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?

cricket doesn't have rules. It has laws...

Not really, but I can score U9s if desperate.

No, but I have no interest whatsoever in sport. Also I'm Scottish and cricket feels very "alien" to me. I know that there are some clubs here but I have only known one Scottish person who had any interest in it, and that was one of my High School teachers.

I understand the basics (what constitutes a no-ball, a wicket, a bye etc), which are pretty straightforward. The limited over game confuses me though, because of the weird adjustment they do when one side loses batting time because of bad weather.

I'm old school and like the 5-day game best. It's much more tactical and strategic imo. But I'll happily sit and watch an afternoon of village green cricket if it's a nice day and there's a handy pub.

Now rugby.........tried to watch that a few times and can make nothing of it. grin

For approx half my life, I'd have said the same. Then someone told me that they're not allowed to pass the ball forwards, and it started to make a lot more sense.

The basics. DH is, I think, a wicket keeper. Or maybe he's the one behind the wicket keeper. He tells me frequently and I tune it out. I was however highly regarded in the village league because I made the best chocolate cake.

I know the difference between limited overs, test cricket and 2020. I know the difference between scoring 4&6 for example. I know the various ways of being out.

@MereDintofPandiculation, if you haven't read it, I'd recommend Mike Brearley's "Art of Captaincy". It's a bloody good read, basically a cricket book that includes a fair bit of philosophy and psychology. (Iirc, he trained as a psychotherapist when he retired from cricket).

There's a lovely bit where he writes about the importance of "reading" the pitch, so you know whether to opt to bat or bowl first if you win the toss, and how he used to go out to pitch inspection with a penknife to stick in, to see how much moisture was in the ground, like someone testing if a cake was done.

No, not really.

My husband grew up near the Oval and loves cricket, as does his dad. He has tried to explain it to me.

I once went to a 20/20 match at the Oval with both of them. The players were far away and I quickly list track of what went on. I got bored. I volunteered to get the beer. I was the beer donkey for the evening.

I think Bill Bryson once said that he also didn't understand a game which was played all day and can still be declared a draw at the end of it.

I also don't understand rugby. Football is my limit, really.

I know the various ways of being out

Bloody hell, I'm impressed. I know there are 10, and I can rarely remember more than 5 -7.

A teacher explained the rules to me once and for a brief but glorious period I had some inkling about cricket. Now I only know what is required to understand The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I know the general rules as my DSs play but not the intricacies. Not many do and they don't really stop the game just being played.

Yes I do largely. It's the greatest sport in the world. I could easily lose days in Test cricket. @AdoptedBumpkin - obvious ignorant comment.

@MrsMoastyToasty - the most boring thing to be televised? I give you F1, Golf, Snooker, Love Island, BGT, Masterchef, Bake Off...

I'm Scottish and it's not a game which is widely played up here either. DH is English and used to play at school. I don't understand it and am not really interested in learning about it.

How can a game which goes on for FIVE DAYS be entertaining?

Yes but I actively chose to learn them.

Nope no idea.

I am English and have never watched and never played it. Not from an upper class family so I don’t know anyone who has

@goyle I love the fact that cricket is a game where you can start out hoping for a draw (if not a win). Or that the outcome you want changes as every day passes (or wicket). I love that people think nothing happens in a game when actually so much often happens.

I also love the rivalry between the Aussies and England and the sledging that's goes on. Cricket is such a great game. The rules make it even more so.

I love cricket - the blokes/women in the middle are just an excuse for maths IMO and there are such endless possibilities for graphs.

I do know most of the laws, apart from the really obscure ones which even the umpires have to double check, but because I mostly listen to it on the radio I couldn’t identify the fielding positions or the different types of ball by sight.

But I could only do 7 of the ways of getting out from memory.

Also there are some really attractive players!

I didn't have a clue until I was reading Return to the Hundred Acre Wood to my son.

Never thought I would learn how to play cricket by reading an explanation from Christopher Robin.

@AgeLikeWine, I was off work with a full length plaster cast on my leg for most of that summer. I couldn't even hobble anywhere, as the cast rubbed mt heel so badly it was at risk of ulcerating.

I stayed home, watching the cricket while listening to the commentary on the radio, as they explained what was actually happening, and getting quietly drunk on the wine my dad used to bring round for me, because he felt sorry for me not being able to get to the pub.

That was probably when I first "got" cricket.

Yes I understand it and love the game. So much is going on even when nothing is happening, like setting the field etc.

Very tactical especially in tests. Really need to think about it when you're playing it.

My husband is growing to love it now he is starting to understand what's happening.

Was supposed to be going to a limited overs match this summer.

I adore cricket. Just absolutely adore it. I'm not great on the technicalities & laws of the game, but it's utterly riveting. It's one of those sports that needs to be gently introduced to you though.

The laws of cricket are actually very simple, a friend didn’t get it so we ‘played’ a game in the house and that enabled him to understand it much better.

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

True.

However, it is also a sport where it's perfectly reasonable to wander off to the bar, have a snooze or read a book/newspaper. It is a game of infinite variety, or none; of languid ennui or nailbiting excitement, a veritable conundrum of contradictions.

And that's what's great about it, really. Those times when you've written your team's chances off by tea on the second day and they appear to be just going through the motions, only for a batting collapse to give a hint of a chance of draw, that becomes a real possibility of a win because of a dogged but inelegant century by your number 7 batsman and then you're in for a nailbiting finish.

I bloody love it, and hate the fact that only the Ashes is on proper tv these days.