h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are the replays just on television, or do they also show them to the crowd at the stadiums?

In the US, there are huge televisions at most major sporting events so when a referee misses a call, 40,000 people can see it for themselves and boo him right away.

What fun!

Though not, I suspect, for the ref!

They have big screens at the major test (International) grounds, like (in England), Lords, the Oval, Old Trafford, Headingly, Trent Bridge and Egebaston (and I'm not even sure about all of these). Certainly not at mere impoverised county grounds like my beloved Canterbury.

But of course the unpires don't get booed. That wouldn't be cricket.

Ah, the classic American tradition of umpire hazing. I recall as a child wondering why the stadium organist was playing "Three Blind Mice", then I saw the three umpires walking onto the field.

A great article, I've been struggling for the last several years to understand cricket, ever since a trip to London during the World Cup, and my purchase there of the PC game "Cricket World Cup". After a many months long discussion here at H2G2, I think I finally understand the five run rule. Now I'll wrap my baseball saturated mind around the LBW rule. (No batter's box? And, no, I don't mean something used to make pancakes )

*shudders to imagine somebody "hazing" poor Dickie Bird*

The batsman does have a box. I don't know if it's the same as in baseball, but in cricket it protects the batsman's erm... sensitive area.

By the way, why isn't the Snickometer mentioned? Okay it only comes in when you want to know if chummy hit the ball or not, but it's still an important part.

Yeah, I suppose I should have mentioned the snickometer -- I suppose it's because I normally see it as a way of judging caught behinds. But yes, a word on the snickometer is well worth adding. Maybe in the next edition...

"The batsman does have a box. I don't know if it's the same as in baseball, but in cricket it protects the batsman's erm... sensitive area."

I've always heard it called a "cup" in baseball. The batter's "box" I mentioned (tongue-in-cheek, a different game from cricket) is a chalked box on the ground that the batter has to stand in. So he cannot step in front of the plate, e.g. in an attempt to get hit by a pitch and thus a free walk to first base. Some batters DO try to stand as close as possible to protect the far side of the strike zone (like the off wicket?), which can result in a hard throw close to the batter - sort of a warning shot called a "brushback". This can result in a batter losing his grip on the bat the next pitch, and ... well, you get the idea.

Baseball umpires, for all the hazing, can be pretty assertive. A friend played on a team that had a player thrown out of the game by the umpire, before the game even started.

During the recent footie (soccer for you US peeps) world cup they stopped showing replays of controversial incidents during matches as there was severe danger of causing a riot.
Football crowds are less restrained than those of cricket (or Gridiron I suispect).

BTW I have so far failed to also congratulate you on a fine article

I now definitely follow LBW properly - although I had a fair idea before I sometimes wonder if even the Umpires know it properly.

I see (I think). By the way "off wicket" isn't a term, there's the off stump (the other two being "middle" and "leg").

Off stump, right. I'm still trying to remember that "sticky wicket" refers to the pitch ... I think.

Correct. What the alternative would be I don't know - the batsman unsportingly pouring glue on the stumps to keep the bails on?

Yes, well, that's the vague image that comes to mind for some of us Americans ... of course this is a society that puts much less value on "sporting" than on "winning". I happened on my highschool basketball coach once, alone in the gym under the basket messing with some basketballs. He explained that there was a game that night, and our guys were a little taller than the other guys, so he was letting some air out of the balls so the rebounds would not bounce quite as far.

Well that sounds a bit naughty. Mind you, in cricket it's pretty much accepted that the home team's pitch is set up to suit their bowlers. Within limits, of course.