Information on Cricket

Cricket fans have an insatiable thirst for information about their sport. Thanks to modern media and technology, they can slake that thirst quickly, even when their team is on the other side of the world. Cable television coverage of cricket may be minimal in the United States, but online and satellite TV are available at the click of a mouse.

Online

Cricinfo.com has offered free ball-by-ball cricket coverage since 1993, with personality, charm and irreverence. Commentators take emails and text messages from "listeners" and reply during breaks in coverage. They are at every major test match, one-day international and Twenty20 international. The site offers a 3D animated version of each delivery and the commentary updates every 60 seconds. It also offers blogs from contributors, podcasts of discussions, forthcoming fixtures and photographs. There are other websites that offer live audio and streamed video for a fee.

Wisden

"Wisden Cricketer's Almanack" is published annually and covers first the English season and then the rest of the cricketing world. It was founded by English cricketer John Wisden in 1864. The almanac is considered the longest-running sports publication in the world. Modern editions run to more than 1,500 pages and appear every April to mark the start of the English domestic season. Every other cricketing country produces its own almanac, full of results and the statistics that are a vital part of the summer game.

Commentators

Radio cricket commentators are among the most learned of their kind, imparting far more than the action on the pitch. For example, the British radio commentator John Arlott (1914-1991) was also head of the poetry division of the BBC, and Sir Neville Cardus (1888-1975) was both a cricket writer and music critic. Both combined their loves of cricket and the arts while writing for "The Guardian" newspaper. Today's cricket writers and talkers are equally entertaining and informed.

Entertainment

"Outside Edge" by Richard Harris was made into a 1979 play, a 1982 film and a 1984 TV comedy series about English social cricket and lives of middle-class villagers playing it. Drama surrounds the Australian-made "Bodyline" of 1984, a seven-hour mini-series available on DVD. It covers the controversy of the England team tour to Australia in 1932-33 and the intimidating "bodyline" bowling of the English. The opening scene of 2008's Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" shows street cricket urchins defying authority for their beloved game.

History

Newspapers carried the first cricket reports, often using the "Stop Press" breaking-news part of the front page to publish the latest scores. In the 1920s, radio broadcasts, especially those to the other side of the world, used short commentaries telegraphed to the studio. There, a commentator expanded the game, delivery by delivery. With studio sound effects, he brought the game to life for his listeners, who thought he was at the game. Now radio and television give immediate coverage and the trickery of the '20s is part of the game's rich history.

References

• Cricket Matches Online
• Wisden: Cricketer's Almanack
• Autobiography: Sir Neville Cardus, 1947

Resources

• Outside Edge, Richard Harris, 1979
• Bodyline, director Denny Lawrence, 1984
• Slumdog Millionaire, director Danny Boyle, 2008