History UsefulNotes / Cricket

* Advertising/CmonAussieCmon

* Literature/PhryneFisher, a fan rather than a player (AUS)

* [[Series/DowntonAbbey Robert Crawley, 7th Earl of Grantham]], and his family, servants, and tenants (ENG). The village of Downton runs an annual cricket match, contested between teams put forward by the "house" (i.e. the Earl, his family, and the younger male servants) and the "village" (largely tenants, craftsmen, and shopkeepers of Downton). The village usually wins. The 7th Earl takes the match especially seriously, allowing his temporary valet Barrow to be promoted to underbutler rather than be sacked after his permanent valet Bates returns because Barrow is an ''excellent'' batsman. (And, we should mention, overlooking some fairly scandalous behaviour on Barrow's part.) He also all but bullies his son-in-law (and agent of the estate) Tom Branson (IRE) to join the house team (to his relief, Tom--an Irishman who'd never played cricket in his life--is actually pretty good).

* [[Series/WorldT20 ICC World T20]]

Cricket is therefore used in the background or as a personal trait to convey atmosphere and character rather than being the focus. In the UK, it used to be that the best way to watch the cricket is to mute the TV and turn on the radio. This is because of ''Test Match Special'', which is essentially regular sports commentary crossed with ''Series/LastOfTheSummerWine''. Given the nature of the sport, you'll likely hear the commentators passing the time with such subjects as various flavours of scones, matches from decades ago, and the species of the bird that's walking across the field. It's an experience like no other. Another reason is because of breaks in commentary for the transmission of ''The Shipping Forecast'' for Britain's coastal waters, itself an English institution.

* Sir Donald Bradman, aka The Don. A legendary [[strike:batter]] batsman, the cricketing equivalent of Creator/BabeRuth or Pelé. His career Test batting average, 99.94--meaning that on average, he scored just shy of 100 runs each time he went to bat,[[note]]had he scored only ''four'' in his last innings, it would have been a 100 average. Allegedly, spin bowler Bill O'Reilly, whose personality really clashed badly with the Don's, almost pissed himself laughing when Bradman was out second ball for nought.[[/note]] is one of the most famous sporting statistics. For perspective, the player who's second on the all-time list (fellow Aussie Adam Voges) is just shy of 62, and most full-time batsman are well content with a career average of 45. A study done on sports statistics showed that this average is so far off the mean that a baseball batter would have to have a career batting average of .392 (significantly higher than the actual MLB career batting average record, Ty Cobb's .366) and a basketball player would have to score 43.0 points per game throughout their career. Allegedly, this is the reason Creator/TheABC's postal address is PO box 9994.

* MCG, or the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia. The equivalent to Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium in the Americas, having been on the same site since 1854, in all but the official sense the national stadium in Australia, as that country's most high profile cricket and UsefulNotes/AustralianRulesFootball matches often take place there, along with high-profile concerts and its use as the main venue for the 1956 Olympic Games and 2006 Commonwealth Games, and almost anything where a ball and grass is needed. Owned by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC - both the acronym and the stereotypes are the same as the other MCC).

** In the possessive category of sporting rivalry between batsmen/bowler. It refers to a batsman who consistently gets out to a certain bowler, which commentators, wags, and others japing about the batsman having fear of the bowler, (e.g. "Darryl Cullinan is Shane Warne's bunny"). The all-time record is Glenn [=McGrath=] and Michael Atherton. The former got the latter out 19 times but some qualify this by noting the placement[[note]]Atherton is an opening test batsman and [=McGrath=] is an opening bowler, i.e. these are the players who are there from the very start of the match for their respective batting and fielding teams, so they would obviously have more encounters with each other than others. It's generally a lot harder and rarer for a bowler who comes after the opening pair (usually fast bowlers because they use the ball when it is newest and most bouncy, with spinners and medium pacers and others dealing with a slower-paced ball)[[/note]].

Despite a rich history and widespread popularity, cricket rarely plays a significant part in books and almost never in film or TV. It's also because it's a fairly complex game with multiple genres if you will, each of which is different because of the rules in place, which makes each one unique. This is because it takes so damn long for anything to happen. A first class cricket match, equivalent to a US NFL or MLB game, or a European soccer league match, is played over four days of six to ten hours each, although 3-Day games also exist. International (Test) matches are five days, and is generally considered among cricket buffs and by sportsmen to be NintendoHard and the true form of the sport (and hence the name "test matches"). This is because of the physical strain of having to play nine hours of a single day for the fielding team, and an equally long time for the batsmen, from morning to late-evening. Or whenever the umpire decides the light is too dark for the batsmen to see the ball. What's worse, and more frustrating is that in the long-form version of cricket, you can spend all that time and not even get a result either because of a draw [[AllForNothing where no result was achieved]], or because it started to rain and the entire match got cancelled (which happens a lot whenever test matches take place in England and the West Indies especially, less so in countries where the rain is more fixed to certain clear seasons).

The one-day form (guess why it's called that) is not taken as seriously by older players and critics, and the newer and more accelerated [=Twenty20=] cricket in which a match "only" takes three hours is considered by both FC, Test, and one-day fans, as proof of civilisation descending into barbarism. In general, the shorter versions of the game are more result-friendly, i.e. no chance of a draw (the nearest thing is the rare tie). There are also rules in place in the shorter-form that make it more batsmen-centric and less bowler-friendly, more or less {{nerf}}ing the latter for the benefit of the former. In recent times, a number of critics have expressed worries that the shorter version of the game is more or less leading to a decline in quality bowling, and especially fast bowling. Fast bowling is the most physically strenuous form of bowling, and has historically been the form of bowling that is the most stylish and entertaining to see (since even when the bowler doesn't get the batsman out, the possibility that he could reach very high speeds provides additional suspense and thrill) and certainly the form that has produced some of the best cricketers in history. In Test cricket, victory depends on bowlers since the only way to get a result is if one side succeeds and/or fails in bowling out the other side's team in two separate innings before they reach a target to win/draw. In the shorter-form victory depends on one side's batsmen outscoring and outhitting the other side, which has led many, including old-time nostalgics, and more recent cricket fans (i.e. the ones who like ODI as well) as feeling that this is the real decline of cricket.

* Imran Khan (PAK), who became Pakistan's Prime Minister in 2018

---> You know I think I'm wasted as a Time Lord; with a talent like mine I would have made a ''great'' slow blower (complete with arm action).

** Exceptionally poor batsmen, even for bowlers, ones who look as though they barely know how to hold a bat, are called weasels, as they "go in after the rabbits".

* Sir Donald Bradman, aka The Don. A legendary [[strike:batter]] batsman, the cricketing equivalent of Creator/BabeRuth or Pelé. His career Test batting average, 99.94--meaning that on average, he scored just shy of 100 runs each time he went to bat,[[note]]had he scored only ''four'' in his last innings, it would have been a 100 average. Allegedly, spin bowler Bill O'Reilly, whose personality Jo clashed badly with the Don's, almost pissed himself laughing when Bradman was out second ball for nought.[[/note]] is one of the most famous sporting statistics. For perspective, the player who's second on the all-time list (fellow Aussie Adam Voges) is just shy of 62, and most full-time batsman are well content with a career average of 45. A study done on sports statistics showed that this average is so far off the mean that a baseball batter would have to have a career batting average of .392 (significantly higher than the actual MLB career batting average record, Ty Cobb's .366) and a basketball player would have to score 43.0 points per game throughout their career. Allegedly, this is the reason Creator/TheABC's postal address is PO box 9994.