2. INFORMATION ON CRICKET
Cricket is a sport which is played between two teams of eleven
players each who score runs (points). This is done by hitting the
ball across the boundary, or by running between two sets of three
small, wooden posts called wickets. The wickets are at each end
of a rectangle of short grass called 'the pitch'. The pitch is inside a
much larger oval of grass called the 'area of play'. The area of
play is a 30 yard circle inside the cricket ground or stadium.
The game started in England in the 16th century. The earliest
definite reference to the sport is in a court case of 1598. The
court in Guildford heard a coroner, John Derrick, that when he
was a scholar at the "Free School at Guildford", fifty years earlier,
"he and diverse of his fellows did run and play [on the common
land] at cricket and other players". Later, the game spread to
countries of the British Empire in the 19th and 20th centuries.
3. RULES OF CRICKET
Cricket is played between two teams each made up of eleven players.
(Sometime in junior competitions you will find 8 player teams).
Games comprise of at least one innings where each team will take turns in
batting and fielding/bowling.
The fielding team will have a bowler bowl the ball to the batsman who tries to hit
the ball with their bat.
The fielding team tries to get the batsmen out by…
Hitting the wickets with the ball when bowling
Catching a batsman’s shot on the full
Hitting the batsman’s leg in front of the wicket (LBW)
Or hitting the wickets before the batsmen can run to the other end of the pitch
The batmen try to score as many runs as possible before getting out by…
Hitting the ball and running between the wickets and making it to the other end before the
fielders can hit the wickets with the ball. Each time you run one full length of the pitch it
equals 1 run.
Hitting the ball to the boundary along the ground is 4 runs.
Hitting the ball over the boundary on the full equals 6 runs.
The fielding team must get 10 batsmen out before they can change over and
start batting.
The aim of the game is to score as many runs as possible before the fielding
team takes 10 wickets. The team with the most runs wins.
4. 1 . SACHIN TENDULKAR
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former
international cricketer and a former captain of the Indian national team. He is
widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is
the highest run scorer of all time in International cricket. Tendulkar took up
cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut on 15 November 1989
against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to
represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four
years. He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries,
the first batsman to score a double century in an ODI, the holder of the record
for the most runs in both Test and ODI, and the only player to complete more
than 30,000 runs in international cricket. He is colloquially known as Little Master
or Master Blaster, In 2001, Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to
complete 10,000 ODI runs in his 259 innings. In 2002, halfway through his
career, Widen Cricketers' Almanac ranked him the second greatest Test
batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second greatest ODI
batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. Later in his career, Tendulkar was a
part of the Indian team that won the 2011 World Cup, his first win in six World
Cup appearances for India. He had previously been named "Player of the
Tournament" at the 2003 edition of the tournament, held in South Africa. In 2013,
he was the only Indian cricketer included in an all-time Test World XI named to
mark the 150th anniversary of Widen Cricketers' Almanac.
5. 2 . MS DHONI
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (born 7 July 1981), commonly known
as M. S. Dhoni and *Mahi*, is a cricket player and was
the former captain of the Indian cricket team. Dhoni is a right-
handed batsman. He is known as the greatest captain of all time,
having achieved more success than any other captain in the
history of cricket.
The Indian cricket team won the 2011 Cricket World Cup under
his captainship. His Test cricket and One Day
International records are the best among all Indian captains to
date. He took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid in 2007
and led the team to its first ever inter-country ODI series wins in
Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Dhoni also holds the post of Vice-
President of India Cements Ltd. after resigning from Air India.
India Cements is the owner of the Indian Premier League team
Chennai Super Kings, and Dhoni has been its captain since the
first edition of IPL.
6. 3 . VIRAT KOHLI
Virat Kohli (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian cricketer who
currently captains the India national team. A right-handed top-
order batsman, Kohli is regarded as one of the best batsmen in the
world. He plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier
League (IPL), and has been the team's captain since 2013. Since
October 2017, he has been the top-ranked ODI batsman in the world
and is currently 1st in Test rankings with 928 points. Among Indian
batsmen, Kohli has the best ever Test rating (937 points), ODI
rating (911 points) and T20I rating (897 points).
Kohli captained India Under-19s to victory at the 2008 Under-19 World
Cup in Malaysia. After a few months later, he made his ODI debut for
India against Sri Lanka at the age of 19. Initially having played as a
reserve batsman in the Indian team, he soon established himself as a
regular in the ODI middle-order and was part of the squad that won
the 2011 World Cup. He made his Test debut in 2011 and shrugged off
the tag of "ODI specialist" by 2013 with Test hundreds in Australia and
South Africa.
7. 4 . ROHIT SHARMA
Rohit Gurunath Sharma (born 30 April 1987) is an Indian
international cricketer who plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket
and captains Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League as a
right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm off
break bowler. He is the vice-captain of the Indian national
team in limited-overs formats. He is the only cricketer in the
history of cricket to score more than one ODI double-hundred and
is also the only batsman to date to score three ODI double-
hundreds. In January 2020, Sharma was named as the ODI
Cricketer of the Year by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Outside cricket, Sharma is an active supporter of animal welfare
campaigns. He is the official Rhino Ambassador for WWF-
India and is a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA). He has worked with PETA in its campaign to
raise awareness of the plight of homeless cats and dogs in India.
8. 5 . JASPRIT BUMRAH
Jasprit Jasbirsingh Bumrah (born 6 December 1993) is
an Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian national
cricket team in all formats of the game. After a couple of
moderately successful seasons with the Mumbai
Indians at the Indian Premier League, and with his
domestic team Gujarat, he was named in India's squad
for its 2015–16 series against Australia, as a replacement
to an injured Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He consequently
made his debut in One Day Internationals & Twenty20
Internationals in 2015–16 series against Australia. He is
the first Asian bowler to take 5 wickets in a test innings
in South Africa, England and Australia during the same
calendar year. He is also the third highest wicket taker in
test matches in a debut year with 48 wickets in 8
matches.
9. 6 . YUVRAJ SINGH
Yuvraj Singh (born 12 December 1981) is a former Indian cricketer who
played in all forms of the game. An all-rounder who bats left-handed in
the middle order and bowls slow left-arm orthodox, Yuvraj is the son of
former Indian fast bowler and Punjabi actor Yuvraj Singh. One of the
greatest limited over players to play for India, Yuvraj was particularly
noted for his stroke play of the ball and his fielding.
Yuvraj was a member of the Indian cricket team in One Day
Internationals (ODIs) between 2000 and 2017 and played his first Test
match in October 2003. He was the vice-captain of the Indian ODI team
between 2007 and 2008. He was the Man of the Tournament in the 2011
ICC Cricket World Cup, and one of the top performers at the 2007 ICC
World Twenty20, both of which India won. In a match against England at
the 2007 World Twenty20, he famously hit six sixes in one over bowled
by Stuart Broad — a feat performed only three times previously in any
form of senior cricket, and never in an international match between two
Test cricket teams. In the same match, he set the record for the fastest
fifty in Twenty20 Internationals and in all Twenty20 cricket, reaching 50
runs in 12 balls. During the 2011 World Cup, he became the first player
to take a 5-wicket haul and score a 50 in the same World Cup match.
10. 7 . SHIKHAR DHAWAN
Shikhar Dhawan (born 5 December 1985) is an Indian
international cricketer. A left-handed opening batsman and an occasional
right-arm off break bowler, he plays for Delhi in domestic
cricket and Delhi Capitals in the IPL. He played for the Indian Under-17
and Under-19 teams before making his first-class debut for Delhi in
November 2004. At the 2015 World Cup, he was the leading run-scorer
for India and in the following year, became the fastest Indian to reach
3,000 ODI runs. In December 2017, he became the 2nd fastest Indian to
reach 4000 ODI runs. Dhawan also holds the record for most runs in a
calendar year in Twenty20 International cricket (689). He is known for
his successful knocks in ICC Tournaments.
Dhawan made his One Day International (ODI) debut
against Australia in October 2010 at Visakhapatnam. His Test debut
came against the same opposition in March 2013 at Mohali where he
scored the fastest century by any batsman on Test debut and ended his
innings with 187 runs from 174 balls. A prolific run-scorer in ICC
tournaments, Dhawan top-scored in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup, and
the 2013 and 2017 Champions Trophy tournaments, and holds the
record for the fastest to reach 1000 runs in ICC ODI tournaments.
11. 8 . K.L. RAHUL
Kannur Lokesh Rahul (born 18 April 1992),
commonly known as KL Rahul, is an Indian cricketer.
A top-order batsman and occasional wicket-keeper,
he plays for India internationally, Karnataka in
domestic circuit and is captain of Kings XI Punjab in
the Indian Premier League.
Rahul made his international debut in 2014 and
scored his maiden Test century in his second Test
match. He became the first Indian to score a century
on One Day International debut, and became the
third Indian to score a century in all three formats of
international cricket.
12. 9 . BHUVNESHWAR KUMAR
Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh (born 5 February 1990) is
an Indian international cricketer who plays all formats of
the game. He plays for Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket
and for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier
League. Kumar is a right-arm fast medium bowler who
swings the ball both ways efficiently, with his in swingers
more effective than out swing, especially adept at creating
late swing, and a useful lower order right-handed
batsman.
On his international debut, a T20I match against Pakistan
in December 2012, he took a three-wicket haul, and in the
ODI series that followed, he made his One Day
International debut. After his five-wicket haul against
South Africa in the first T20I in February 2018, Kumar
became the first Indian bowler to take a five-wicket haul in
all formats of the game.
13. 10 . HARDIK PANDYA
Hardik Himanshu Pandya (born 11 October 1993) is an Indian
international cricketer who plays for Baroda in domestic cricket
and Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He is
an all-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm fast-
medium. He is the younger brother of Krunal Pandya.
Hardik Pandya was born on 11 October 1993 in Surat, Gujarat.
His father, Himanshu Pandya, ran a small car finance business in
Surat which he shut down and shifted to Vadodara when Hardik
was five; he did so in order to facilitate his sons with better cricket
training facilities. He enrolled his two sons (Hardik and Krunal)
into Kiran More's cricket academy in Vadodara. Financially weak,
the Pandya family lived in a rented apartment in Gorwa, with the
brothers using a second-hand car to travel to the cricket
ground. Hardik studied at the MK High School until ninth grade
before dropping out to focus on cricket.