Silly questions from a cricket newcomer

[Xavier]

Hello everybody,

I have been seeing some of the clips on the multimedia section and I think now I can understand most of the game, but there is still something I can't understand: what happens if a wicket keeper catches the ball and the batsman has not hit it? Is the batsman out (I suppose so), or maybe the wicket keeper has the chance to rule out the batsman only if he has previously hit the ball?

Another question about the spirit of the game: I know people consider test cricket as the real cricket, but it seems to me that most of the times games end in a draw, if there's not a big difference between the two teams.
It could happen tomorrow in India-Pakistan if Pakistan batsmen will survive quite enough to indian bowlers.
Isn't that strange to play for five days to end with no result? (a draw is not properly a tie, isn't it?)
Is the sense of the game that the weekest team can deliver the result to stop the strongest team in a draw?

Thanks for paying attention to my "silly questions" !

[Rubu]

question 1: if wicket keep catches the ball that the batsman did not hit is a "dot ball". batsman is NOT. even if there is a slightest touch of the bat and ball, batman is out, unless its a ball that did not produce any run or wicket(batsman out) or anything. but its a legal ball so that the bowler does not have the bowl the same ball again.

question 2: test cricket is called the real cricket mainly because of the fact that the chances of upset win/loose is very very low. in one day cricket it happens all the time. not in test. u've to prove supriority to win in test. unless none is able to show that most of the time the game ends in a draw. which means that there is no big difference between two teams. btw, statically or pointwize, there is no difference between a tie and a draw, but in cricket tie is something u'll very rarely see.

[Xavier]

Thanks AgentSmith, I asked that because it seemed to me that in a Bangladesh-India clip I saw an indian wicket keeper putting out a Bangla batsman who did not hit the ball.

About the difference test/oneday cricket I think they show a different kind of thrill: in one day cricket the game is breathtaking if the team that bats gets to the last overs with few runs to score, in test cricket a team that is batting in the last innings has still the chance to win until it still has two batsmen left, at least so it seems.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally posted by Xavier
Thanks AgentSmith, I asked that because it seemed to me that in a Bangladesh-India clip I saw an indian wicket keeper putting out a Bangla batsman who did not hit the ball.

was it an action replay? if it did indeed miss the bat, then it was a bad decision by the umpire.

[Shehwar]

Xavier is probably talking about the caught behind decision of Rafiq which was given out in the last test that we played against India when Ashraful was putting the Indian bowlers out of their misery (158 no)....That decision along with another horrible decision of Pilot prevented us from saving the follow-on....

[Xavier]

I don't know which were the players involved in the action but I am starting to consider that in cricket the umpires are bound to help the strongest teams, just like it happens in football (calcio)!

Another aspect that I have noticed is that in a couple of times indian cricketers had a sort of unrespectful behaviour towards bangla players (in an occasion it was Tendulkar, if I am right), is that usual? Is not cricket a sport where you have to show respect to your opponent (the same as in rugby)?

[AsifTheManRahman]

well technically, it's supposed to be a gantleman's game. however, those days are long gone now. a little bit of aggression, exchange of words and eye to eye contact is not unusual nowadays. if it was disrespect, then that's bad. however, a little bit of "sledging" is natural nowadays. you should watch matches featuring australia - they're the leaders in sledging.

[Xavier]

Maybe because Australians are the "bad sons" of the English? (joking...)
I know they are by far the best team and that umpires have a good eye to them, I will try and see the ashes or also the natwest series with Bangladesh, England and Australia, problem is that on internet you only find pay-per-view cricket live videos... also I don't have credit card.

Did you see? I was right, India-Pakistan ended in a draw... luck of the beginner predictions lol

[AsifTheManRahman]

don't they have cricket channels on satellite or something in italy?

[Xavier]

Maybe I should try and see bbc channels, but I don't have satellite channels at home.
I know there is a tv show made by ICC "Cricket World" which appears on most of european tv channels, but not in Italy.
Really, nobody knows about cricket in Italy, it is known as a "strange un-understandable game practised in England", baseball is a little more popular also because it is played at the Olympics and Italy is the best european country together with Holland, but I don't like it.
I just discovered cricket a couple of months ago by playing npower on-line game from the Guardian sport site. I liked the game but I didn't know what is an over or wicket or a bowler, but I liked that so I started to discover on internet the complicated rules and the history of this sport.
Now I am caught in this sport and today when I started the computer first thing I did was to se the result of India-Pakistan and Australia-New Zealand!
The sport that I most like is calcio but I am tired of the business side of it and also of the fanatism about it.

[AsifTheManRahman]

to be honest, i was surprised to see italy's name in the list of teams to play the icc qualifiers a couple of years ago...tell me - are most of your cricketers of asian origin? more specifically from the subcontinent, and australia/zimbabwe/england/ect etc? or do you have a good number of locals playing as well? what is the structure of domestic cricket? how many gorunds do you have? what facilities do the players get? what kind of a role is the board playing in making cricket more popular in italy?

Edited on, March 12, 2005, 7:07 PM GMT, by AsifTheManRahman.

[Xavier]

I try to answer to your questions for what I know about that:

1. Cricket has been played in Italy for years but only as a cult-sport, after all we are better than nations like France and Germany...
2.There are italians and asian players as well, this i the national team for wcqs2 last february:
ICC WORLD CUP QUALIFYING SERIES
- Joe Scuderi (Capitano)
- Din Alaud
- Alessandro Bonora
- Andrea Corbellari
- Troy Crosland
- Edoardo Gallo
- Benito Giordano
- Hemantha Jayasena
- Yohan Kariyawasan
- Samantha Ketipe
- Gabriele Passaretti
- Kelum Perera
- Francesco Scarponi
- Valerio Zuppiroli

I don't know how many cricketers are in Italy but I don't think they are more than 1.000 or 2.000.

3. We have a "serie a" and "serie b" league, I have never seen them playing, but the standard of the game should be quite low. Honestly I am much more interested in discovering international cricket.

4. I have read on Crickitalia site that many clubs have problems with having a good ground to play on, and the problem is that Italian National Olympic Commitee (CONI) don't invest on supporting cricket.
And also there is no media coverage AT ALL on cricket, I have never seen a cricket game (neither international nor domestic) on any italian tv channel.

Maybe the general diffusion of internet will increase a little the popularity of the game in Italy (as it has happened with me) but it will take a lot of time.
Also you have to consider that it is not an easy game to understand.

If you want to know something about cricket in Italy see the official site of Italian Cricket Federation, there is also english version:

http://www.crickitalia.org/