally modified, it is replaced by a used ball of similar condition to the old one. Finally, cricketers are allowed sparingly to modify the ball, though this is highly restricted. The ball may be polished (usually on a player's uniform) without the use of an artificial substance, may be dried with a towel if it is wet, and have mud removed from it under supervision; all other actions which alter the condition of the ball are illegal. In Major League Baseball, a ball that is hit into the stands is never returned to play and spectators are free to keep any balls that come into their possession (although local tradition may provide for a ball to be thrown back, specifically in the case of home-run balls hit against the Chicago Cubs
when playing at Wrigley Field
).
Moreover, baseballs are replaced on a regular interval during the course of a game. Major League Baseball
requires the home team to supply the baseballs that will be used during that day's games. The MLB
further require that the home team make available at least 90 new baseballs to the umpires prior to the start of the game. Generally, a baseball is replaced every time it either is hit by a batter or touches the ground. In a typical Major League Baseball
game, baseballs are replaced every 5 pitches or so with a total game average of around 70 baseballs being used.
Because baseball hitting is difficult, baseball rules prohibit the deliberate scratching or scuffing of a ball, or the application of any foreign substance that could conceivably affect the flight or visibility of a ball. Balls that are deliberately made more difficult to hit by applying foreign substances are often known as spitball
s, regardless of the specific substance applied (such as Vaseline). Both spitballs and those that become scuffed or scratched through normal game play are immediately removed from play and never reused. The current rules regarding the condition of baseballs did not come into effect until 1920, after the death of Ray Chapman
from being hit with a Carl Mays
spitball. Before that point, the rules were similar to those still present in cricket. However, the new rules were not consistently enforced for several decades afterwards, and several pitchers (most notably Gaylord Perry
) built careers around skirting these rules, doing such things as hiding nail files in their gloves or putting Vaseline
on the underside of their hats. In modern baseball, however, the prohibition against modifying the baseball in almost any way is strictly enforced and players found to be in violation of this rule are not only ejected from the game in which the infraction occurred, but are also subject to a suspension. The only substance applied to a baseball is the Delaware River mud formula
that umpires rub in before a game to remove the "shine" from the ball and improve its grip. The pitcher is also allowed to use rosin
on his hands (via a rosin bag) to improve his grip, and to blow on his hands in cold weather.
.The scorers are directed by the hand signals of an umpire. Every play or delivery is logged, and from the log, or scoresheet, is derived a summary report .Baseball commonly uses times at bat, base hits, RBIs, stolen base
s, errors
, strikeout
s and other occurrences. These are then often used to rate the player. Although cricket uses detailed statistics as a guide, owing to the variety of situations in cricket, they are not always considered a true reflection of the player. Ian Botham
is an example of a player who, despite relatively poor averages, was particularly noted as one of England's greatest cricketers for his ability to dominate games.
In baseball, questioning of the validity and utility of conventional baseball statistics has led to the creation of the field of sabermetrics
, which assesses alternatives to conventional statistics. Conclusions are sometimes drawn from inadequate samples – for example, an assertion that a batter has done poorly against a specific pitcher, when they have only faced each other a handful of times, or that a player is "clutch" due to having more success with runners in scoring position or during the late innings with rather small sample sizes.
Both sports play an important part in the culture of the societies in which they are popular. Baseball is deeply ingrained in the American psyche, and is known in the United States as "the national pastime". It is one of the sports most readily identified with the United States. Baseball references abound in American English
, and the sport is well represented in American cinema in numerous baseball movies. Baseball also plays important cultural in many parts of Latin America, (specifically Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela), as well as in East Asia
. Many terms and expressions from the sport have entered the English lexicon. Examples are "getting to first base,"
"coming out of left field," "having two strikes against him/her," "he struck out," "that's a home run," and "southpaw" (baseball diamonds are traditionally built with home plate to the west so hitters do not have to fight the setting sun as well as the pitch, a pitcher's left arm is always to the south).
Cricket has an equally strong influence on the culture of many nations, mainly Commonwealth nations
, including England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, the English-speaking Caribbean
and especially in the Indian-subcontinent where it is often said to be followed like a religion. Canada has seen a marked increase in domestic, as well as interest in international cricket, over the past decade. This can be attributed, in large part, to the growing subcontinental diaspora in Canada. Cricket
is the most popular sport or a major sport in most former British Colonies. Like baseball, cricket has had an influence on the lexicon of these nations with such phrases as "that's not cricket" (unfair), "had a good innings", "sticky wicket", "played with a straight bat" and "bowled over".
The ten Test-playing nations regularly participate in tours of other nations to play usually both a Test
and One Day International series. Twenty20
is becoming more popular in international competition. The amateur game has also been spread further afield by expatriates from the Test-playing nations. Many of these minor cricketing nations (including the USA and Canada and other nations, such as the Netherlands, which do not have a British heritage) compete to qualify for the Cricket World Cup
. The very first international cricket match was played between the USA and Canada.
Baseball in a similar way has also been spread around the world, most notably in Central America, and east Asia. Canadian baseball developed as a minor league sport in parallel to the US major leagues before eventually joining them, first with the Montreal Expos
in 1969 (now the Washington Nationals
) and then with the Toronto Blue Jays
in 1977. Though baseball has not yet made its mark in professional international competition, its popularity is slowly growing around the world, especially with the emergence of competitions like the World Baseball Classic
. Interestingly, there have been several Australian Major League Baseball players, a country where cricket is more popular by far.
The nature of the top elite level in both sports differs markedly. Nearly all cricket revenue comes from international matches, and domestic leagues serve largely as a development ground for international players. By contrast nearly all baseball revenue comes from domestic leagues, most notably in the United States and Japan.
Cricket's international programme allows the weaker cricketing nations to play against the best in the world, and the players have the chance to become national heroes. On the other hand, the dominance of national teams also means that a great many talented cricketers in nations such as Australia and India will never receive recognition or prestige unless they make it into the national team.
, although players are still expected to abide by the umpires' rulings without argument, and for the most part they do. Even in the modern game fielders are known to signal to the umpire that a boundary was hit, despite what could have been a spectacular save (though this may well be that they will be found out by the TV umpire anyway) and also signal if they did not take a catch even if it appeared that they did. In addition to this, some cricket batsmen have been known to "walk" when they think they are out even if the umpire does not declare them out. This is considered a very high level of sportsmanship, as a batsman can easily take advantage of incorrect umpiring decisions.
In baseball, a player correcting an umpire's call to his own team's detriment is unheard of, at least at the professional level. Individual responsibility and vigilance are part of the game's tradition. It is the umpire's responsibility to make the right call, and matters of judgment are final. Similarly, when a runner misses a base or leaves too early on a caught fly ball, the umpire keeps silent, as it is the fielder's responsibility to know where the runners are and to make an appeal. When a fielder pretends not to know where the ball is (the "hidden ball trick
"), the umpire keeps silent, as it is the runner's responsibility to know where the ball is.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
are the best-known members of a family of related bat-and-ball games
Bat-and-ball games
Bat-and-ball games are field games played by two teams. The teams alternate between "batting" roles, sometimes called "in at bat" and "out in the field", or simply in and out. Only the batting team may score, so the fielding team is defending, but they have equal chances in both roles...
. While many of their rules, terminology, and strategies are similar, there are many differences—some subtle, some major—between the two games.
Other present-day bat-and-ball games include softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
, stickball
Stickball
Stickball is a street game related to baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game, played in large cities in the Northeastern United States, especially New York City. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ball, typically a spaldeen, pensie pinkie, high bouncer or tennis ball. The...
, rounders
Rounders
Rounders is a game played between two teams of either gender. The game originated in England where it was played in Tudor times. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a round wooden, plastic or metal bat. The players score by...
, stoolball
Stoolball
Stoolball is a sport that dates back to at least the 15th century, originating in Sussex, southern England. It may be an ancestor of cricket , baseball, and rounders...
, pesäpallo
Pesäpallo
Pesäpallo is a fast-moving ball sport that is quite often referred to as the national sport of Finland and has some presence in other countries, such as Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, and Northern Ontario in Canada...
or Finnish baseball, punchball, kickball, and British baseball
British baseball
British baseball, sometimes called Welsh baseball, or in the areas where it is popular simply baseball, is a bat-and-ball game played primarily in Wales and England. It is closely related to the game of rounders, and indeed emerged as a distinct sport when governing bodies in Wales and England...
, which has similarities with both cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
. Earlier forms include The Massachusetts Game
The Massachusetts Game
The Massachusetts Game was a type of amateur club baseball popular in 19th century New England. It was an organized and codified version of local games called "base" or "round ball", and related to town ball and rounders. The Massachusetts Game is remembered as a rival of the New York Game of...
of baseball, which was similar to rounders, and one old cat and two old cat
Old Cat
Old Cat games were 19th century bat-and-ball, safe haven games played in North America. The games were numbered according to the number of bases...
.
Bat-and-ball games
Bat-and-ball games, in general, are sports in which one team (the fielding team) has possession of the ballBall
A ball is a round, usually spherical but sometimes ovoid, object with various uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for simpler activities, such as catch, marbles and juggling...
and delivers it to a member of the other team (the batting team), who tries to hit it. The two opposing teams take turns playing these two distinct roles, which are continuous during a specified interval. This contrasts with "goal-oriented" games, such as all forms of football, hockey and basketball, in which possession of the ball or puck can change in an instant, and thus "attackers" and the "defenders" frequently reverse roles during the course of the game.
In both cricket and baseball, the players of one team attempt to score points known as runs by hitting a ball with a bat, while the members of the other team field the ball in an attempt to prevent scoring and to put batting players out.
In both games, there is a defensive aspect to the batting team concurrent with its "offensive" or "attacking" aspect of trying to score runs. In cricket, the batsman is attempting to defend the wicket. In baseball, the batter is attempting to defend the strike zone.
Once a certain number of batting players are out (different in the two sports), the teams swap roles. This sequence of each team taking each role once is called an inning
Innings
An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably cricket and baseball during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is...
in baseball, and an innings
Innings
An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably cricket and baseball during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is...
in cricket (the singular form having a terminal 's'). The single/plural usage in cricket is comparable to the baseball slang term for a single inning as the team's "ups". A baseball game consists of nine innings, while a cricket match may have either one or two innings per team.
Despite their similarities, the two sports also have many differences in play and in strategy. A comparison between cricket and baseball can be instructive to followers of either sport, since the similarities help to highlight nuances particular to each game.
Field
- Main articles: Baseball fieldBaseball fieldA baseball field, also called a ball field or a baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The terms "baseball field" and "ball field" are also often used as synonyms for ballpark.-Specifications:...
, Cricket fieldCricket fieldA cricket field consists of a large circular or oval-shaped grassy ground on which the game of cricket is played. There are no fixed dimensions for the field but its diameter usually varies between 450 feet to 500 feet...
, Cricket pitchCricket pitchIn the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...
Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
parks have fair territory areas in the range of 110000 to 120000 sq ft (10,219.3 to 11,148.4 ).
Cricket
In contrast, Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
and One Day International cricket is played on a field with a minimum width of 420 feet (128 m) and length 426 feet (129.8 m), giving a minimum area of 140500 square feet (13,052.9 m²), assuming an elliptical
Ellipse
In geometry, an ellipse is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is orthogonal to the cone's axis...
shape. However the shape of a cricket ground is not fixed. Test grounds around the world are typically 450 by, an area of 175000 square feet (16,258 m²), and range up to the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
at 479 by or 270000 square feet (25,083.8 m²).
Consequences
Discounting the pitcher/bowler and catcher/wicket-keeper, this means Major League Baseball fielders must cover an average of approximately 16500 square feet (1,532.9 m²) per fielder, while Test cricketers cover 19500 square feet (1,811.6 m²) per fielder. That average is misleading because the difference between area covered on the parts of outfielders (on the one hand) and infielders (on the other), is vast. In baseball, Infielders cover a small area in which the ball moves very fast, while three outfielders must cover an area that encompasses a much greater proportion of the playing surface. Something similar—if not quite as pronounced—is true in cricket. In practice, fielders in both sports cover variable amounts of territory, with outfielders potentially having to run much farther to field a ball than infielders do.
Another consequence is that the maximum distance from the batsman in cricket to the boundary is far smaller than the maximum distance from the batter in baseball and the outfield wall. Since the pitch in cricket lies at the center of the field, a ball can often be driven beyond the boundary at even the greatest distance from the pitch by a blow that travels around 275 feet (83.8 m) . By contrast, a home run to 'dead center' in baseball must travel more than 400 feet (121.9 m). This is possible, also, because the ball leaves the bat in baseball, when hit squarely, at a higher velocity, and travels farther; but this also means that outfielders in baseball must frequently cover considerably greater distances than any cricket fielding a ball are ever obliged to do.
Also, because almost all hits by the batsmen are able to be scored off, even lofting it right behind the wicketkeeper, there is a much larger repertoire of moves a batsman can use to score runs.
Bowling/Pitching distance
In cricket, the distance between the two wicket
Wicket
In the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Definitions of wicket:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...
s that the batsmen defend is 22 yards (20.1 m), 66 feet, or 1 chain (4 rod
Rod (unit)
The rod is a unit of length equal to 5.5 yards, 5.0292 metres, 16.5 feet, or of a statute mile. A rod is the same length as a perch or a pole. In old English, the term lug is also used.-History:...
s) in the old English system of measurement. The rectangular area between the two lines is called the pitch. In baseball, the pitcher must deliver from a rubber slab (officially called the "pitcher's plate" and typically called "the rubber") whose front is 60.5 feet (18.4 m) from the point of home plate (officially called "home plate" and often simply "home"). Before the advent of the pitcher's mound and the rubber, the pitcher threw from within a rectangular "pitcher's box". There was a large rectangular dirt area, between the pitcher's box and the batting areas around home, which resembled the cricket pitch.
In cricket, the wicket stumps and the bowling creases are 66 feet apart. The popping creases are 4 feet (1.22 m) in front of the stumps and thus are 58 feet (17.7 m) feet apart. The bowler's release point could be perhaps 1 foot (0.3048 m) beyond his popping crease. The batsman tends to "take guard" or "block" on the popping crease, i.e. he stands 4 feet (1.22 m) in front of his stumps. That nets to a typical distances of about 57 feet (17.4 m) between delivery point and bat. In baseball, the pitcher's release point could be about 55 feet (16.8 m) depending on his delivery style, but the batter also tends to stand back or "deep" in the batter's box, to maximize his time to "look the ball over", up to 2 foot (0.6096 m) farther from the pitching rubber than the point of home plate is. Although the delivery distance, from release of the ball by the pitcher/bowler to its arrival at the batter/batsman, appears to be similar in both sports, the ball actually travels further in cricket as it bounces off the ground first.
Fielding
- Main articles: Baseball positionsBaseball positionsThere are 9 fielding positions in baseball. Each position conventionally has an associated number which is used to score putouts...
, Baseball positioningBaseball positioningIn baseball and softball, while there are nine named fielding positions, players may move around freely. The positioning for the nine positions is very flexible, although they all have regular depths—distances from home plate, and sometimes lateral positioning. A shift means that a player...
, Fielding (cricket)Fielding (cricket)Fielding in the sport of cricket is the action of fielders in collecting the ball after it is struck by the batsman, in such a way as to either limit the number of runs that the batsman scores or get the batsman out by catching the ball in flight or running the batsman out.Cricket fielding position...
The main difference from fielding in the two sports is that the fielders in cricket are not allowed to use any sort of protection for the hands – padded or otherwise, even though a cricket ball is harder than a baseball. The only exception to this rule in cricket is made for the wicket-keeper, who is allowed to wear padded gloves as well as leg guards and a box and also, fieldsmen in close-in positions such as silly point and short leg also wear protective equipment such as shinpads boxes and helmets but are still not allowed to wear any gloves. In baseball, catchers and first basemen normally wear mitts, which have no fingers and are specially designed for each position respectively. The other fielders wear gloves, which have fingers. (Note that early baseball was also played bare-handed; gloves were adopted in the latter 19th Century.) This means that the risk of hand injury due the impact of the ball is far higher in cricket. Also, especially in Test cricket, it is common for several fielders to be stationed close to the bat (slips, short leg, silly point and similar positions) since the value of dismissing a batsman off a catch is higher. Catching at these positions require exceptional reflexes, skill and courage, associated with bare-handed catching of a hard ball traveling at up to 100 miles per hour (160.9 km/h), with reaction times of the order of 0.2 seconds.
Baseball games have far lower scores than cricket matches. The largest combined runs total in a single game in the history of Major League Baseball is 49, whereas first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
matches, including Tests
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, have produced combined totals from both innings of over a thousand runs.
For a more direct comparison, matches in Twenty20
Twenty20
Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board , in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket...
cricket, a form of limited overs cricket in which games last about as long in time as a regulation baseball game, regularly produce combined run totals of 300 or more, with the all-time record being 443. Each run in a baseball game is roughly seventy-five times the magnitude of a run in a Test cricket match; therefore moments of poor pitching (akin to bowling in cricket) and individual fielding mistakes are much more costly. A player who is a good batter, but who is not a competent fielder, will not play regularly, or only in the designated hitter
Designated hitter
In baseball, the designated hitter rule is the common name for Major League Baseball Rule 6.10, an official position adopted by the American League in 1973 that allows teams to designate a player, known as the designated hitter , to bat in place of the pitcher each time he would otherwise come to...
position in leagues that use it.
Double play
In baseball, a double play for a team or a fielder is the act of making two outs during the same continuous playing action. In baseball slang, making a double play is referred to as "turning two"....
), while this is unnecessary in cricket as the ball is deemed "dead" when a "dismissal" takes place. Hence, fielders in Cricket have a greater incentive to dive and take a catch.
While most throws a first baseman must make go to the right, which a left-hander can generally accomplish with greater speed and fluency, this is a relatively small factor in the advantage for left-handed first baseman. More important advantages are related to the position of a left-handed first baseman with respect to the base. First, a left-handed first baseman has an advantage over his right-handed counterpart when catching a pickoff
Pickoff
In baseball, a pickoff is an act by a pitcher or a catcher, throwing a live ball to a fielder so that the fielder can tag out a baserunner who is either leading off or about to begin stealing the next base....
throw from the pitcher—when a first baseman is in pickoff position, standing in front of the bag, the left-hander can catch the ball and make a tag without having to move his arm across his body. (See the picture in the Strategy over the course of the game section below for the standard pickoff position with a right-handed first baseman.) Second, because the first baseman starts most plays with his left leg closer to the base, the left-hander does not have to make a half-pivot in order to get into the correct position to stretch out for a throw. For these reasons, left-handed throwers are far more common at first base than in the general population of baseball players. In contrast, cricket is fielded in the round: the handedness of the fielder in any given position is of far less consequence, and left-handers and right-handers are found in all parts of the field.
Knickerbocker Rules
The Knickerbocker Rules are a set of baseball rules formalized by Alexander Cartwright in 1845. They are considered to be the basis for the rules of the modern game.-The rules:...
it was permitted in some versions of the game to literally "throw out" a runner by hitting him (or "soaking" him) with a thrown ball (in lieu of hitting a base or stake that would equate to cricket's wickets). This rule still exists in some versions of the baseball variant called kickball
Kickball
Kickball is a playground game and competitive league game, similar to baseball, invented in the United States in the first half of the 20th Century. Kickball may also be known as kick baseball, base soccer, soccer-base, or soccer-baseball...
, which is played with a soccer ball and thus is much less injurious. Kickball also calls for literal "bowling" of the ball, underhand, as with the old rules of both cricket and baseball.
Batting
- Main articles: Batting (cricket)Batting (cricket)In the sport of cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball with a cricket bat to score runs or prevent the loss of one's wicket. A player who is currently batting is denoted as a batsman, while the act of hitting the ball is called a shot or stroke...
, Batting (baseball)Batting (baseball)In baseball, batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher...
The area for legal deliveries is much larger in Cricket than it is in baseball, overlapping the batsmen's entire body. Deliveries that reach the batsmen at rib or shoulder height are not illegal, and quite common. Depending on the version of the game, a greater or fewer number of deliveries can be bowled to reach the batsmen at throat or head level. Any fear or hesitation can lead to a batsman playing a poor shot and giving away his wicket (being dismissed).
Since the cricket bat
Cricket bat
A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batsmen in the sport of cricket to hit the ball. It is usually made of willow wood. Its use is first mentioned in 1624....
is wide and flat, while the baseball bat
Baseball bat
A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the game of baseball to hit the ball after the ball is thrown by the pitcher. It is no more than 2.75 inches in diameter at the thickest part and no more than 42 inches in length. It typically weighs no more than 33 ounces , but it...
is narrow and round, on the whole cricket batsmen find it easier to hit and direct the ball than baseball batters, resulting in much greater number of runs being scored in a cricket match. While bowlers can influence the ability of the batsmen to do so, perhaps the most famous episode being the now-banned Bodyline
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
tactic, cricket batsmen are able to use a wider variety of batting strokes to direct the ball in many directions into a field which provides much more open space than in baseball. In addition, cricket batsmen are under no obligation to attempt to score a run after any stroke, but must strike balls in order to prevent them from hitting the wicket. Many strokes are in fact defensive in nature against a well-bowled ball and the quality of defensive batting is often the determining factor of a batsman's success over his career, especially in the longer forms of the game.
Spitball
A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of saliva, petroleum jelly, or some other foreign substance....
; and the increase in attendance which drove owners to build more outfield seating, thus reducing the outfield area significantly. The power game has been encouraged further in recent years, by the construction of new ballparks with smaller outfields than previously, and even the reduction of field size at "classic" ballparks known for spacious outfields; for example, the distance to the fence in deep left field at the original Yankee Stadium was reduced from 430 to 399 ft (131.1 to 121.6 m) between 1984 and 1988 (the post-1988 dimensions were maintained at the current Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. The stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York...
). Still, it is generally agreed that no one can hit a home run at will, and every successful batter knows never to go to the plate intending to hit a home run. Rather, he should attempt a level swing, try to pull only the ball on the inside of the plate, go the other way with balls low and outside, and otherwise start each at bat intending to drive the ball up the middle, which is the most vulnerable part of the infield (especially if the pitcher is not particularly good at fielding his position).
The games emphasize power hitting to different degrees. Cricket requires the accumulation of large numbers of runs, so placement of the ball between the fielders produces runs efficiently and is generally accepted as a better strategy than "swinging for sixes". In baseball, power hitting can produce runs quickly and frequently in many situations, as well as force pitching changes and other fielding moves; but it can also result (because of the great difficulty of driving a ball off a cylindrical bat) in a great many strike outs, fly outs, and ground outs. "Manufacturing runs" or "small ball" is still the soundest means for scoring runs against good pitching and defense. Teams with winning records are those that combine deep pitching and defense with a good balance of small ball and power hitting. In most game situations, the classic methods for manufacturing runs are the most successful. The final play of the 2001 World Series
2001 World Series
-Game 1:Saturday, October 27, 2001 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, ArizonaArizona showed no fear and chased Yankees starter Mike Mussina after just three innings. The Yankees gave up five unearned runs and the Diamondbacks rode Curt Schilling's seven strong innings to a 9–1 rout...
was a flare single to drive in the winning run. Batter Luis Gonzalez, a power hitting outfielder, stated in the Series DVD commentary that he choked up on the bat and went for a single, a small ball strategy with a much greater likelihood of success than "swinging for the fences". In cricket, however, situations can arise in a match where power hitting, also called "slogging", is required. This typically occurs towards the final overs of a limited overs game. So, though baseball is the game that features more power hitting, as a strategy there are far fewer situations in baseball in which it would be correct to rely on the power game.
Bowling/pitching
- Main articles: pitchingPitcherIn baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
(baseball) and bowlingBowling (cricket)In the sport of cricket, bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler; a bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder...
(cricket)
Cricket bowlers, since they are not restricted to a small strike zone
Strike zone
In baseball, the strike zone is a conceptual right pentagonal prism over home plate which defines the boundaries through which a pitch must pass in order to count as a strike when the batter does not swing.-Definition:...
as their target, also use a wide variety of approaches which are not available to baseball pitchers. These involve varying the line and length
Line and length
Line and length in cricket refers to the direction and point of bouncing on the pitch of a delivery. The two concepts are frequently discussed together.-Line:...
of deliveries and using unpredictable movement caused by the ball bouncing on the pitch before it reaches the batsman. Baseball pitchers, by contrast, must use changes in ball speed and movement (cricket bowlers also vary ball speed) caused only by air friction and spin to deceive batters, as most pitches which come near touching the ground are ineffectively allowed to pass as balls. The raised undulating stitching on a baseball allows an accomplished pitcher to create a huge variety of motions in the air; even fastballs are thrown in such a way as to create certain kinds of movement. The cricket ball also moves in the air, to a lesser degree than the baseball, but it achieves its most pronounced movement on the bounce. Furthermore, pitchers must begin their throw from a stationary position, while bowlers may run up to their delivery. (In the early days of baseball, the pitcher pitched from anywhere within a "box" and so had more flexibility as to where to stand when releasing the ball, before the 1880s.) Baseball pitchers also throw from an elevated mound (10 in or 25.4 cm above the level of home plate), while cricket bowlers are at the same height as the batsman and must bowl with an overarm (or roundarm
Roundarm bowling
In cricket, roundarm bowling is a style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and had largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowler has his arm extended at about 90 degrees from his body at the point where he releases the ball...
, a style rarely seen today) rotation of the arm during which the arm must be kept straight within 15 degrees. (This was also a restriction on pitchers in the early days of baseball, abolished in the 1880s.) Despite the differences in delivery action, the delivery speeds are similar for both sports with the fastest bowlers and pitchers propelling the ball in the region of 95 –: the fastest recorded cricket delivery is 100.2 mi/h with baseball's record quicker at 105 mi/h. It is the case, however, that baseball pitches near or at 100 mph are considerably more common than bowled balls of comparable velocity in cricket. The bowler in cricket is not permitted to bend and then straighten his arm by more than 15 degrees in delivering the ball, and this is one very significant reason why baseball pitchers can deliver the ball faster with more frequency.
One main difference, however, is that the ball in cricket is harder and heavier in weight. The legal weight for the ball in baseball must weigh between 5 to 5.25 oz (141.7 to 148.8 g). Whereas, the ball in cricket must weigh between 5.5 to 5.8 oz (155.9 to 164.4 g).
Cricket's bowlers are grouped into different categories based on their bowling style—pacemen
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...
, seamers
Seam bowling
Seam bowling is a phrase used for a bowling technique in cricket whereby the ball is deliberately bowled on to its seam, to cause a random deviation. Practitioners are known as seam bowlers or seamers....
, off-spinners
Off spin
Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
(or finger-spinners
Finger spin
Finger spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket. It refers to the cricket technique and specific hand movements associated with imparting a particular direction of spin to the cricket ball. The other spinning technique, generally used to spin the ball in the opposite direction, is wrist spin...
), leg-spinners
Leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...
(or wrist-spinners
Wrist spin
Wrist spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket. It refers to the cricket technique and specific hand movements associated with imparting a particular direction of spin to the cricket ball...
)—though a bowler may fall into more than one category (pace and seam bowling, for instance, largely overlap).
Starting pitcher
In baseball or softball, a starting pitcher is the pitcher who delivers the first pitch to the first batter of a game. A pitcher who enters the game after the first pitch of the game is a relief pitcher....
begins games, typically not more than one game in five, in a rotation with four teammates who are also starters who will start games in a sequential cycle, and usually pitch five or more innings. Starters rarely appear as substitutes in games started by others. A relief pitcher
Relief pitcher
A relief pitcher or reliever is a baseball or softball pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed due to injury, ineffectiveness, fatigue, ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as being substituted by a pinch hitter...
enters games later, sometimes on short notice in crisis situations in which there are already runners on base and/or the opponent's best hitters due to bat, and usually pitches fewer innings in any given game. But relievers may be called upon to pitch in several games consecutively. Some relievers even specialize further strictly as closers
Closer (baseball)
In baseball, a closing pitcher, more frequently referred to as a closer , is a relief pitcher who specializes in closing out games, i.e., getting the final outs in a close game. Closers often appear when the score is close, and the role is often assigned to a team's best reliever. A small number of...
brought in just to pitch the last inning of a game in which his side leads by a narrow margin. Perhaps the most specialized group of relievers is left-handed specialist
Left-handed specialist
In baseball, a left-handed specialist is a left-handed relief pitcher who specializes in pitching to left-handed batters, or to switch-hitters who bat poorly right-handed...
s—left-handed pitchers who pitch almost exclusively to left-handed batters (sometimes to switch-hitters who are weaker batters right-handed). More often than not, such a pitcher will face only one batter in a given game.
Pitchers are sometimes secondarily grouped according to pitching style, type of pitch most often used, or velocity. However, there are many different variations on how the pitch is actually delivered, this includes the conventional overhand, in which the ball is thrown from the 12 o'clock position, and 3/4 styles (with the arm moving towards the plate between 12 and 3 o'clock) as well as the less common sidearm
Sidearm
In baseball, sidearm describes balls thrown along a low, approximately horizontal axis rather than a high, mostly vertical axis ....
(3 o'clock arm angle, compare roundarm bowling
Roundarm bowling
In cricket, roundarm bowling is a style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and had largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowler has his arm extended at about 90 degrees from his body at the point where he releases the ball...
in cricket) and 'submarine' (below 3 o'clock, compare underarm bowling
Underarm bowling
In cricket, underarm bowling is as old as the sport itself. Until the introduction of the roundarm style in the first half of the 19th century, bowling was performed in the same way as in bowls, the ball being delivered with the hand below the waist...
in cricket) deliveries.
For reasons that continue to spur debate, it is historically the case that most right-handed pitchers succeed at higher rates against right-handed hitters than against left-handers, and that most left-handed pitchers succeed at higher rates against left-handed hitters than right-handers.
One substantial strategic element to baseball is to utilize this phenomenon as much as possible. Defenses try to force a match between pitcher and hitter by side, and the attempt by offenses to mismatch them; both sides using substitutions at times to accomplish the desired outcome. One response to this phenomenon is that many hitters, amongst them, a number of the finest and most powerful to play the game, such as Mickey Mantle
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle was an American professional baseball player. Mantle is regarded by many to be the greatest switch hitter of all time, and one of the greatest players in baseball history. Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.Mantle was noted for his hitting...
, Eddie Murray
Eddie Murray
Eddie Clarence Murray , nicknamed "Steady Eddie", is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and designated hitter. He was known as one of the most reliable and productive hitters of his era. Murray is regarded as one of the best switch hitters ever to play the game...
, and Chipper Jones
Chipper Jones
Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones, Jr. is a Major League baseball player for the National League's Atlanta Braves. Although initially a shortstop, he has spent most of his career as the starting third baseman for the Braves...
, became adept as youngsters to hitting both left-handed and right-handed to prevent defenses from utilizing that advantage against them. Many professional clubs employ as many as two or three switch hitters so as to neutralize the advantage of side selection. However, no switch pitchers have played in the major leagues in modern times.
Fastball
The fastball is the most common type of pitch in baseball. Some "power pitchers," such as Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, have thrown it at speeds of 95–106 mph and up to 108.1 mph , relying purely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit...
is taken seriously by batters, and bench-clearing brawls occasionally result when one team decides the other is deliberately throwing at its batters. Amazingly, in the history of the major league game, only one player has ever been killed by a pitched ball striking him in the head. This occurred before the invention of the batting helmet and was the principal cause for introducing this piece of equipment into the game.
In cricket, bowlers consider the right to hit batsmen as part of their armoury; indeed, one of the most common methods of dismissal (leg before wicket
Leg before wicket
In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
) requires the bowler to hit the batsman's body rather than his bat. A fast bowler will punctuate his overs with deliveries intended to bounce
Bouncer (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a bouncer is a type of delivery, usually bowled by a fast bowler. It is pitched short so that it bounces on the pitch well short of the batsman and rears up to chest or head height as it reaches the batsman.Bouncers are used tactically to drive the batsman back on to his...
up toward the batsmen's head, either to induce a poor shot from self-defence which may result in the batsman being caught out, or to intimidate the batsmen, making him less likely to play forward to the next few deliveries for fear of injury. These tactics have long been an accepted part of cricket. In the modern game, batsmen usually wear helmets and heavy padding, so that being struck by the ball only rarely results in significant injury—though it is nevertheless often painful, sometimes causing concussion or fractures. Baseball batters wear helmets, but they are unsecured and lack the "cage" since only one side of the head/face is exposed. Catchers typically wear a helmet with a cage or protective bars. An equivalent ball to striking the batter in baseball would be a beamer
Beamer (cricket)
In the terminology of the game of cricket, a beamer is a type of delivery in which the ball , without bouncing, passes above the batsman's waist height. Such a ball is often dangerously close to the batsman's head, due to the lack of control a bowler has over high full tosses...
, where the ball hits the batman's upper body area without bouncing first. These are rare and usually caused by the ball slipping out of the top of the bowler's hand. The even rarer intentional beamer provokes strong reaction from batsman and crowd alike. The umpire is authorized to take disciplinary action in such instances. The bowler is generally given a first warning, and is dismissed from the game if the offence is repeated. A notable case of this happening was between Waqar Younis
Waqar Younis
Waqar Younis Maitla is a former Pakistani right arm fast bowler in cricket and widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time...
and Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds is a former Australian cricket team all-rounder. A two-time World Cup winner, Symonds is a right-handed middle order batsman and alternates between medium pace and off-spin bowling....
in which Younis was banned from bowling by umpire David Shepherd
David Shepherd (umpire)
David Robert Shepherd MBE was one of the cricket world's best-known umpires. He stood in 92 Test matches, the last of them in June 2005, and officiated in three World Cup finals.- Playing career :...
for delivering a beamer to Symonds During the match between Pakistan and Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
at the 2003 World Cup
2003 Cricket World Cup
-Group stage tables and results:The top three teams from each pool qualify for the next stage, carrying forward the points already scored against fellow qualifiers, plus a quarter of the points scored against the teams that failed to qualify.-Pool A:...
.
There is a major difference in the way in which different bowlers or pitchers contribute to a single game. In baseball, a single pitcher starts the game, and makes every pitch until a point where the coach replaces the tiring pitcher with a relief pitcher. Replaced pitchers cannot return to pitch again in the same game (unless they are shuttled to another position in the field and thus stay in the lineup, a move rarely done in the major leagues), and a succession of pitchers may come into the game in sequence until it ends. In cricket, multiple bowlers begin the game, with those not actively bowling spending time as fielders as every player in the team barring the 12th man is available to be used as a bowler. Bowlers alternate bowling overs
Over (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it is completed by a teammate....
of six balls each, moving to fielding positions to rest before returning to bowl again later in the game. A bowler will usually bowl for a 'spell' of several (alternate) overs, and will generally bowl the entire spell from the same end of the pitch. A second bowler will bowl the overs missed by the first, from the other end of the pitch, for his own spell. Although moving a pitcher to a fielding position and returning him to pitch later in the game is legal in baseball, it is a rarely used and potentially risky strategy, as the pitcher may be unprepared to play another position.
The terms "bowling" and "pitching", as words, both denote underarm deliveries, as were once required in both games. The rules for delivery were also initially very similar. Once overhand deliveries were permitted in the respective sports, and pitchers were compelled to toe the pitching rubber instead of throwing from anywhere within the "pitcher's box", the actions of bowling and pitching diverged significantly.
The "wide" in cricket and the "ball
Strike zone
In baseball, the strike zone is a conceptual right pentagonal prism over home plate which defines the boundaries through which a pitch must pass in order to count as a strike when the batter does not swing.-Definition:...
" in baseball both derive from the concept of a "fair" delivery, i.e. a delivery that the batter or batsman has a fair chance of making contact with his bat. While there is no sharply defined "strike zone" in cricket as there is in baseball, in both cases the umpire must judge whether the ball was delivered fairly. Both the "wide" and the "ball" result in a "penalty". In cricket, like a no-ball a single run is charged and it does not count as one of the six legal balls in an over. In baseball, a ball is called, and if a pitcher gives up four balls the batter is awarded first base, which is called a "base on balls" or a "walk". A walk will only score a run directly if the bases are already loaded, forcing the runner at third base to advance to home (known as "walking in a run"); otherwise the threat is merely of another runner reaching base instead of making an out. However since runs are scored so much more frequently in cricket, that a wide scores a run directly shouldn't be taken too seriously. In both games, a wide or a ball can be the decisive factor in winning a match or a game.
Running
Running plays a much larger role in baseball because of the low scoring, because they must run much further in order to score, because runners may remain in play (that is, on the bases) without scoring, and because baserunners can advance to the next base before the ball is hit again (stealStolen base
In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate...
the base) as soon as the ball is live. Base stealing often requires sliding
Slide (baseball)
In baseball, a slide is when a player, acting as a baserunner, drops his body to the ground once he is very close to the base he is approaching and slides along the ground to reach the base....
, in which the runner throws himself to the ground to avoid both being tagged and overrunning the base. The runner may also deliberately slide into the fielder at the base he is trying to steal to keep him from catching the ball or to disrupt a double play. At home plate the runner often will simply, and legally, run into a catcher who is blocking the baseline but who does not have the ball (a defensive player may not impede the runner unless he has the ball or is in the process of catching it).
The equivalent in cricket is almost impossible because the bowler is next to the runner, and in fact used to be able to mankad him if he strayed out of his crease; nowadays the batsman can leave the crease when the bowler's back foot touches the ground during his delivery action without risk of being 'Mankaded'. Tactical running in cricket rarely strays beyond the consideration of "can I make it to the other end before the ball does". One exception of this is towards the end of a limited overs game, where a batsman (normally a tail-ender) would sacrifice his wicket in order to allow the better batsman to remain on strike, usually in the last few balls. While in baseball, steals, sacrificial running, forces, double plays, intimidation, and physical contact enter into the equation.
Making contact with a fielder, as baserunners often do, would be unsportsmanlike in cricket, and unnecessary, as play stops when a single wicket is taken. Occasionally a cricket runner will dive over the crease, but in baseball this is a regular occurrence, as players are frequently forced to run even when their chances are slim.
Since a team almost always scores fewer runs in a baseball game than its number of outs, a baserunner will frequently take risks attempting to advance an extra base or score a run, resulting in close plays at a base. In cricket, since the number of runs scored is much greater than the number of wickets taken in a match, a batsman would be very foolish to risk getting run out
Run out
Run out is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. It is governed by Law 38 of the Laws of cricket.-The rules:A batsman is out Run out if at any time while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing...
in an attempt to score an extra run without a very high expected chance of success. In general, cricket batsmen are run out due to exceptional fielding, poor judgment, or a combination of both. In baseball, runners are often out not of their own accord - they are simply forced out.
Strategy
A wide array of factors affect both games (from composition of the pitch or field soil to weather conditions, wind, and moisture) and numerous strategies in both games can be employed to exploit these different factors. Other than the bowler, cricket places very few restrictions on fielding placement, even for the wicket-keeper, and its variety of bowling styles, 360 degreesDegree (angle)
A degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians...
of open field, wide bowling area (target zone), and so on provide for strategic play. Notable exceptions include the limit of two fielders in the leg side quadrant, introduced to prevent the use of Bodyline
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
tactics, and limiting outfield players in the early stages of one-day cricket matches. In baseball, has very specific rules about the positions of the pitcher and the catcher at the start of each play. The positioning of the other seven fielders is as flexible as cricket, except that each one must start the play positioned in fair territory. The fielders are otherwise free to position themselves anywhere on the playing field, at their discretion based on the game situation.
Condition of the ball
A major element of strategy in these sports is the condition of the ball. Since bowling in cricket has greater number of variations (such as bounce, swing, seam movement, off-spin, leg-spin and so on), the condition of the ball also affects play to a great degree. In Test cricket, the same ball must be used for at least 80 overs unless it is lost and must be replaced with a ball of a similar condition, after which, obtaining a new ball is at the discretion of the fielding captain whereas, in baseball the ball is replaced numerous times innings to ensure it is in optimum condition. Often, the fielding captain might opt for the new ball straightaway, since a new ball is harder, bounces higher and has an intact seam, which produces greater conventional swing. But when a captain feels that a spin bowling attack is more likely to be successful, he will persist with the old ball, which is rougher and better grips the surface as well the bowler's fingers.The aerodynamics of swing in cricket are different from in baseball. Moreover, the raised seam also causes movement off the pitch in cricket, which is a very important part of medium pace bowling. Once a particular hemisphere of the cricket ball is more rough or scratched than the other, the fielding team meticulously works to shine the other half by rubbing it on their clothes or by applying saliva (no "external" substances can be applied to alter the condition of the ball). Bowlers very carefully regulate their wrist position at the point of release to ensure the shine is preserved only on one half of the ball, since it will swing towards the rough side.
The old ball in cricket also tends to generate greater amounts of reverse swing, which is swing towards the polished side. This can be exploited by a captain with genuinely fast bowlers (usually, those who can bowl over 90 mph or 144.8 km/h) at his disposal. Especially on pitches in the Indian sub-continent, which tend to have abrasive surfaces, bowlers might resort to bowling across the seam as early as the tenth over, so as to quickly scruff up the ball and generate reverse swing early on. Strategies that rely on early reverse swing also need the backup of effective spin bowlers to be able to exploit the roughed up ball.
Due to these factors, a batsman in cricket needs to very carefully watch how the bowler grips the ball even during his run-up, as well as the type of revolutions on the ball as it approaches. Master spin bowlers like Shane Warne & Muttiah Muralitharan, who were able to dramatically vary the trajectory, direction and extent of spin, regularly bowled deliveries with a scrambled seam to disguise the type of ball actually bowled.
Batting first or last
In cricket, since the strategies are greatly influenced by factors such as soil characteristics of the pitch, condition of the ball, time of the day, weather and atmospheric conditions, the decision to bat first or last is of great tactical importance.The team that wins the coin toss has the choice of batting first or last. Selection of batting first or last can be crucial to success; particularly in Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
. As the pitch is used for up to five consecutive days with little maintenance, the deterioration of the pitch
Cricket pitch
In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...
with wear can have a major influence on the result of the match (e.g. Typically the ability of spin bowlers
Spin bowling
Spin bowling is a technique used for bowling in the sport of cricket. Practitioners are known as spinners or spin bowlers.-Purpose:The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ball with rapid rotation so that when it bounces on the pitch it will deviate, thus making it difficult for the...
to ‘turn’ the ball increases toward the end of a Test match, whereas fast bowlers
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...
often prefer a harder and bouncier pitch often found at the start of a test match). It is usual for some amount of grass to be left on the pitch on the first day of a Test, since it helps bind the surface. The presence of grass on the pitch is conducive for pace bowling, so a grassy pitch may also tempt a captain to bowl first. Sometimes, current weather conditions also influence the decision, since a cloud cover has empirically been known to assist swing bowling. Aggressive captains such as Allan Border
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border AO is a former Australian cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test matches in his career, a record until it was passed by fellow Australian Steve Waugh...
of Australia have been known to bat first in Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
regardless of the conditions.
In One Day International cricket, the time of day is also a crucial factor in determining the captain's decision at the toss. In some parts of the world, dew on the ground can be significant. For a day-night game, grounds in some countries like India or South Africa become wet due to dew, which makes it difficult for a spinner to grip the ball. The captain must balance this against a consideration for bowling becoming more effective under lights, since the ball might skid off any dew on the pitch or get assistance in swing from the cooler night-time air. Even for a day game, the captain might be inclined to exploit early morning dew on the pitch.
In baseball, on the other hand, the "home" team always bats last. This was not originally the case. In the early years, the winner of a coin toss could decide whether to bat first or last. The more offense-oriented aspect of the early game might influence a team's decision to bat first and hope to get a quick lead. This led to the occasional unfortunate situation where the home town crowd would have to watch their team lose a game in the last of the ninth inning, in "sudden victory" fashion by the visiting team. By the late 1800s, the rule was changed to compel the home team to bat last. At a "neutral" site, such as the College World Series
College World Series
The College World Series or CWS is an annual baseball tournament held in Omaha, Nebraska that is the culmination of the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, which determines the NCAA Division I college baseball champion. The eight teams are split into two, four-team, double-elimination brackets,...
, the "home" team may be decided by coin toss, but that "home" team must bat last.
Fielding strategy
Depending on the scoring strengths of the batsman (off-side, leg-side, straight, square, front foot, back foot, power hitter, "finds the gap", "clears the field" and so on), the captain must make adjustments to the field each time the batting pair score a run and change ends, which can possibly happen after every ball in an over. To meet the demands of a speedy over-rate (typically, about 15 overs an hour), the captain must arrange the fielders in a way that they can swiftly interchange positions for the two batsmen. This is especially important if one batsman is right-handed, while the other is left-handed. And also in one- day cricket if the umpires deem the over rate of the team fielding first is too slow they can dock them overs so they may have less than 50 overs to reach their target score.
Fielders in cricket can field in all positions, but modern players have specialized field positions. In particular, slip positions require special skills since the slip fielder is placed behind the batsman and the ball comes directly off the edge of the bat. Close catching positions such as forward short leg and silly point, as well as positions for the cut shot such as gully and point, require very fast reflexes and canny anticipation, so they are also specialist positions.
In cricket, coaches cannot intervene or direct gameplay; the captain
Captain (cricket)
The captain of a cricket team often referred to as the skipper is the appointed leader, having several additional roles and responsibilities over and above those of a regular player...
must make all the calls once the players are out on the field. However, the coach may convey messages to the captain or the players at any time, since there is no restriction on signaling or speaking to players on the field. In dynamic situations, like a run chase with an imminent possibility of rain, it is quite common for coaches to update tactics using signals. Hansie Cronje, the former cricket captain of South Africa, once took the field with a wireless link to the coach, Bob Woolmer. Subsequently, the use of gadgets to transmit messages was banned by the International Cricket Council. Regardless, the coach is merely an adviser, it is almost always the case that the cricket captain has complete authority over the team once play starts. In baseball, by contrast, managers
Manager (baseball)
In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...
and coaches will often direct the players (through hand signals) to carry out a play (such as a stolen base
Stolen base
In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate...
or hit and run
Hit and run (baseball)
A hit and run is a high risk/high reward offensive strategy used in baseball.When the offense has a baserunner on first base , the runner on first breaks for second as the pitch is thrown...
), or to field at a particular depth.
Strategy over the course of the game
Squeeze play (baseball)
In baseball, the squeeze play is a maneuver consisting of a sacrifice bunt with a runner on third base. The batter bunts the ball, expecting to be thrown out at first base, but providing the runner on third base an opportunity to score...
to score a decisive run) than they do early, or when one team has already scored many more runs than the other (where batters will be likely to swing at many more pitches and try for extra-base hits and even home run
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
s). The number, speed, and position of baserunners, which have no equivalent in cricket, all dramatically change the strategies used by pitcher and batter. A runner on first base must decide how large a lead to take off the base—the larger the lead, the greater the chance of advancing on a stolen base or batted ball, but also the greater the risk of being picked off
Pickoff
In baseball, a pickoff is an act by a pitcher or a catcher, throwing a live ball to a fielder so that the fielder can tag out a baserunner who is either leading off or about to begin stealing the next base....
by the pitcher. In leagues which do not allow designated hitters, strategic thinking also enters into substitutions. For example, in the double switch, the substitution of a relief pitcher
Relief pitcher
A relief pitcher or reliever is a baseball or softball pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed due to injury, ineffectiveness, fatigue, ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as being substituted by a pinch hitter...
is combined with the substitution of a pinch hitter
Pinch hitter
In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead ; the manager may use any player that has not yet entered the game as a substitute...
who takes the pitcher's spot in the batting order so that the new pitcher will come to bat later (as almost all pitchers are poor hitters). Since players may not return to the game after being substituted for, a manager cannot take lightly the decision when and if to substitute a better-fielding but worse-hitting player if his team is ahead.
The essential action in baseball is either (for the offense) to advance runners around the bases or (for the defense) to halt that advance. As simple as this is in principle, in practice it generates a remarkably large range of strategies. Any given situation—the number of runners on base, the bases they occupy, their skills as runners or base-stealers, the count on the hitter, the number of outs, the specialties of the pitcher and the batter, the catcher's skill at throwing out runners, the positioning of fielders, which inning is being played, and so on—allows for a considerable variety of possible plays, on either side of the ball. At any moment, one manager may be calculating how to advance his runners (whether to call for the steal, the hit-and-run, sacrifice bunt, sacrifice fly, a double steal, the squeeze, and so on) while the opposing manager is calculating how best to thwart his opponent (not only through the pitching approach and positioning of fielders, but by, say, calling for a pitch-out when a steal is anticipated, and so on). Since the variables that determine which strategies are possible or advisable change from pitch to pitch, and according to all the varieties of play situation that may come about in any game, the game played between the two managers is the most intricate aspect of the game, and for many followers of the sport is considered the true 'inner game'. In this sense, baseball is far more of a 'board game' than cricket is.
First-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
also has a number of strategic elements not found in baseball, simply because the maximum time duration of the game is fixed (which can be up to five days for Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
) and a match not completed by the end of the time duration results in a draw regardless of the relative score. By contrast, baseball games are played to completion regardless of the time duration and there is no possibility for a tie or draw (with the exception of certain exhibition games such as the MLB All-Star Game
Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
, or in the case of Japan, where games are declared ties after 12 innings). There are no equivalents in baseball of, for example, deciding when to declare
Declaration and forfeiture
In the sport of cricket a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture is when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings. Declaration and forfeiture are covered in Law 14 of the Laws of cricket...
or to make your opponent follow on
Follow-on
Follow-on is a term used in the sport of cricket to describe a situation where the team that bats second is forced to take its second batting innings immediately after its first, because the team was not able to get close enough to the score achieved by the first team batting in the first innings...
.
Strategy based on the playing surface
The condition of the playing strip (the pitchCricket pitch
In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...
) in cricket is of vital significance as, unlike baseball, the ball is deliberately bounced on the pitch before reaching the batsman. While in baseball, playing conditions between different stadia are much the same (except for perhaps small differences in the dimensions of the field, whether the outfield is fast or slow, and if the field is grass or artificial turf), the physical characteristics of the cricket pitch can vary over the course of the game, or from one field to another, or from one country to another. On the Indian subcontinent, for instance, pitches tend to be dry, dusty and soft. These pitches offer less assistance to fast bowlers because the ball tends to bounce slower and lower, where most fast bowlers rely on bounce and speed to defeat the batsman. On the other hand, spin bowlers prefer this surface because it gives greater traction to the ball and will result in the ball breaking or turning more when it hits the surface. When such a delivery is bowled, the ball is said to have "turned". Conversely, pitches in Australia tend to be hard, true surfaces, called "batting wickets" or "roads" because the ball bounces uniformly and thus batsman find it easier to score runs, although these wickets suit fast bowlers more than spinners. Accordingly, teams are generally much harder to beat in their own country, where both their batsmen and bowlers are presumably suited to the types of pitches encountered there. On any given pitch, however, conditions will become more suitable for spinners as time progresses as the pitch becomes softer and worn through use, making the spin bowler something of a cricketing "closer".
Baseball parks are also not completely uniform, however many of the variations in playing conditions in baseball also arise in cricket. Stadiums with retractable roofs, for example, usually play differently with and without the roof. For example, with the roof open the wind will affect how far the ball carries. Against a running team the basepaths may be heavily watered. Many stadiums have idiosyncratic features – for example, the short right field and high left field wall (called the Green Monster
Green Monster
The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the thirty-seven foot , two-inch high left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox baseball team...
) at Fenway Park
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...
, the hill and flagpole in the outfield (Tal's Hill) at Minute Maid Park
Minute Maid Park
Minute Maid Park is a ballpark in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States that opened in 2000 to house the Major League Baseball Houston Astros....
, or numerous "porches" (parts of the grandstands hanging over the outfield, such as the "Short Porch in Right" at Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. The stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York...
) which allow short home runs. There is an equivalent for this in cricket, where the placement of the pitch may render one perpendicular boundary significantly shorter than the other. For example, at a particular ground, the leg-side boundary may be 15 feet closer to the batsman than the off-side boundary. Such a boundary can then be targeted by batmen in search of quick runs.
The altitude of the stadium (most notably Coors Field
Coors Field
Coors Field, located in Denver, Colorado, is the home field of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies. It is named for the Coors Brewing Company of Golden, Colorado, which purchased the naming rights to the park prior to its completion in 1995...
) can also impact the distance a batted ball travels and the amount of ball movement a pitcher can generate with his deliveries, although recently balls have begun being placed in humidor
Humidor
A humidor is any kind of box or room with constant humidity, and ideal temperature, used to store cigars, cigarettes, or pipe tobacco. For private use, small wooden or acrylic glass humidor boxes for a few dozen cigars are used, while cigar shops may have walk-in humidors, sometimes consisting of a...
s at high-altitude parks to negate these effects. The baseball behaves differently in those stadiums with artificial turf
Artificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...
as well. The amount of moisture in the dirt on the basepaths can also affect the behavior of ground balls and the ease with which players may steal bases; some teams are known to alter the amount of watering done to the dirt depending on the skills of the home and visiting team. The amount of foul territory is also an important variable, since foul pop-ups that would be outs in some parks (e.g. the Oakland Coliseum) may end up in the stands in other parks, thereby allowing the batter to remain at the plate (e.g. Fenway Park and Coors Field). On the whole, though, these variations do not produce effects as great as variations in cricket pitches, with one arguable exception being Coors Field.
Strategy based on batting order
The batting orderBatting order (baseball)
The batting order, or batting lineup, in baseball is the sequence in which the nine members of the offense take their turns in batting against the pitcher. The batting order is the main component of a team's offensive strategy. The batting order is set by the manager before the game begins...
in baseball must be declared before the game begins, and can only be changed if a substitution occurs. Batting out of turn
Batting out of turn
In baseball, a sequence of nine players come to bat according to their team's batting order, taking turns in an attempt to become a runner and reach base or to help preceding runners to score. Occasionally, one or more batters may bat in the incorrect order, thus violating rule 6.01 in the...
is a rule violation resulting in a penalty. When a manager makes a substitution, the new player must occupy the same place in the batting order as the old one. To allow more complicated changes in batting order, managers may use the double switch, substituting for two players simultaneously. This is typically used to replace the pitcher but put the new pitcher in a spot in the batting order that will not come up to bat soon, previously occupied by another fielder (pitchers are almost uniformly poor hitters). However, the rule remains that no individual player can ever change his position in the batting order within the same game.
Unlike baseball, the batting order
Batting order (cricket)
In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batsmen play through their team's innings, there always being two batsmen taking part at any one time...
in cricket is not fixed, and can be changed at any time, provided each player bats at most once. This gives rise to the "pinch hitter" in cricket - a non-specialist batsman promoted up the order to get quick runs -, and the Nightwatchman
Nightwatchman (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a nightwatchman is a lower-order batsman who comes in to bat higher up the order than usual near the end of the day's play...
. This latter is typically a non-batsman promoted up the order at the end of the day to avoid a better batsman having to make two cold starts, a particular risk. If a batsman is not ready to bat at the fall of a wicket, another batsman- typically the player who occuipes the next spot in the order will go out in his place in order to eliminate the risk of him being timed out.
The roles of individual players in the batting order are strikingly similar. In both sports, the players near the top of the batting order are considered superior batters or batsmen. The initial batters or batsmen generally specialize in avoiding making outs, while the third through fifth batters and batsmen are considered their team's best at providing runs. After that, the talent generally drops off, with the pitchers and bowlers generally being the worst at batting. However, since in baseball a batter who puts the ball in play does not get another at-bat until the entire batting order is cycled through, the opposing team may pitch around a skilled batter, walking him or otherwise relying on getting other batters out. In cricket, a batsman remains at the pitch until he is out (or the team is all out or, his captain declares or, the set number of overs have been bowled), and the other team must bowl to him until he is out. The only way captains can negate the influence of superior batters similar to pitching around is to try and keep the more skilled batsman off-strike. This can be seen at the end of closely fought Test matches, where a captain might try and maximize the number of deliveries his bowlers can bowl at a non-specialist batsman. The exception is if the player is injured and has to leave the field for treatment, the next batsman in the order will take his place. If the original batsman is able to continue later on, he can join the game again when one of his teams batsmen is out and his injury time has expired.
Game length
A direct comparison is difficult since cricket is predominantly played three different formats: TestTest cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, One Day
One-day cricket
Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket and in a slightly different context as List A cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day, whereas Test and first-class matches can take up to five days to complete...
and Twenty20
Twenty20
Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board , in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket...
. Of these, the Twenty20
Twenty20
Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board , in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket...
format is similar in terms of the amount of time it takes to play a game of baseball, around three to three-and-a-half hours. Baseball games are generally much shorter than Test and One Day cricket games. Most Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
games last between two-and-a-half and four-and-a-half hours. Because the Major League playing season is 6 months long (183 days, between April and October with Spring Training
Spring training
In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play...
in February and March), with 81 games played at home and 81 away (162 in all, not counting the postseason or the All-Star Game), baseball teams often find themselves playing double-headers and series games. A doubleheader entails two games, played back to back, in one day. This usually occurs when a game needed to be rescheduled, and is fairly common. A series occurs when two teams play on several consecutive days. This is an even more common occurrence in baseball because of the number of games required in a season, and because there are large distances between stadiums in the U.S. and Canada, thus conserving time and resources by allowing the teams to spend several days in a single location. In Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
there is a maximum of 20 days consecutively played before a break in games must be observed.
Test Cricket games can last up to five days with scheduled breaks each day for lunch and tea, giving three sessions of play each day. The one-day games
One-day cricket
Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket and in a slightly different context as List A cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day, whereas Test and first-class matches can take up to five days to complete...
version of the sport usually lasts from five to seven hours, but can sometimes continue for longer than eight hours. Twenty20
Twenty20
Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board , in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket...
has innings of twenty overs per team. The average time it takes to play an individual game of Twenty20 cricket is similar to the amount of time it takes to play a game of baseball, around three to three-and-a-half hours.
ODI and Twenty20 cricket, with their inherent limit on the number of fair deliveries, do not have an exact equivalent in baseball. The closest comparison would be games that have a pre-set number of innings shorter than the standard 9 (as with the second game of a doubleheader at some levels) or a pre-set time limit of some kind, such as a curfew restriction, or in the case of one of baseball's cousins, recreational softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
, a pre-set length of the game, such as one hour.
Equipment
Another difference between the two sports involves the condition of the ball as a match progresses. In cricket, if a ball is hit into the stands, the spectators must return it to the field. Also, a ball that is scuffed or scratched will continue in use; a ball must be used for a minimum number of overs (currently 80 in Test cricket & 34 in One-Day-International Cricket when it is replaced by a re-conditioned ball which is also 34 overs old) before it can be replaced. If a ball is damaged, lost, or illegally modified, it is replaced by a used ball of similar condition to the old one. Finally, cricketers are allowed sparingly to modify the ball, though this is highly restricted. The ball may be polished (usually on a player's uniform) without the use of an artificial substance, may be dried with a towel if it is wet, and have mud removed from it under supervision; all other actions which alter the condition of the ball are illegal. In Major League Baseball, a ball that is hit into the stands is never returned to play and spectators are free to keep any balls that come into their possession (although local tradition may provide for a ball to be thrown back, specifically in the case of home-run balls hit against the Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
when playing at Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales...
).
Moreover, baseballs are replaced on a regular interval during the course of a game. Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
requires the home team to supply the baseballs that will be used during that day's games. The MLB
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
further require that the home team make available at least 90 new baseballs to the umpires prior to the start of the game. Generally, a baseball is replaced every time it either is hit by a batter or touches the ground. In a typical Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
game, baseballs are replaced every 5 pitches or so with a total game average of around 70 baseballs being used.
Because baseball hitting is difficult, baseball rules prohibit the deliberate scratching or scuffing of a ball, or the application of any foreign substance that could conceivably affect the flight or visibility of a ball. Balls that are deliberately made more difficult to hit by applying foreign substances are often known as spitball
Spitball
A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of saliva, petroleum jelly, or some other foreign substance....
s, regardless of the specific substance applied (such as Vaseline). Both spitballs and those that become scuffed or scratched through normal game play are immediately removed from play and never reused. The current rules regarding the condition of baseballs did not come into effect until 1920, after the death of Ray Chapman
Ray Chapman
Raymond Johnson Chapman was an American baseball player, spending his entire career as a shortstop for Cleveland....
from being hit with a Carl Mays
Carl Mays
Carl William Mays was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1929. Despite impressive career statistics, he is primarily remembered for throwing a beanball on August 16, 1920, that struck and killed Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians, making Chapman one of two people to die...
spitball. Before that point, the rules were similar to those still present in cricket. However, the new rules were not consistently enforced for several decades afterwards, and several pitchers (most notably Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Jackson Perry is a former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He pitched from 1962-1983 for eight different teams in his career. During a 22-year baseball career, Perry compiled 314 wins, 3,534 strikeouts, and a 3.11 earned run average...
) built careers around skirting these rules, doing such things as hiding nail files in their gloves or putting Vaseline
Vaseline
Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly based products owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. Products include plain petroleum jelly and a selection of skin creams, soaps, lotions, cleansers, deodorants and personal lubricants....
on the underside of their hats. In modern baseball, however, the prohibition against modifying the baseball in almost any way is strictly enforced and players found to be in violation of this rule are not only ejected from the game in which the infraction occurred, but are also subject to a suspension. The only substance applied to a baseball is the Delaware River mud formula
Baseball Rubbing Mud
Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud is mud used to allow pitchers better control and a firmer grip over the balls used in the sport of baseball.-History:...
that umpires rub in before a game to remove the "shine" from the ball and improve its grip. The pitcher is also allowed to use rosin
Rosin
.Rosin, also called colophony or Greek pitch , is a solid form of resin obtained from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers, produced by heating fresh liquid resin to vaporize the volatile liquid terpene components. It is semi-transparent and varies in color from yellow to black...
on his hands (via a rosin bag) to improve his grip, and to blow on his hands in cold weather.
Statistics
Both games have a long history of using a vast array of statisticsStatistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
.The scorers are directed by the hand signals of an umpire. Every play or delivery is logged, and from the log, or scoresheet, is derived a summary report .Baseball commonly uses times at bat, base hits, RBIs, stolen base
Stolen base
In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate...
s, errors
Error (baseball)
In baseball statistics, an error is the act, in the judgment of the official scorer, of a fielder misplaying a ball in a manner that allows a batter or baserunner to reach one or more additional bases, when such an advance would have been prevented given ordinary effort by the fielder.The term ...
, strikeout
Strikeout
In baseball or softball, a strikeout or strike-out occurs when a batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters....
s and other occurrences. These are then often used to rate the player. Although cricket uses detailed statistics as a guide, owing to the variety of situations in cricket, they are not always considered a true reflection of the player. Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
is an example of a player who, despite relatively poor averages, was particularly noted as one of England's greatest cricketers for his ability to dominate games.
In baseball, questioning of the validity and utility of conventional baseball statistics has led to the creation of the field of sabermetrics
Sabermetrics
Sabermetrics is the specialized analysis of baseball through objective, empirical evidence, specifically baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research...
, which assesses alternatives to conventional statistics. Conclusions are sometimes drawn from inadequate samples – for example, an assertion that a batter has done poorly against a specific pitcher, when they have only faced each other a handful of times, or that a player is "clutch" due to having more success with runners in scoring position or during the late innings with rather small sample sizes.
Culture
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
, and the sport is well represented in American cinema in numerous baseball movies. Baseball also plays important cultural in many parts of Latin America, (specifically Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela), as well as in East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
. Many terms and expressions from the sport have entered the English lexicon. Examples are "getting to first base,"
Baseball metaphors for sex
In the culture of American adolescents, the game of baseball is often used as a euphemistic metaphor for the degree of sexual intimacy achieved in intimate encounters or relationships...
"coming out of left field," "having two strikes against him/her," "he struck out," "that's a home run," and "southpaw" (baseball diamonds are traditionally built with home plate to the west so hitters do not have to fight the setting sun as well as the pitch, a pitcher's left arm is always to the south).
Cricket has an equally strong influence on the culture of many nations, mainly Commonwealth nations
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
, including England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, the English-speaking Caribbean
British West Indies
The British West Indies was a term used to describe the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire The term was sometimes used to include British Honduras and British Guiana, even though these territories are not geographically part of the Caribbean...
and especially in the Indian-subcontinent where it is often said to be followed like a religion. Canada has seen a marked increase in domestic, as well as interest in international cricket, over the past decade. This can be attributed, in large part, to the growing subcontinental diaspora in Canada. Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
is the most popular sport or a major sport in most former British Colonies. Like baseball, cricket has had an influence on the lexicon of these nations with such phrases as "that's not cricket" (unfair), "had a good innings", "sticky wicket", "played with a straight bat" and "bowled over".
The ten Test-playing nations regularly participate in tours of other nations to play usually both a Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
and One Day International series. Twenty20
Twenty20
Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board , in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket...
is becoming more popular in international competition. The amateur game has also been spread further afield by expatriates from the Test-playing nations. Many of these minor cricketing nations (including the USA and Canada and other nations, such as the Netherlands, which do not have a British heritage) compete to qualify for the Cricket World Cup
Cricket World Cup
The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council , with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years...
. The very first international cricket match was played between the USA and Canada.
Baseball in a similar way has also been spread around the world, most notably in Central America, and east Asia. Canadian baseball developed as a minor league sport in parallel to the US major leagues before eventually joining them, first with the Montreal Expos
Montreal Expos
The Montreal Expos were a Major League Baseball team located in Montreal, Quebec from 1969 through 2004, holding the first MLB franchise awarded outside the United States. After the 2004 season, MLB moved the Expos to Washington, D.C. and renamed them the Nationals.Named after the Expo 67 World's...
in 1969 (now the Washington Nationals
Washington Nationals
The Washington Nationals are a professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals are a member of the Eastern Division of the National League of Major League Baseball . The team moved into the newly built Nationals Park in 2008, after playing their first three seasons in RFK Stadium...
) and then with the Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball 's American League ....
in 1977. Though baseball has not yet made its mark in professional international competition, its popularity is slowly growing around the world, especially with the emergence of competitions like the World Baseball Classic
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation and created by Major League Baseball , the Major League Baseball Players Association , and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world...
. Interestingly, there have been several Australian Major League Baseball players, a country where cricket is more popular by far.
The nature of the top elite level in both sports differs markedly. Nearly all cricket revenue comes from international matches, and domestic leagues serve largely as a development ground for international players. By contrast nearly all baseball revenue comes from domestic leagues, most notably in the United States and Japan.
Cricket's international programme allows the weaker cricketing nations to play against the best in the world, and the players have the chance to become national heroes. On the other hand, the dominance of national teams also means that a great many talented cricketers in nations such as Australia and India will never receive recognition or prestige unless they make it into the national team.
Sportsmanship
Standards of sportsmanship differ. In cricket, the standard of sportsmanship has historically been considered so high that the phrase 'it's just not cricket' was coined in the 19th Century to describe unfair or underhanded behavior in any walk of life. In the last few decades though, cricket has become increasingly fast-paced and competitive, increasing the use of appealing and sledgingSledging (cricket)
Sledging is a term used in cricket to describe the practice whereby some players seek to gain an advantage by insulting or verbally intimidating the opposing player. The purpose is to try to weaken the opponent's concentration, thereby causing him to make mistakes or underperform...
, although players are still expected to abide by the umpires' rulings without argument, and for the most part they do. Even in the modern game fielders are known to signal to the umpire that a boundary was hit, despite what could have been a spectacular save (though this may well be that they will be found out by the TV umpire anyway) and also signal if they did not take a catch even if it appeared that they did. In addition to this, some cricket batsmen have been known to "walk" when they think they are out even if the umpire does not declare them out. This is considered a very high level of sportsmanship, as a batsman can easily take advantage of incorrect umpiring decisions.
In baseball, a player correcting an umpire's call to his own team's detriment is unheard of, at least at the professional level. Individual responsibility and vigilance are part of the game's tradition. It is the umpire's responsibility to make the right call, and matters of judgment are final. Similarly, when a runner misses a base or leaves too early on a caught fly ball, the umpire keeps silent, as it is the fielder's responsibility to know where the runners are and to make an appeal. When a fielder pretends not to know where the ball is (the "hidden ball trick
Hidden ball trick
In the game of baseball, the hidden ball trick is a play in which the runner is deceived about the location of the ball, in an effort to have him tagged out.-Execution:...
"), the umpire keeps silent, as it is the runner's responsibility to know where the ball is.
| Analogous concepts and similar terms | ||
|---|---|---|
| Term | Cricket | Baseball |
| each team's batting turn | an innings Innings An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably cricket and baseball during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is... (either singular or plural) |
a half-inning or side; innings is a plural term |
| player who delivers the ball to start play | a bowler, who bowls Bowling (cricket) In the sport of cricket, bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler; a bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder... |
a pitcher Pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the... , who pitches |
| player who strikes at the ball | batsman (although, the term batter is used in women's cricket) | batter (The word batsman is often used, however, in the phrase "hit batsman Hit by pitch In baseball, hit by pitch , or hit batsman , is a batter or his equipment being hit in some part of his body by a pitch from the pitcher.-Official rule:... .") |
| distance between above two players | 22 yards (66 feet) or 20.1 metres (approx. 58 ft or 17.7 m between the bowler and batsman at delivery) | 60 feet 6 inches or 18.4 m (approx. 58 ft or 17.7 m between pitcher and batter at delivery) |
| fielder behind the player batting | wicket-keeper Wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike... |
catcher Catcher Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to... |
| batting order | flexible | predetermined |
| player's batting turn | (batting) innings, knock | plate appearance, at-bat, ups |
| batting stance | (a.k.a. guard) bat held vertically, with the handle upwards, and the bottom edge on the ground | bat held cocked in the air behind the head |
| hitting the ball | shot or stroke | hit - also shot, stroke, knock, etc. |
| carrying bat after striking | batsman carries bat while running and uses it as an extension of his body | batter drops bat after hitting and while running |
| edge of the field | boundary (or boundary rope) | fence, wall |
| scoring over the boundary or fence | runs are scored if the ball touches or lands over the boundary; six runs (six) if on the full, four runs (four) if on the bounce or along the ground. | home run Home run In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process... if on the fly (and fair) - one, two, three, or four runs depending on the number of runners on base; automatic double if on the bounce from fair territory - batter and any runners on base may advance only two bases; thus, only two runs maximum may score |
| Hits inside the field result in... | zero to four runs (or more in unusual circumstances such as misfields, overthrows or lost balls) | runners advancing, with possibility of one or more runners reaching home for a run. |
| hitting the ball in a specific area | placement | place hitting |
| hitting the ball high into the air, liable to being caught | skyer (or skier), spooning it up, "scooping the ball", "flier" | fly ball, pop fly, popup, "skying it" |
| catching the ball in flight | catch | fly out or catch (see in flight In flight In baseball, the rules state that a batted ball is considered in flight when it has not yet touched any object other than a fielder or his equipment.... ) |
| dismissing a batsman/batter | a wicket Wicket In the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Definitions of wicket:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch... |
an out Out (baseball) In baseball, an out occurs when the defensive, or fielding, team effects any of a number of different events, and the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a player is called out, he is said to be retired... |
| dismissal types | run out Run out Run out is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. It is governed by Law 38 of the Laws of cricket.-The rules:A batsman is out Run out if at any time while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing... , caught, bowled Bowled Bowled is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is covered by Law 30 of the Laws of cricket.A batsman is out bowled if his wicket is put down by a ball delivered by the bowler... , leg before wicket Leg before wicket In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's... , stumped Stump (cricket) Stump is a term used in the sport of cricket where it has three different meanings:# part of the wicket# a manner of dismissing a batsman# the end of the day's play .-Part of the wicket:... , hit wicket Hit wicket Hit wicket is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is governed by Law 35 of the laws of cricket. The striker is out "hit wicket" if, after the bowler has entered his delivery stride and while the ball is in play, his wicket is put down by his bat or his person... , handled the ball Handled the ball Handled the ball is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket.-Definition:Law 33 of the Laws of cricket provides that:"Either batsman is out Handled the ball if he wilfully touches the ball while in play with a hand or hands not holding the bat unless he does so with the consent of the opposing... , hit the ball twice Hit the ball twice Hit the ball twice, or "double-hit", is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket.-Definition:Law 34 of the Laws of cricket states:Law 34 1... , obstructing the field Obstructing the field Obstructing the field is a rare method of dismissal in the sport of cricket.-Definition:Law 37 of the Laws of cricket provides that:"Either batsman is out Obstructing the field if he wilfully obstructs or distracts the opposing side by word or action... , timed out Timed out Timed out is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. It occurs when an incoming batsman is not ready to play within three minutes of the previous batsman being out... (the last four are very rare) |
tag out Tag out In baseball, a tag out, sometimes just called a tag, is a play in which a baserunner is out because he is touched by the fielder's hand or glove holding a live ball while the runner is in jeopardy... , fly out, force out Force play In baseball, a force is a situation when a baserunner is compelled to vacate his time-of-pitch base—and thus try to advance to the next base—because the batter became a runner. A runner at first base is always forced to attempt to advance to second base when the batter becomes a runner... , strike out Strike Out Strike Out, , North American Harness racing championStrike Out was born in 1969 at Castleton Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and is by Bret Hanover out of the mare Golden Miss.... , interference Interference (baseball) In baseball, interference is an infraction where a person illegally changes the course of play from what is expected. Interference might be committed by players on the offense, players not currently in the game, catchers, umpires, or spectators; each type of interference is covered differently by... (similar to obstructing the field in cricket, but more common) |
| dismissal procedure | appeal Appeal (cricket) In the sport of cricket, an appeal is the act of a player on the fielding team asking an umpire for a decision regarding whether a batsman is out or not. According to the Laws of Cricket, an umpire may not rule a batsman out unless the fielding side appeals... to an umpire – an out cannot be given without an appeal from the fielding side, unless the batsman leaves the field on his own (Law 27 Laws of cricket The laws of cricket are a set of rules established by the Marylebone Cricket Club which describe the laws of cricket worldwide, to ensure uniformity and fairness. There are currently 42 laws, which outline all aspects of how the game is played from how a team wins a game, how a batsman is... ). |
automatic – most outs are called immediately by umpires; some potential outs require an appeal play Appeal play In baseball, an appeal play occurs when a member of the defensive team calls the attention of an umpire to an infraction which he would otherwise ignore.-Appeal Play Situations:A runner shall be called out, after a successful live ball appeal, if he:... to be called. |
| curving deliveries | leg break Leg break A leg break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. A delivery of a right-handed leg spin bowler. Leg breaks are also colloquially known as leggies or wrist spinners, as the wrist is the body part which is primarily used to impart spin on the ball, as opposed to the fingers in the case of... s, off break Off break Off break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is the attacking delivery of an off spin bowler. Off breaks are known as off spinners.... s, leg cutter Leg cutter A leg cutter is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is bowled by fast bowlers.A bowler releases a normal fast delivery with the wrist locked in position and the first two fingers positioned on top of the cricket ball, giving it spin about a horizontal axis perpendicular to the length of... s and off cutter Off cutter An off cutter is a type of delivery in the game of cricket. It is bowled by fast bowlers.A bowler releases a normal fast delivery with the wrist locked in position and the first two fingers positioned on top of the cricket ball, giving it spin about a horizontal axis perpendicular to the length of... s change direction after bouncing; if before bouncing, the away swing or outswinger Outswinger An outswinger is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is bowled by swing bowlers.An outswinger is bowled by holding the cricket ball with the seam at an angle and the first two fingers running along either side of the seam... curves away from batter, the in swing or inswinger Inswinger An inswinger is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is bowled by swing bowlers.-Grip:An inswinger is bowled by holding the cricket ball with the seam vertical and the first two fingers slightly across the seam so that it is angled a little to the leg side... curves toward batter |
breaking balls curve in the air; the curveball Curveball The curveball is a type of pitch in baseball thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball causing it to dive in a downward path as it approaches the plate. Its close relatives are the slider and the slurve. The "curve" of the ball varies from pitcher to... /slider Slider In baseball, a slider is a pitch that breaks laterally and down, with a speed between that of a curveball and that of a fastball.... /cut fastball away from the pitching-hand side, the sinker Sinker (baseball) In baseball, a sinker , is a type of fastball pitch which has significant downward and horizontal movement. The sinker is known for inducing a lot of ground balls... , splitter Split-finger fastball A split-finger fastball or splitter is a pitch in baseball. It is named after the technique of putting the index and middle finger on different sides of the ball, or "splitting" them. When thrown hard, it appears to be a fastball to the batter, but suddenly "drops off the table" towards home... , and forkball Forkball The forkball is a type of pitch in baseball. Related to the split-fingered fastball, the forkball is held between the first two fingers and thrown hard snapping the wrist.... unexpectedly dip downwards (as can a curveball; see 12–6 curveball 12–6 curveball The 12–6 curveball is one of the types of pitches thrown in baseball. It is categorized as a breaking ball because of its downward break. The 12–6 curveball, unlike the normal curveball , breaks in a downward motion in a straight line... ), the rare screwball Screwball A screwball , is a baseball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action.... bends toward pitching-hand side, as will the increasingly common circle change, and the unpredictable knuckleball Knuckleball A knuckleball is a baseball pitch with an erratic, unpredictable motion. The pitch is thrown so as to minimize the spin of the ball in flight. This causes vortices over the stitched seams of the baseball during its trajectory, which in turn can cause the pitch to change direction—and even... which can literally move in any direction, and often can cork screw |
| a delivery not in a good hitting zone | wide | ball |
| fielding miscue | misfield | error Error (baseball) In baseball statistics, an error is the act, in the judgment of the official scorer, of a fielder misplaying a ball in a manner that allows a batter or baserunner to reach one or more additional bases, when such an advance would have been prevented given ordinary effort by the fielder.The term ... |
| central/inner playing arena | wicket Wicket In the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Definitions of wicket:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch... , pitch or strip Cricket pitch In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the... |
infield or diamond Baseball field A baseball field, also called a ball field or a baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The terms "baseball field" and "ball field" are also often used as synonyms for ballpark.-Specifications:... |
| sides of the field | Assuming a right-handed batsman, the "Off side" is the side to his right, while the side to his left is called the "Leg side" (as that is the side closest to the batsman's legs) or sometimes the "On side". Reverse for a left-handed batsman. | "Left field" is always to the batter's left and "right field" is always to the batter's right (when facing the pitcher), regardless of the side of the plate he hits from. The term "opposite field" in baseball is equivalent to "off side", as it is the side of the baseball field in front of the batter as he faces the pitcher. |
| substitution | injured players can be replaced for fielding and running, not bowling, batting or keeping wicket (Law 2 Laws of cricket The laws of cricket are a set of rules established by the Marylebone Cricket Club which describe the laws of cricket worldwide, to ensure uniformity and fairness. There are currently 42 laws, which outline all aspects of how the game is played from how a team wins a game, how a batsman is... ) |
players can be replaced in lineup for any reason; once removed they cannot return (except in certain youth leagues such as Little League Little League Little League Baseball and Softball is a non-profit organization in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States which organizes local youth baseball and softball leagues throughout the U.S... which allow a "courtesy runner" for a pitcher, some recreational leagues and exhibition games, and in special rules such as designated hitter Designated hitter In baseball, the designated hitter rule is the common name for Major League Baseball Rule 6.10, an official position adopted by the American League in 1973 that allows teams to designate a player, known as the designated hitter , to bat in place of the pitcher each time he would otherwise come to... ); baseball substitution rule was originally also only in case of injury; unlike cricket, the replacement could also bat |
| delivery toward the head | "bouncer", "beamer Beamer (cricket) In the terminology of the game of cricket, a beamer is a type of delivery in which the ball , without bouncing, passes above the batsman's waist height. Such a ball is often dangerously close to the batsman's head, due to the lack of control a bowler has over high full tosses... " or sometimes "beamball" - umpire may warn or eject the bowler |
"beanball Beanball "Beanball" is a colloquialism used in baseball, for a ball thrown at an opposing player with the intention of striking him such as to cause harm, often connoting a throw at the player's head... " - umpire may warn or eject the pitcher |
| Words used in both sports, possibly with different meanings | ||
| a ball | any legal delivery by the bowler | a legal delivery not entering the strike zone Strike zone In baseball, the strike zone is a conceptual right pentagonal prism over home plate which defines the boundaries through which a pitch must pass in order to count as a strike when the batter does not swing.-Definition:... nor swung at by the batter. If a batter receives four balls during one plate appearance, he is awarded a base on balls. |
| drive | powerfully hit ball from the face of the bat, usually with the bat positioned vertically or close to vertically | powerfully hit ball (could be a hit, or caught for an out) |
| infield | the area of the field less than 30 yards (27 m) from the pitch (basically oval in shape) | the area of the field inside the grass line and immediately near the "diamond"; the "diamond" is the area inside the baselines, which are straight lines either drawn between bases (home plate to first - third to home plate) or imaginary (first to second and second to third); the "diamond" is thus a square 90 feet (27 m) on a side but is called such because of how it appears as seen from home plate. |
| inning(s) Innings An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably cricket and baseball during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is... |
an innings is a period of batting, it can refer to that of a whole team, or an individual player | an inning is one period of batting for each team (3 outs per half-inning) |
| lineup | the "batting lineup" means the players who are regarded as strong batsmen. a "strong or long batting lineup" might mean 7 or 8 recognised batsmen. | the players playing in a given game |
| out | a batsman is "out" when he is dismissed via a number of different ways. "outs" is never used. | batters can be "out"; when there are three "outs" the inning is over; the term "retired" is also used. |
| outfield | the area of the field more than 30 yards (27 m) from the pitch | the fair-territory area outside the grass line |
| pinch hitter | batsman promoted up the batting order to score runs quickly in a one-day game (deliberately borrowed from the baseball term) | substitute for another batter |
| pitch |
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the act of throwing the ball toward the batter |
| retire | a batsman can decide to stop batting partway through their innings, or "retire Substitute (cricket) A substitute in the sport of cricket is a replacement player that the umpires allow when a player has been injured or become ill after the nomination of the players at the start of the game... " (this is usually due to injury, in which case they have "retired hurt") |
to retire a batter means to get the batter out; when three outs are completed, ending the batting team's turn in an inning, the team on the field is said to have "retired the side" |
| pull | an aggressive shot hit with a horizontal bat towards the legside boundary, typically played to a short delivery | similarly, to hit a pitch towards the side of the field closer to the hitter (left field for a right-handed hitter and vice versa) |
| run | unit of scoring, achieved by the batsmen changing ends in one movement | unit of scoring, achieved by batter visiting all four bases in succession, in up to four movements |
| single | stroke which scores one run | hit which allows the batter to advance to first base. It can score one run or more if runners are on base. A lone run in an inning can be called a "singleton". |
| walk | to leave the field when out without waiting for the umpire's decision | slang for a base on balls: to advance to first base after receiving four balls |
See also
- Major League BaseballMajor League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
- International Cricket CouncilInternational Cricket CouncilThe International Cricket Council is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.The...
- History of baseball
- History of cricketHistory of cricketThe game of cricket has a known history spanning from the 16th century to the present day, with international matches played since 1844, although the official history of international Test cricket began in 1877...
External links
- Swinging Away: How Cricket and Baseball Connect, slideshow of an exhibition at Lord's in 2010