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Cricket can be explained easily. You bowl at the batsman and he is only allowed to stop the ball from hitting the wicket (the 3 stumps behind him) by hitting the ball away with his bat. If the ball hits the stumps he is 'out', and if he hits it and a fielder catches it then he is 'out' also. If he hits it and has enough time, before the men out in the field can return the ball to either the bowler or the man behind the stumps, then he can run to the other end of the central play area, and his partner who is at the other end will run too and they change ends. That counts as 'one run', or if he has hit it a bit further and has a bit more time he may run again, change ends with his partner again, and that would be 'two runs'. The batsman can also notch up a 'run' score without actually running - if he hits it hard and it travels to the perimeter fence (the boundary) that is 'four runs'. That is assuming the ball touched the ground on its way from his bat to the boundary - like if it rolled and whizzed along the ground to the boundary. If he hits it incredibly hard, sufficient for it to fly from his bat and clear the boundary without touching the ground, then that is 'six runs' added to his score. If the bowler bowls at the batsman and the ball is prevented from hitting his wicket (the 3 stumps behind him) by anything other than his bat, then he is out. That rule is called 'leg before wicket'. This is known as 'LBW' for short. If the umpire (the referee) sees that the ball would have hit the stumps had it not hit his leg and was blocked that way, then the umpire will declare the batsman 'out'. When you see the fielding men appeal by looking at the umpire, and making a noise, they are appealing for him to declare the batsman 'out' because they feel the ball would otherwise have hit the wicket had he not blocked it with his leg. There are two batsmen on the wicket at any given time, one batting and the other at the other end of the central play area. The bowler bowls 6 balls, and this is called an 'over'. At the end of each 'over' the bowler changes ends and bowls from the other end. There are 11 men in each team and the team which is fielding and bowling have all 11 men out on the field, the team that is batting just has the 2 men out playing, and the other 9 wait in the pavillion watching the proceedings. When a batsman is 'out' (either bowled out by the bowler hitting the 3 stumps behind the batsman with the bowled ball, or by the batsman hitting it and being caught by a fielder) then the next batsman goes out to play. The batting team will have a list of the order that all 11 of their men will go and bat, so the next man will be ready in the pavillion to go out and bat when his team mate is declared 'out'. A batsman can also be 'run out'. If he hits the ball and him and his partner 'run', where they change ends and go for the 'one run' score to their tally, the two batsmen have to be at either end of the central play area by the time the fielder returns the ball to the bowler or to the man behind the batsman's stumps. If the batsmen are out of that area and are still running, then the bowler or the man behind the stumps can touch the ball against the stumps and the batsman is then 'run out' and he must return to the pavillion and the next man comes on. This may sound complicated but it isnt really. Watch a game on TV and you will pick it up.

Since it takes -in your opinion- very little effort and no skill, you'll be bowling out a full Aussie order in no time, eh? And, of course, you'd never get stumped taking deliveries from a McGrath, Akram, Warne or Muralitharan.

A famous cricket-commentator. His now-deceased co-commentator
was the immortal Brian Johnston [nicknamed 'Johnners'- yes, I
know it's a bit sad, but that's the middle-classes for you].

You could of course also just buy a good book on the subject,
instead of asking us morons to the hard work for you: -)

JR, it's actually quite dangerous. A cricket ball is made of wood and is heavy, and it is bowled at you at over 100 miles an hour. Imagine having a half-brick fired out of a cannon at your body. Could kill you.

would you tell a cricketer that to his face tho? and not a fielding one, one thats armed with a bat?

Easily, yes.

Here you go, this might help. !thumbsup!