Wikipedia:WikiProject Cricket/Cricket Collaboration of the Month/cricket

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For the insect, see Cricket (insect). For other uses, see WikiProject Cricket/Cricket Collaboration of the Month/cricket (disambiguation).
Bowler Shaun Pollock bowls to batsman Michael Hussey. The lighter strip is the cricket pitch. The two sets of three wooden stumps on pitch are the wickets. The two white lines are the creases.
Bowler Shaun Pollock bowls to batsman Michael Hussey. The lighter strip is the cricket pitch. The two sets of three wooden stumps on pitch are the wickets. The two white lines are the creases.
A Test match between South Africa and England in January 2005. The men wearing black trousers on the far right are the umpires. Test cricket, first-class cricket and club cricket are played in traditional white uniforms and with red cricket balls, while professional One-day cricket is usually played in coloured uniforms and with white balls.
A Test match between South Africa and England in January 2005. The men wearing black trousers on the far right are the umpires. Test cricket, first-class cricket and club cricket are played in traditional white uniforms and with red cricket balls, while professional One-day cricket is usually played in coloured uniforms and with white balls.
A One-day International match at The Melbourne Cricket Ground between Australia and India. The batsmen are wearing yellow, while the fielding team is wearing blue.
A One-day International match at The Melbourne Cricket Ground between Australia and India. The batsmen are wearing yellow, while the fielding team is wearing blue.
A view of an international Twenty20 match (between England and Sri Lanka) at the Rose Bowl stadium. Twenty20 matches usually start in the evening and last around two-and-a-half to three hours.
A view of an international Twenty20 match (between England and Sri Lanka) at the Rose Bowl stadium. Twenty20 matches usually start in the evening and last around two-and-a-half to three hours.
WikiProject Cricket/Cricket Collaboration of the Month/cricket Portal

Cricket is a bat and ball sport played between two teams, usually of eleven players each. A cricket match is played on a grass field (which is usually roughly oval), in the centre of which is a flat strip of ground 22 yards (20.12 m) long, called a pitch. At each end of the pitch is a set of three parallel wooden stakes (known as stumps) driven into the ground, with two small crosspieces (known as bails) laid on top of them. This wooden structure is called a wicket. A player from the fielding team (the bowler) bowls a hard, fist-sized cork-centred leather ball from one wicket towards the other. The ball usually bounces once before reaching a player from the opposing team (the batsman), who defends the wicket from the ball with a wooden cricket bat. The batsman, if he or she does not get out, may then run between the wickets, exchanging ends with the other batsman (the "non-striker"), who has been standing in an inactive role near the bowler's wicket, to score runs. The other members of the bowler's team stand in various positions around the field as fielders. The match is won by the team that scores more runs.

Cricket has been an established team sport for hundreds of years. It originated in its modern form in England and is popular mainly in the present and former members of the Commonwealth. In the countries of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, cricket is the most popular sport. It is also a major sport in places such as England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bermuda, and the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean, which are collectively known in cricketing parlance as the West Indies. There are also well established amateur club competitions in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Kenya, Nepal and Argentina, among others; there are over one hundred cricket-playing nations recognised by the International Cricket Council.[1]

The sport is followed with passion in many different parts of the world. It has even occasionally given rise to diplomatic outrage, the most notorious being the Basil D'Oliveira affair which led to the banning of South Africa from sporting ev