Prepared by the teacher of English Vovkotrub Larysa Valeriivna Katerinopol secondary school №2 Katerinopil district rada Cherkassy region

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the runs scored by the batting team.

A cricket match is divided into periods called innings. During an innings (innings ends with "s" in both singular and plural form), one team fields and the other bats. The two teams switch between fielding and batting after each innings. All eleven members of the fielding team take the field, but only two members of the batting team (two batsmen) are on the field at any given time.

* Cricket is played on a grassy field. The Laws of Cricket do not specify the size or shape of the field, but it is often oval. In the centre of the field is a rectangular strip, known as the pitch.

The stumps are placed in line on the bowling creases and so these creases must be 22 yards (20 m) apart. A bowling crease is 8 feet 8 inches (2.64 m) long, with the middle stump placed dead centre. The popping crease has the same length, is parallel to the bowling crease and is 4 feet (1.2 m) in front of the wicket.

The bat is made of wood (usually White Willow) and has the shape of a blade topped by a cylindrical handle. The blade must not be more than 4.25 inches (108 mm) wide and the total length of the bat not more than 38 inches (970 mm). The ball is a hard leather-seamed spheroid, with a circumference of 9 inches (230 mm).

Early cricket was at some time or another described as "a club striking a ball (like) the ancient games of club-ball, stool-ball, trap-ball, stob-ball". Cricket can definitely be traced back to Tudor times in early 16th-century England.

Cricket forms a major part of our boys' summer games programme at Alleyn's. Pupils of all ages and abilities are encouraged to join the co-curricular clubs that are run for each year group. The School fields teams at U12, U13, U14, U14, U15, senior 2nd XI and senior 1st XI level. They have a full Saturday fixture programme and in addition play many local schools in midweek friendly matches.