AIBU to ask you if you understand the rules of cricket?

[Flyingfish2019]

Have to say I am not a Brit and had very little exposure if cricket but whenever I hear about it it sounds like it is a game with circa 5000 hard to remember rules and circa 30.000 exceptions from that rules and cannot be fun at all.
Is this just me?

Footage of a field with blokes standing around in white clothes

I think you'll find they let the ladies have a go nowadays, after they've made the sandwiches for tea, obvs.

When my dad was alive he used to watch cricket on TV for hours. He used to play in a local team and we would go along to watch, but we just used to mainly mess about on the park. I do understand the basics but not all the terminology.

Enough to watch it, understand what's going on and enjoy it.

I'm safeguarding lead for our local club, have been for 3 years. I can get by now and even follow hand signals etc but it's still mostly a mystery.

I love to watch the games though!

We have a ladies cricket team in our village

Yes, I understand cricket in quite a big way .

I’m a life-long cricket geek, and became addicted to the game by watching Ian Botham hammer the Aussies in 1981. Other girls had pictures of pop stars on their bedroom walls, I had pictures of David Gower. I played in the park with my brothers and their mates and I did ok. If organised girls cricket had been a thing back then, I would have loved to play for a proper team.

It has been great to watch the growth of senior women’s cricket in recent years, and the standard is improving rapidly. England’s Sarah Taylor was the best wicket keeper in the world, male or female, until her retirement last year.

Yes I do. I used to go to watch county and International matches regularly with my parents and brother when I was young, and I went to University close to a major cricket ground so went then too. I don't watch much these days as nobody else in the house is very interested but I still enjoy it when I do. It isn't really very complicated.

I don't like cricket, oh no. I love it.

The rules are not too difficult to learn. The terminology and tactics are a whole different matter...

It's the most boring thing to be televised

Oh come on ... golf ("Televised sky" as Jasper Carrott dubbed it) cannot be less boring that cricket. Even with the silly trousers.

Yes I understand the basic rules. I get confused with the terminology of where the fielders stand etc but I know enough to enjoy watching the game.

I grew up as the scorer for my Dad's team, so understood the rules intimately. My Dad was from Yorkshire btw. The basics are fairly straightforward, apart from some of the names which can be hilarious! The detailed rules are indeed quite complex - arcane really.

Yes. DH and both boys massively committed to cricket. Both boys have been playing since they were 4. This is the first summer in 16yrs we haven't been watching/playing/scoring/umpiring/eating/sleeping cricket from April to September. They are distraught.

Do I understand the rules? Hmm maybe some of them but there are still ones that are bizarre

How a reverse swing and a googly is bowled is not far off the rules of quantum physics, to be honest. It’s a very intricate sport, where you really need to be involved, much like watching an thought provoking film. It needs your full attention.

Yes more or less. I enjoy it and I've been to at least one historic day's cricket that I'll never forget. I see we have some of the same patronising and snide posts that we get about football, sadly.

It's a fab game and yes: I do know my LBW from my Deep Square Leg and Silly Mid On

Yes. My children both played cricket at school, so I taught myself the rules so that I could follow the game and actually get some enjoyment out of watching it to support them. I grew to love long afternoons watching them play, and doing teas with other mums.
Some schools we played against had stupendous cricket teas, especially the boarding schools.

Yes. I played in a women's team for a bit (but gave up because fielding was the only thing I wasn't rubbish at). The rules aren't difficult to understand really. Imo people who think it's really complicated have just been bamboozled by the terminology and the analysis talk, not by the actual basic rules of play.

That video is one of my favourite things, Pikachubaby!

I think the main rules are simple enough. Easier than rugby and in some ways easier than football. I still often don't understand why one football tackle is a foul and another isn't. (And nor do the players if we judge by their reaction!)

The way the final score in cricket is given takes a bit of learning.

For me cricket's a sport for radio commentary or highlights anyway. Even t20 is longer than my attention span.

I still often don't understand why one football tackle is a foul and another isn't. (And nor do the players if we judge by their reaction!)
Football players are always out to cheat any advantage they can - hence their "confusion" over any ref's decision. They are allowed to try and get the ball, physical contact (shoulder to shoulder for example) is allowed, but they can't just chop someone down with a trip and collect the ball later; they have to be making some effort to get the ball at all times.

Yes. I understand the rules of cricket. Likewise all football codes.

I don't understand why Gloucestershire County Cricket play in Bristol and not in Gloucestershire. . Bristol is a county in it's own right.
(I was born in Bristol).

@MrsMoastyToasty

I don't understand why Gloucestershire County Cricket play in Bristol and not in Gloucestershire. . Bristol is a county in it's own right. (I was born in Bristol).

Like most county clubs, Gloucestershire have been around since the 19th century, when local government boundaries were very different to what they are today. The situation is similar for Warwickshire who play in Birmingham, Lancashire who play in Manchester and Surry & Middlesex, both of whom play in central London.

Im confused why some appear to be proud of not understanding some basic rules.

Googly and silly mid off are just terms refering to a fielding position or a type of spin bowling. Nothing to do with the rules though

Yes, I spent most of my early summers at a cricket pitch, by the time I was at school I could help the ladies make an excellent cricket tea. I never really understood why my mother trailed around after my father all summer

I understood the rules learning in the same way as a bilingual child does by being there and immersed in it.

By the time I was 10 I had talked myself into the scorers box and would work behind the bar in the evening (a long while ago with much less restriction than now)

As a teen I was scorer for our local team

DS has played since he was 7, so I know the basics, though of course junior cricket is a bit different.

It’s best watched on a warm sunny day, with a few glasses of wine. Otherwise it’s a bit dull.

Test cricket is like an endurance event when nobody is really winning until about 10 minutes before the end when it gets exciting.