Canton “Connect Your Summer” Lecture Series

Michael Makin -- Cricket21 July 2011

7-8.30 pmCanton Public Library

1200 South Canton Center Road

Michael Makin, M.A., D. Phil., Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan (mlmakin@umich.edu)

Information Director, Michigan Cricket Academy (http://micricketacademy.wordpress.com/)

President, Motown Cricket Club, in the Michigan Cricket Association league (www.michca.org)

Himself, in his youth, a very mediocre cricketer, but always a sports fan, and now the father of two youth cricketers (ages 15 and 12)

Today’s Lecturer

Games have been played for millennia … But until the last 200 years they were

mostly “folk games”, some of which survive to the present (horseshoes, for example)

Team sports were also played, but every village had its own rules and customs

All around the world people played games with a big ball that could be thrown or kicked, and games with a smaller ball (or similar) that could be hit with a stick

In many countries, versions of those folk team games also survive to this day – for example, Russia’s lapta, England’s rounders – but when one or more versions of those games became standardized and widely played in the same way, a modern sport was born

Where Modern Sports Come From

Gradually, in more recent centuries, out of those folk games have emerged modern, organized sports played in roughly the same way first across a whole country, then across the world

The sticks, stones, and gates supposedly used by shepherds in the English hill country …

… slowly turned into bats, balls, and wickets, with widely agreed sizes and shapes, used in games with a set of rules applied everywhere

From stick to bat…

They didn’t “invent” modern team sports They created them, mostly in modern,

industrial society, out of what already existed …

… by codifying folk sports Giving them sets of rules that everyone

played by. Enabling sophisticated development,

commercial settings, widespread competition, etc.

So out of the ancient game of Real (Royal) Tennis, which is played on indoor courts of different shapes at different locations, and out of other racquet games, comes quickly-codified Lawn Tennis at the end of the C 19th, as a pursuit for the English middle classes, soon spreading to the rest of the world

Only a few modern, professional sports are codified before industrialization…

What did the British do?

Lots of different stick and ball games played around Europe

Something like modern golf begins to emerge in Scotland in the C17th, and is codified early in the C18th, before the Industrial Revolution

So golf is very different in character from all other major, international sports (for example, it has a notionally rural, not urban setting, requiring lots of land)

Cricket has a somewhat similar early history

Golf -- codified early, not urban or industrial in style

The world’s second-most popular team sport was also codified early (C18th), which helps to explain why it so different from other team sports – its modern shape expresses its rural roots, not modern, urban character

Even its junior relative, baseball, has playing conditions that are quite different from cricket (because baseball emerges in the second half of the C19th as a codified sport).

Like other pre-industrial codifications, cricket’s codification was done largely to make gambling easier and less likely to lead to violence and/or legal suits

Like golf, modern cricket retains many signs of its pre-industrial roots: requires a large ground; top form of the game played over five days; domestic competition in its homeland (and elsewhere) not between urban, but regional teams, etc…

As with Association Football, Rugby, Golf, and Tennis, the British Empire and British trade helped spread other codified, British sports across the world

Cricket, codified early, very different from its close relatives

The creation of the codes of football … out of round and oval-ball games played

everywhere in the world (and different in every locality)

Thus Association Football (so-called because it had the first governing body, 1863, and hence the nickname soccer from “Association”), then Rugby Football, later in two codes – one amateur, one professional, all shaped by the social and economic practices of urban, industrial Britain

Australian, American codes develop later; while the Gaelic code emerged in 1887 to repel the invading English codes and protect the traditional, folk game in Ireland (here an interesting counter-example: for political reasons, native folk sports were codified, politicized as national, anti-colonialist activities, and, therefore, subsequently retained their popularity in Ireland)

The classic example of British codification

British-codified sports, led by Association Football, spread globally because:

Britain led the world in industrialization (and then exported its industrial practices and/or had them copied)

The British empire brings British culture to every corner of the world

Britain was first and foremost a trading nation (lots of contact everywhere, lots of expats)

C19th Britain promoted the idea that organized sport had a powerful moral and ideological role, an idea that found echoes world-wide.

Why Britain?

There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night Ten to make and the match to win A bumping pitch and a blinding light, An hour to play, and the last man in.

And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat.Or the selfish hope of a season's fame, But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red – Red with the wreck of a square that broke The gatling's jammed and the colonel dead, And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.

The river of death has brimmed its banks, And England's far, and Honour a name, But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks – "Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

This is the word that year by year, While in her place the school is set, Every one of her sons must hear, And none that hears it dare forget.

This they all with a joyful mind Bear through life like a torch in flame, And falling fling to the host behind – Play up! Play up! And play the game!”

Henry Newbolt, “Vitae Lampada” (1892) Classic expression of the idea that British school

sports prepare boys to be men in the Empire

…Sons of the sheltered city-unmade, unhandled, unmeet- Ye pushed them raw to the battle as ye picked them raw from the street. And what did ye look they should compass? Warcraft learned in a breath, Knowledge unto occasion at the first far view of Death?So? And ye train your horses and the dogs ye feed and prize? How are the beasts more worthy than the souls, your sacrifice? But ye said, "Their valour shall show them"; but ye said, "The end is close." And ye sent them comfits and pictures to help them harry your foes: And ye vaunted your fathomless power, and ye flaunted your iron pride, Ere ye fawned on the Younger Nations for the men who could shoot and ride! Then ye returned to your trinkets; then ye contented your souls With the flannelled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals. Given to strong delusion, wholly believing a lie, Ye saw that the land lay fenceless, and ye let the months go by Waiting some easy wonder, hoping some saving sign- Idle -openly idle-in the lee of the forespent Line. Idle -except for your boasting-and what is your boasting worth If ye grudge a year of service to the lordliest life on earth…..Do ye wait for the spattered shrapnel ere ye learn how a gun is laid? For the low, red glare to southward when the raided coast- towns burn?(Light ye shall have on that lesson, but little time to learn.) Will ye pitch some white pavilion, and lustily even the odds,With nets and hoops and mallets, with rackets and bats and rods Will the rabbit war with your foemen-the red deer horn them for hire?

Rudyard Kipling, from “Islanders” (1902) Kipling, anxious after the Boer War, anticipates that

Germany will go to war with Britain, and fears that the British care more about sports than warfare

Two famous British views of Empire and sports

In the early nineteenth century, wealthy British aristocrats would put together ad hoc teams for matches on which they wagered large sums

By the end of the century, formal league tournaments existed in England, and an English national team began playing international fixtures, first and foremost with what remains the greatest opponent for the English: Australia

Other nations in the Empire, and later the Commonwealth, followed suite

By the middle of the C20th India, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, and the West Indies (the Anglophone countries of the Caribbean) were all competing at the highest level

Later came Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh

Cricket Goes Worldwide

Until the Civil War, cricket was very popular in the USA Baseball began to take over in the second half of the C19th (a

more urban game, requiring less space and less time) But in the C20th expatriates from major cricketing countries kept

the game alive And it is now again a burgeoning sport across the USA In MichCA alone, 22 teams compete in two leagues this year,

and there is a second set of leagues in Michigan, run by another cricketing body

The USA has national teams at the U-15, U-19, and senior level, and they are becoming more competitive every year

Canton opened its first cricket ground last year. Players born in the following countries have appeared for

Motown Cricket Club in the last two years: USA, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, England, Trinidad

Cricket in the USA

CRICKET IN MICHIGAN-HISTORY“Before the Civil War, a time when baseball was little more than an unorganized children's game, cricket was the most prominent team sport in America, a testimony to England's continued influence upon American tastes and trends. Bolstered by the country's success in the annual United States vs. Canada cricket matches that began in 1853, and by the visit in 1859 of an English all-star cricket team, cricket seemed destined to become America's future national pastime”. “Most of the country's ante-bellum cricket interest centered in the Eastern cities of New York, Philadelphia and Boston, but Michigan also got caught up in cricket fever. At least half a dozen cricket clubs were active in the state during this period, including the Pioneer Cricket Club organized by Michigan students in 1861, the University's first documented foray into the world of organized athletics”. “Cricket, however, was on a path of irreversible decline that continued uninterrupted, with the exception of a few locations like Philadelphia, to World War I, by which time it was little more than a curiosity played only by immigrants from cricket-playing countries. And that has been its status ever

since”.

“EXCERPTS FROM SPRING TODAY 1999 EDITORIALIN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS CRICKET BY TOM MELVILLE”

Inauguration of the Canton Ground, June, 2010

.

How the Game is Played The aim of cricket is simple - score more runs than the opposition.

But the game is played in different formats and in some games it's possible to get a draw even if you don't score as many runs as the opposition.

The game is played on a large field, although the ball is delivered and hit on a central strip, know as the pitch or wicket.

At opposite ends of the pitch are the wickets or stumps which the batsmen have to protect

By running between those two sets of stumps, or by hitting the ball beyond the boundary ropes, the batsmen score runs

By hitting the stumps with a delivery missed by the batsman, by catching the ball on the full after it has been hit by a batsman, by throwing down the stumps before a batsman has reached the crease (cf tag or force in basball), by hitting the stumps when a batsman has left his crease to play a shot, or by hitting the batsman’s body with a delivery in line with the stumps, a batsman is dismissed (out)

Eleven men field and bowl, up to eleven men may bat, but only once in each innings

There is no foul territory – balls are live when hit around 360 degrees; you do not have to run if you hit the ball; you can run if you have not hit the ball

There are far more fielding positions than fielders – the captain must position fielders according to the state of the game

Bowlers deliver the ball to the batsman from 22 yards, after taking a run-up; usually the ball will bounce in front of the batsman; it will often move in the air and/or off the pitch; fast bowlers can bowl up to 100 miles an hour, spin bowlers bowl much slower, deceiving the batsman with the trajectory and with turn off the pitch

Professional and international matches can last for several days with each side batting twice. Most recreational games last a day or less

Confused? It's not that difficult. Check out what the BBC has to say about the game: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/rules_and_equipment/default.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/skills/default.stm

At Lord’s Cricket Ground, London, Today (21 July, 2011: England vs India)

Introduction to Cricket

EquipmentBatting, Keeping England’s Jonathan Trott batting

today at Lord’s in the first Test Match (five-day match) of a series against India, current top team in the world

Trott is trying to place the ball where there are no fielders, and then to score runs; but he is also defending his stumps – if they are hit by a delivery, he will be out.

Note his equipment, and that of the Indian Wicket Keeper and captain, M. S. Dhoni: pads, gloves, helmets and other protection (the ball is very hard; it takes courage to face fast bowling, players are often hit and sometimes injured)

Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh bowling last month in a Test Match between the West Indies and India

A spinner takes a short run-up, and uses his fingers or wrist to turn the ball in the air, whereas a fast bowler has a longer run up, and uses speed, and movement in the air and off the pitch to beat the batsman

The ball must be delivered from besides the stumps, with a straight arm

Bowling

South Africa’s Jonty Rhodes, one of the greatest close fielders of all time, takes a diving catch.

In the field, only the WK has pads and gloves; everyone else catches the ball bare-handed

Rhodes is wearing a colored uniform because he is not playing in a five-day Test Match, but in a match that lasts only one day, in which teams may bat only for a limited number of deliveries.

“Limited-overs” matches must end in a result; Test Matches and other multi-day matches can be won, lost, or drawn (no result). Draws can be dull or amazing exciting as teams battle to prevent defeat

Fielding

The Ball The inside of a cricket ball is made of cork

while the outside is made of red or white leather. The leather is then stitched together around the centre and this area being called the seam.

This seam is slightly raised and it's this area which fast bowlers use to hit the pitch when it bounces.

With a little help from the pitch, the angle of the delivery will (hopefully) change direction and cause lots of problems for the batsman.

One ball is used for many deliveries: when the ball is “new” it moves faster, and fast bowlers bowl it; as it ages and is roughened, the spinners will use it more, since it will turn more, gripping the surface as it bounces and “doing more” in the air

In different climatic conditions the ball will “behave” very differently – swinging through the air and moving off the pitch in England, keeping low on the Sub-continent, and turning more on dryer wickets.

“Law 6 of the Laws of Cricket, as the rules of the game are known, limit the size of the bat to not more than 38 in (965 mm) long and the blade may not be more than 4.25 in (108 mm) wide. Bats typically weigh from 2 lb 7 oz to 3 lb (1.1 to 1.4 kg) though there is no standard. The handle is usually covered with a rubber grip and the face of the bat may have a protective film”. 

The bat is made from willow, a springy wood. A batsman maintains his bat with linseed oil, after he has “knocked in” a new bat. A good bat may last several seasons

Different weights, shapes, and weight distribution suit different styles of play.

The bat

The Umpires Two umpires officiate the game on the field of play, but at

international level there's also a third umpire on the sidelines , using video equipment for review, and a match referee. One umpire stands behind the stumps at the bowler's end of the pitch, while the other umpire stands at square leg.

The umpire at the bowler's end makes most decisions on dismissals but the square leg umpire (level with the batsman’s legs, but usually some thirty yards into the outfield) will judge stumpings and run-outs.

Only an umpire can give a batsman out after an appeal from the fielding side. So, strictly speaking, every dismissal is made after an appeal by the fielding side – they must ask the umpire if the batsman is out – although if the dismissal is clear (bowled, clearly caught) the batsman does not usually wait for the umpire’s decision

The batsmen should be given any benefit of doubt. This means that if an umpire is unsure about a decision, then

the batsman should be given not out. The umpires change position at the end of each over (six legal

deliveries) If a batsman stands his ground and no appeal is made by the

fielding side, then he shouldn't be given out by an umpire. The umpires indicate no-balls, byes, leg-byes, wides (various

ways of scoring/conceding runs which are not scored by the batsman), boundaries and sixes to the scorers, who keep a running total of the runs scored.

The third umpire uses replays to rule on run-outs, stumpings, whether a ball has hit the ground before being caught or when it's unclear if the ball has crossed the boundary or not.

However, the third umpire can only rule if the decision is referred to them by the umpires out on the pitch.

The match referee rules on disciplinary matters. If a player shows disagrees by arguing with an umpire about a

decision then the match referee can fine the player in question. It is a strong tradition of the game that umpires must always be

respected and arguing with the umpire is a very serious infraction of the game’s written and unwritten rules.

In the picture to the left, a Test Match umpire is about to rule on an appeal for a catch.

A match begins The two captains toss a coin for the right to

choose whether to bat or bowl first. The captain who wins the toss will take a number of factors into consideration like the pitch, weather conditions and the form of his side.

Because of the importance of the pitch, which will change over the course of the match, and the weather, winning the toss can and then making the right decision (to bat or to field) can be very important.

Play changes end after each over. An over is six deliveries bowled by one bowler. In other words, the fielding team must change

bowlers every over, although bowlers may bowl a series of overs, but only alternating with another bowler, bowling from the other end; in limited-overs formats of the game, there is also a restriction on the number of overs any one bowler may deliver

When an over is completed play switches to the other end and continues like this throughout the game.

How long does a match last; who’s winning? A match will normally be played with each side

having one innings in a limited overs game or with both sides batting twice in a game played over a number of days. Test matches are played over five days, while professional domestic “first-class” matches are played over four days.

Limited over cricket involves both sides bowling the same amount of overs to score their runs from, with the winner being the team that scores the most.

In most first class competitions each side will receive up to 50 overs, but in schools cricket it is oftena lot less.

However, if, for example, a team is bowled out after 40 overs in a 50 over match, the other team still has the full 50 overs in which to beat their score.

Play in Test matches is usually split into three two hour sessions, although a minimum number of overs to be bowled in a day is also usually agreed between the sides before a series begins.

A 40-minute lunch break is taken between the first two sessions of a day's play, with 20 minutes being allowed for tea after the end of the second session.

Usually supporters speak of one or other team being “on top”, rather than winning, since only the final score indicates what has happened – during the match, a team can bat well and seem to be on top, but then lose wickets quickly and be under great pressure

The Pitch In cricketing countries the pitch is, ideally, a very

finely-cut and very well-maintained strip of grass on which batting and bowling takes place. In the USA we normally play on artificial pitches, which are easier to maintain: either Astroturf on a concrete base, or matting, laid on top of very well-rolled sand.

The size of the field on which the game is played varies from ground to ground but the pitch is always a rectangular area of 22 yards (20.12m) in length and 10ft (3.05m) in width. The popping (batting) crease is marked 1.22m in front of the stumps at either end, with the stumps set along the bowling crease.

The return creases are marked at right angles to the popping and bowling creases and are measured 1.32m either side of the middle stumps.

The bowler must deliver the ball from behind the crease, the batsman is “in” when part of his body or his bat is behind the popping crease, but he may, if he wishes, receive the ball outside of the popping crease (although that is to risk being stumped).

The two sets of wickets at opposite ends of the pitch stand 71.1cm high and three stumps measure 22.86 cm wide in total.

Made out of ash the stumps have two bails on top and the wicket is only broken if at least one bail is removed (cricket bats are always made of willow)

If the ball hits the wicket but without knocking a bail off, then the batsman is not out.

The game prides itself on the spirit in which it is played

Although rivalries are fierce and rules are often broken, handshakes and camaraderie also characterize cricket, from club level to the international game

Culture of the Game

Batsman who score 50s and 100s receive special attention

Bowlers who take five or more dismissals in an innings are also regarded as having achieved a landmark feat

Landmark Achievements

Best batsman in the world today: Sachin Tendulkar (India)

Other fine batsmen: Mahela Jawardene (Sri Lanka), Ricky Ponting (Australia), Alastair Cook (England), and many others

Great modern bowlers: Dale Steyn (South Africa), Harbhajan Singh (India), Graham Swann (England), Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan), and many others

Great all-rounders (bowl and bat): Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand)

Great wicket keepers: M. S. Dhoni (India), Kumar Sangakarra (Sri Lanka)

Some Great Modern Players

The Cricketing World The International Cricket Conference runs

cricket There are ten full member countries, 36

associate members, and 60 affiliate members

The USA is an associate member And we are part of the Central East Region,

which covers 11 states, though Illinois and Michigan are the main cricketing states

MichCA is one of two cricketing bodies running adult tournaments in Michigan

Its stated mission is to “promote the game of CRICKET in the state on Michigan through the development of infrastructure, involvement of businesses, communities, government bodies and the school districts. Develop MICHCA as one of the premier cricket bodies and position MICHCA as a key player / contributor to USACA and ICC.”

Michigan Cricket Academy is the only body in the state devoted exclusively to the development of youth cricketers. It runs coaching sessions, holds tournaments, develops players who participate in adult leagues, and sends teams to youth tournaments across the country

Committees: Constitution, Event Management, Finance, Grounds, Media, Rules/Discipline, Schedule, Stats, Umpiring, Website/Database, Youth Cricket

Michigan Cricket Association (MichCA)Established 2001

Executive Members/Committees

Now we can watch some excerpts from a famous series – England vs Australia for “The Ashes” in 2005 …

… and look at some cricket equipment

Film, Show and Tell

Q & AContacts

http://micricketacademy.wordpress.com/Michael Makin,

Information Director, Michigan Cricket Academymlmakin@umich.edu

734-646-4821

www.michca.orgShahid Ahmed

Chairman, Michigan Cricket Associationshahidahmed123@hotmail.com

248-890-2153