The world of cricket is all abuzz because both the United States and Canada have won matches in the Men’s T20, something that almost no one expected to happen. the United States won super over in a match tied with Pakistan. Canada beat Ireland bye 12 runs. That was after the United States beat Canada by seven wickets, which surprised no one, except a few Canadians who thought that it was a curling match. And if you don’t know the difference between a broom and a cricket bat, which looks a bit like a canoe paddle, you just aren’t up on your sports.

It seems that there needs to be a guide to the world of cricket for those of us who don’t know anything about the game. And, since the United States is playing co-host to the ninth edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup, sharing the honors with the West Indies, I thought that a journal entry on the subject would help those of my readers who aren’t up to speed with the game.

First of all, if you don’t follow cricket, what’s with you? Didn’t you know that it is the world’s second most popular sport. Only soccer, known to most of the world as football, but definitely not American football, is more popular than cricket. Cricketing legends like Ian Botham, Jacques Tallis, Gary Sobers and Kapil Dev are household names all around the world. I’m sure you’ve heard of them. Then again, I have no idea who they are and wouldn’t recognize any of them if I met them walking down the street, which is unlikely because I live in Birch Bay, Washington where locals and tourists are known to walk down the street keeping an eye out for golf carts which drive on the streets with the regular cars, but which isn’t exactly a destination for famous people. There is a golf course in town, but we don’t have a cricket oval, which I’m sure you know is a large grass field with a strip of very short grass 22 yards long. To follow the game, you should understand that there is an outfield and and infield, not to be confused with the close infield, which surrounds the pitch. the outfield and infields are oval shaped, but the close infield is kind of like two overlapping circles or a figure eight with the rectangular pitch in the center. Now that you understand that all you to have to know is that close to the center of the field is finer, whereas farther from the center line is wider. Of course you have to understand where off-side to the right and left occur. Just think of the center of the oval as stiller and the outside as deeper with shorter being between the two. If you can picture backward and forward in relation to the pitch and longer and squarer in relationship to the outfield you can picture a game in your head.

If you want to appear knowledgable about cricket, once you’ve learned the terminology you need to have a bit of patience because games, also called matches, can last five days and still end in a draw.

Don’t worry, all you have to do is to learn a few simple rules and you’ll be able to sound like a player. Just remember:

Each team consists of 11 players, including a wicketkeeper, several specialist batsmen and bowlers and some who both bat and bowl called all-rounders. You want to be an all-rounder developing the skill to bat and bowl to a high standard. Don’t worry, the game doesn’t involve real bowling balls. The ones used in cricket are much lighter.

The laws of cricket are enforced by umpires. You can recognize the two on the field, but the one off the field makes the really tough decisions, such as whether a catch was taken correctly or if the ball has gone over the boundary. Fortunately the umpire off the field can use television replays to secure the correct judgment.

A test match is usually played over five days with two innings per side. Limited overs or one day cricket is usually 50 overs per side which I’m sure you know means 300 balls per side for one inning each. Then there is Twenty20 crickets amounting to a 20 overs which means 120 balls slog per side. Got it?

A coin toss decides which side bats first with the other side bowling to them. Batsmen play in pairs, each has his own bat, one at each end of the wicket. The bowlers are trying to dismiss the batsman by bowling an over. There are several ways a batsman can be dismissed. They can be bowled, caught, stumped, leg before wicket (low) or run out. They can also be called out for treading on their own stumps or handling the ball. Don’t worry if you can’t remember all of this, I’m pretty sure that T20 players hardly ever think about treading on their own stumps. Basically a batter doesn’t want to have the bal hit their protective leg pad when it would have hit the stumps had their leg not been in the way. It’s just like baseball: keep your eye on the ball.

The batting side tries to score as many runs as possible before they lose ten of their eleven wickets. The bowling side tires to limit the number of runs and get the other side out. Then the sides switch so the batting side is now the bowling side and vice versa. The switching of sides happens only once a day in limited overs games. However it can occur twice in international test match cricket.

Now that I’ve explained the rules, I’m sure you will have more fun watching cricket on television and following all of the games of the Mens T20. Just be sure to keep track of where the games are being played since both the West Indies and the United States are hosts to the games or matches or whatever they are called.

If you have any further questions, just ask an umpire. One of them isn’t even on the field and can be distracted because they have access to television replays if they miss the live action. Be sure to print a copy of this journal entry to serve as your guide when watching the game.