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

"(Sree) Santh ... ran through the crease by at least two feet when he bowled a bouncer at Collingwood"

My wife and friends are still learning about cricket here in the US, and getting some exposure watching the local "Indian Student Association" tournament at a nearby college. The above is a quote regarding the current India-England match. I think a "bouncer" is intended to intimidate a batsman, and is apparetnly limited by the Laws to a small number? But the part about "through the crease", does that mean the bolwer was past the line where he should deliver? So the umpire missed the call?

QUOTE

“I hope to God that it was not meant to be,” Vaughan said. Dravid added: “Sreesanth says it was a mistake. We will deal with any issue like that internally.”

END QUOTE

But I don't see any reference to the umpire ...

I'm not sure there is a baseball equivalent, since the pitcher (bowler) delivers from a standing position. Pitchers do, of course, throw "inside" sometimes, or WAY inside, or BEHIND ... brawls ensue ...

Yes, bouncers are used to intimdate batsmen, particularly the lower order batsmen. They are restricted to one per over.

The bowler overstepped the crease and it was therefore called a no-ball in line with the laws of cricket, and was called as such by the umpire. What is contentious is whether the bowler overstepped *deliberately* in order to be able to deliver the bouncer from closer to the bowler. 2 feet is a very big no-ball (it's usually a matter of inches).

If the bowler did this deliberately, he has committed the far worse infraction of "unfair play".

RF

Can I say how heartwarming it is to see people _trying_ to understand cricket. Well done.

B

I never understood it and I was on the school cricket team.

RF - OK, thanks, I see its more a suspicion of a "flagrant foul" (basketball terminology for blatant roughness, e.g. tackling, in that "no-contact" sport).

Mu Beta - Actually, it has more to do with boredom watching the traditional US sports. Every American male child is given a quota of 1 million baseball games to watch, and I've finished mine.

A followup - is a bouncer (one per over) obvious to all? It would seem there are some fuzzy areas. E.g. in baseball, a "curve" is a relatively slow pitch that "breaks", while a slider is a fast curve that breaks less. I assume the umpire has to rule if its a bouncer per the Laws, but do these rulings get challenged by the bowling team? "A BOUNCER?!? No way! I'll show you a BOUNCER ...", etc.

It's umpire's discretion. The delivery-end umpire will assess what consists of dangerous bowling (taking into account the state of the pitch, because many head-height deliveries are not intentional), and warn the bowler before the next delivery.

B

I love hearing Geoffrey Boycott talk about bowling bouncers. It was something along the lines of: 'You've got to rough them up a bit. There's no use sending the ball flying over them. You've got to hit them, to hurt them!' .

Along with the height of the ball, a good indication of a bouncer being intended is where the ball bounces.

"You've got to hit them, to hurt them!"

Reminds me of baseball great Bob Gibson, a pitcher for St. Louis who had a lifetime ERA of 2.91 over 17 seasons (that's exceptional for you foreigners ). Plus 102 "Hit Batsmen".

"I used about nine pitches -- two different fastballs, two sliders, a curve, a change-up, knockdown, brushback, and hit batsman."



Actually, Gibson's down the "Hit Batsmen" list a ways - active players include Randy Johnson with 182, and ex-Astro (my hometown Houston team) Roger Clemens with 154. But I think Clemens is one of the few pitchers to have thrown a part of a broken bat back at a batter. I guess he missed him with the ball.

>>I assume the umpire has to rule if its a bouncer per the Laws, but do these rulings get challenged by the bowling team?<<

Heaven no! That definitely would *not* be Cricket.

Pakistan recenly walked off a test match in protest at an umpires decision and it was almost a matter for the UN. Certainly it got nearly as many news headlines here in the UK as the execution of Saddam Hussein did.

Incredibly, it actually ended up with the downfall of the umpire in question but I think the team captain suffered severe sanctions too.

Although that was a little more than deciding whether the ball was a bouncer or not. That was an accusation of ball-tampering, wasn't it?

Well yes, but I picked an extreme example.

It's not considered accetable to query an umpires decision generally is it.

'Showing dissent' when given out is a good example, I think. You are allowed to look annoyed with yourself, but if you question the umpire it's not good at all.

Ah, I forgot the gentlemanly nature of cricket. We have a somewhat different attitude in baseball ...

"The manager dived into second, pulled up the bag before throwing it into right field. By the time he got ejected, Mikulik was just warming up. He covered home plate with dirt and cleaned it with a water bottle, which he spiked on the plate. From the dugout, he threw bats onto the field."

Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3joxFgqQhtY

Still working on the cricket "language" - from today's (London) Times Online:

"He was off the mark pushing Sandri past cover off the backfoot with superb timing, but fenced at Luke Wright's fourth ball ..."

Myabe there's a website that translates cricket into English?

Off the mark - scoring his first run...no-one wants to be out for a duck.

cover - closish in fielders saving a single

backfoot - well you score either off the backfoot or the front depending whether you come forward to the ball or move back.

fenced - probably the batsman was dangling his bat in the corridor of uncertainty outside his offstump

Great sentence.

To reach the corridor of uncertainty, start from the corridors of power, go down the back stairs, across the landing, through the second door, then turn left...or is it right?

RF

I mean, in baseball, its all clear:

"Any jelly bean with a pole can cork a meatball out of hard cheese."

... mmm, OK, maybe not:

http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/baseballjargon.htm