Like baseball: but different

Press, 20 March 1982, Page 64

Like baseball: but different

NZPA Washington Some 100 cricket clubs have sprouted in the United States of late and an American cricket board of control has been formed,to regulate the game. The chairman, Bert Smith, says he “hopes” it will become America’s next great spectator sport. Here’s how the “Christian Science Monitor” explains the game for its readers: “Cricket is played on an area slightly larger than a baseball field. “As in baseball, each player has a turn at bat, but the bat is a flattened version of a baseball bat and the ball is smaller and about an ounce heavier. “The cricket pitcher sort of bowls the ball to the

batter, but with an overhand motion. “The ‘wickets' stand in the centre of the field some 22 yards apart. In each wicket are three upright sticks 28 inches high — and two smaller stickers (sic) called ‘bails’ rest on the larger ones. "If a ball hits one of the larger sticks and the bail falls to the ground the batter facing the pitcher, known as the bowler, is out.” The story also explains runs. A cartoon with the story gets it almost right: it depicts a character with a stars-and-stripes top hat and what looks like a rugby jersey with his legs spread wide apart, holding the bat between them in a twohanded cow-milking grip.