King vs. Cricket

Being too bloody cold and rainy outside this morning your King had the opportunity to watch his very first Cricket match from India compliments of DirecTV(unpaid plug). That was because golf for me was out of the question as I am allergic to cold and rainy weather. The match featured Decca vs. Dehli and was part of some kind of tournament. I sat on the couch wondering what the hell was going on as you had some guy running up and heaving the ball into the ground and a batter trying to whack it somewhere. I spent most of the time trying to figure out the scoring but I am sure of one thing and that is if you hit a homer you get credited for an automatic six runs. In our game of baseball if you hit a homer you can score up to four runs. I guess in India the exchange rate credits you with two extra runs.
As I sat there in stark amazement at the goings on I saw one of the batters hit a grounder and then two guys, the batter and someone opposite from him, start running at each other like madmen carrying their bats with them. I was sort of hoping they would using the bats on each other but I guess they were on the same team. I did not see any bases so that left me wondering what they were running for...I figured being in India they were running for their lives but that was not the case here. Behind the batter there were three wooden posts sticking out of the ground. Methinks the thrower is trying to hit the sticks and the batter is trying not to let him. Sounds logical.
One thing that I did figure out is that if the batter hit the ball and it was caught by one of the fielders he was out and someone else took his place and started swinging but the funny thing is that if he hit a homer he still got to keep swinging. There wasn't any slow trot around the bases like we have here as the umpire just put up both arms looking like he was signaling a touchdown. As the thing was worth six points I guess that it is a touchdown.
The game has divisions called overs and for the life of me I could not figure out what constituted an over. Here an inning is three outs for each team but an over?? Each team got 20 overs and got them consecutively. No on and off the field after three outs or whatever an over constitutes. I have a hunch that it is a certain number of balls thrown at the batter(literally AT the batter), but that is only a hunch. Speaking of 'at the batter' the batter has to wear pads, a helmet and big mombo gloves on his hands. The guy is better protected than a hockey goalie and for good reason as he, sometimes, has to swing the bat in self defense.
A funny thing about all of the fielders is that none of them wear mitts. They field everything bare handed and that does impress your King. I have never held a cricket ball so I do not know how hard or soft the thing is but I guess it still has to hurt if you field a hot liner back at your face. One of the keys to this game, and I still do not know why, is that if a hit ball rolls past the ring boundary you get, I believe, four runs added to your total. Four runs for a hot grounder that eludes the fielders??? That seems a bit much to me.
After the game was over I sat that wondering what the heck I just saw. I could google cricket to find out the rules of the game but what fun would that be? My imagination of what the rules could possibly be is a lot more fun than learning what the real rules are. Besides, that may be the only game I may ever see, though DirecTV (another unpaid plug) is showing the end of the tourney next weekend, if I am lucky enough to forget that it is on, and again only if I am lucky enough to get rained out of golf again but that wouldn't be cricket. Knowing the weather patterns that we have in this area during the spring and summer months on Sundays I am sure there will be a good chance I may be able to see the silly game again. Glancing at the clock I now see that it is tea time and I must end this written mess. This is your King hoping that the rest of your day does not find you getting into a sticky wicket.