Dicen que los ingleses son inventores de un gran número de deportes, entre ellos dos que se han dado en llamar deportes de masas, como el fútbol o el rugby.
Sin embargo, hay un deporte eminentemente británico que no ha conseguido la misma popularidad en el resto del mundo, salvo en los países de la Mancomunidad Británica de Naciones (Commonwealt), que como en el caso de los países del Subcontinente Indio, es el deporte con más seguidores.
Estamos hablando del cricket, un deporte de bate y pelota en el que se enfrentan dos equipos de once jugadores cada uno y se juega en un campo de hierba, de forma elíptica y con una extensión similar a la de uno de fútbol. En el centro hay una franja rectangular, donde se efectúa el lanzamiento y bateo, que se denomina pitch. El desarrollo del juego tiene cierta similitud con el del béisbol americano, con la salvedad de que el jugador que lanza la pelota intenta derribar tres palos verticales (wicket) y el que batea ha de evitarlo golpeando la pelota con el bate. Cada cuatro años, y desde 1975, se disputa la Copa Mundial de Cricket, siendo la selección de Australia la que se ha llevado la victoria en más ocasiones: 1987, 1999, 2003 y 2007.
CRICKET
It is known that the British have invented a large number of sports. Two of them –football and rugby- are supposed to be the most well-known.
However, there is one, maybe less popular but not less important as it attracts masses of supporters. That´s CRICKET, originally a children´s game.
It was spread overseas and well established in India, North America, the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia an New Zealand in the 19th century, before the second world was and in the port was period (Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh).
It is a bat and ballgame played between two teams of eleven players on a grassy field in the centre of which it is a rectangular strip, known as the pitch. One team bats while the other bowls and fields the ball. At each end of the pitch there is a wooden target called a wicket. Each wicket consists of there wooden stamps placed vertically in line with one another. One member of the fielding team, called the bowler, is given the ball and bowls it from one end of the pitch to the wicket. The batsman tries to prevent the ball from hitting the wicket by striking it with a bat.
Every four years and since 1975 the Cricket World Cup has been played and the Australian teams were the champions in 1987, 1999, 2003 and 2007.