By Ed Piper
On a walk in Standley Park, I fell into viewing the start of my first cricket game ever.
A player asked me, "Are you a cricket fan?" I responded, "I've never seen cricket in my life. I've watched two minutes of a game on TV years ago."
A couple of players warned me, looking out for my well-being, "Go outside the boundary to watch." Well, that just isn't like me, holding a camera in my hands--I usually go right to the action, to take a close photo of the batter or bowler.
But I was respectful, and I backed up. The guys way out in right-centerfield (from a baseball perspective) didn't look like they were involved at all, one swinging a bat, others chatting, hanging out.
But as I continued on my walk and came right up to these beyond-outfielders, I saw they were totally involved. Two were keeping up the mini-scoreboard that had runs and wickets listed. At this point, I can't explain how the 19 runs scored during my short time there in the morning were achieved.
But the batter is called the batter, the pitcher is called the bowler, and the catcher is called the wicket keeper. An outfielder, who made two nice barehanded grabs, told me he was called an outfielder.
I learned the batter can make contact with the pitch (or bowl?) and not run. He can choose when he wants to run between the two wickets, about 60 feet apart. One player told me you can wait as long as you want before choosing to run after contact with a pitch--you as the batter choose which hit to run on.
A game can last about three hours. This game started at 8:45 a.m. (June 18, Father's Day).
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