Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket (a set of three wooden stumps) sited at each end. One team, designated thebatting team, attempts to score as many runs as possible, whilst their opponents field. Each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a set number of overs have been completed, the innings ends and the two teams then swap roles. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, during their one or two innings.

At the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The play begins when a designated member of the fielding team, known as the bowler, delivers the ball from one end of the pitch to the other, towards a set ofwooden stumps, in front of which stands one of the batsmen, known as the striker. The striker's role is to prevent the ball from hitting the stumps by use of his bat, and simultaneously to strike it well enough to score runs. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the opposite end of the pitch near the bowler. The bowler's objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him at the crease.

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The most common forms of dismissal are bowled, when the bowler hits the stumps directly with the ball, leg before wicket, when the batsman prevents the ball from hitting the stumps with his body instead of his bat, and caught, when the batsman hits the ball into the air and it is intercepted by a fielder before touching the ground. Runs are scored by two main methods: either by hitting the ball hard enough for it to cross the boundary, or by the two batsmen swapping ends by each simultaneously running the length of the pitch in opposite directions whilst the fielders are retrieving the ball. If a fielder retrieves the ball quickly enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached the crease at that end of the pitch, that batsman is dismissed (a run-out occurs). Adjudication is performed on the field by two umpires.

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The laws of cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). There are various formats ranging from Twenty20, played over a few hours with each team having a single innings of 20 overs (i.e. 120 deliveries), to Test cricket, played over five days with unlimited overs and the teams playing two innings apiece. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the basic kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball, which is a hard, solid object made of compressedleather enclosing a cork core.

Although cricket's origins are uncertain, it is first recorded in south-east England in the 16th century. It spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the mid-19th century. ICC, the game's governing body, has over 100 members, ten of which are full members who play Test cricket. Women's cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. It is followed primarily in Australasia, Great Britain and Ireland, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa and the West Indies.

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Cricket can definitely be traced back to Tudor times in early 16th-century England though there have been a number of claims, many of them spurious and/or lacking evidence, supporting earlier dates from 1301. The earliest definite reference to cricket being played comes from evidence given at a 1598 court case which mentions that "creckett" (sic) was played on common land in Guildford around 1550. The court in Guildford heard on Monday, 17 January 1597 (Julian date, equating to the year 1598 in the Gregorian calendar) from a 59-year-old coroner, John Derrick, who gave witness that when he was a scholar at the "Free School at Guildford", fifty years earlier, "hee and diverse of his fellows did runne and play [on the common land] at creckett and other plaies.

 Balraj Singh Sidhu

It is believed that cricket was originally a children's game but references around 1610^[3] indicate that adults had started playing it and the earliest reference to inter-parish or village cricket occurs soon afterwards. In 1624, a player called Jasper Vinall died after he was struck on the head during a match between two parish teams in Sussex.^[9] During the 17th century, numerous references indicate the growth of cricket in the south-east of England. By the end of the century, it had become an organised activity being played for high stakes and it is believed that the first professionals appeared in the years following the Restoration in 1660. A newspaper report survives of "a great cricket match" with eleven players a side that was played for high stakes in Sussex in 1697, and this is the earliest known reference to a cricket match of such importance.^[10]

 Balraj Singh Sidhu

The game underwent major development in the 18th century. Betting played a key part in that development with rich patrons forming their own "select XIs". Cricket was prominent in London as early as 1707 and, in the middle years of the century, large crowds flocked to matches on theArtillery Ground in Finsbury. The single wicket form of the sport attracted huge crowds and wagers to match, its popularity peaking in the 1748 season. Bowling underwent an evolution around 1760 when bowlers began to pitch the ball instead of rolling or skimming it towards the batsman. This caused a revolution in bat design because, to deal with the bouncing ball, it was necessary to introduce the modern straight bat in place of the old "hockey stick" shape. The Hambledon Club was founded in the 1760s and, for the next twenty years until the formation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the opening of Lord's Old Ground in 1787, Hambledon was both the game's greatest club and its focal point. MCC quickly became the sport's premier club and the custodian of the Laws of cricket. New Laws introduced in the latter part of the 18th century included the three stump wicket and leg before wicket (lbw).

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The 19th century saw underarm bowling superseded by first roundarm and then overarm bowling. Both developments were controversial. Organisation of the game at county level led to the creation of the county clubs, starting with Sussex in 1839, which ultimately formed the official County Championship in 1890. Meanwhile, the British Empire had been instrumental in spreading the game overseas and by the middle of the 19th century it had become well established in India, North America, the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In 1844, the first-ever international match took place between the United States and Canada. In 1859, a team of English players went to North America on the first overseas tour.

The first Australian team to tour overseas was a team of Aboriginal stockmen who travelled to England in 1868 to play matches against county teams.^[11] In 1862, an English team made the first tour of Australia. The most famous player of the 19th century was W. G. Grace, who started his long and influential career in 1865.

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