What is Cricket?
Cricket is a bat-and-ball team sport where the batting side tries to score as many runs as possible while the bowling side attempts to get batters out, also known as taking wickets, and restrict the flow or runs.
Cricket bats are constructed from high-grade willow with balls made of leather stitched onto a cork core.
International cricket was solely comprised of Test matches comprising two innings per team, but limited overs formats have largely taken over in recent decades with Twenty20 - 20 overs per side - it is the suggested format to be played at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
By whom, where and when was Cricket invented?
Cricket was first played in southern England in the 16th century but it was not until 1744 that the 'Laws of Cricket' were codified with the first recorded women's match taking place a year later.
Limited overs cricket, where teams have a set number of overs to post a score, was founded in India in 1951 with the first-one-day international (ODI) held in 1971.
While ODIs have gradually been shortened, to satisfy timing and television demands, to 50 overs a side, Twenty20 cricket (or T20) was created in 2003 by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
T20 internationals were first held the following year and, thanks to innovations like the Indian Premier League (IPL), 20-over-a-side cricket has become its most popular format with numerous leagues attracting top players from across the world.
What are the rules of Cricket?
Each team has 11 players with one side batting and the other fielding. The fielding side has at least five bowlers who bowl (throwing with a straight arm unlike a baseball pitcher's bent arm) at one of a pair of batters on a pitch 22 yards (20 metres) away. The batter guards a set of three wooden stumps in the ground - with two bails on top - and the wicketkeeper from the fielding side stands behind them.
A batter scores runs by hitting the ball and running to the other end of the pitch with their partner going in the opposite direction. If they score an odd number of runs, their partner faces the next ball. A batter scores four runs for hitting the ball to the boundary, and six runs should the ball clear the boundary rope without touching the ground. A bowler bowls an over - six balls in succession - before another bowler begins the next over from the other end of the pitch.
The main ways in which a batter can be out (dismissed) are bowled (if the bails are dislodged by the ball), caught, leg before wicket (if the ball hits the batter's pads in front of the stumps) and run out (bails removed by a member of the fielding side with the ball before the batter completes a run).
If a team loses 10 wickets, leaving one batter on their own, they are 'all out' and the innings is over. In T20, the innings is usually complete at the end of 20 overs. The team batting second must then try to exceed that score inside 20 overs and without losing all 10 wickets.
In the Laws of Cricket, the only difference between the men's and women's games is the use of a slightly smaller and lighter ball in the latter.
Cricket and the Olympics
Cricket's only previous Olympic appearance came at the Paris 1900 Games. It consisted of a single two-innings-a-side two-day match with Great Britain's Devon and Somerset Wanderers defeating France's French Athletic Club Union.
T20 is the format that is proposed for Los Angeles 2028.
Best Cricket players to watch
Having been exported from England, cricket's power base remains in former British colonies.
Until the turn of the century, India, Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the West Indies - a composite representative team featuring the likes of Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago - were the nine "Full Members" of the International Cricket Council.
Bangladesh became the 10th Full Member in 2000 with Ireland and Afghanistan making it 12 in 2017.
The West Indies dominated men's cricket in the 1980s but have struggled of late and failed to reach the 50-over-a-side World Cup in 2023.
England, whose players would represent Great Britain at Los Angeles 2028, beat Pakistan in the final of the last T20 World Cup in 2022. Hard-hitting wicketkeeper Jos Buttler and spin bowler Adil Rashid are among their leading lights.
Cricket-mad India, led by batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and Australia are also big players with New Zealand finally winning a major tournament by becoming World Test champions in 2021.
Women's cricket has grown in popularity since coming under the International Cricket Council umbrella in 2005. Australia, led by star duo Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning, has long been the dominant nation in women's cricket, winning three consecutive T20 World Cups and four of the last seven one-day World Cups.
