How To Watch BBC Cricket Sports

Oftentimes Americans are confused by foreign sports.  Even a sport like soccer, with all of its intricacies, nuances, and excitement, is ignored by American sport fans.  Alternate perspective is the spice of life.  Whether it's seeing life in a different way, or exposing oneself to the cultures, practices, religions, and even sports, you will ultimately be enlightened.  The BBC, a British news organization, gives just this, an alternate perspective, a different view of the world.

Cricket may seem alien to most, but once analyzed, it's quite an interesting sport.  It's not much different than American baseball, in fact it is its predecessor.  Without cricket, there would be no baseball.  The same is true for American Football. Without Rugby, an offshoot of soccer (football), there would be no American Football.  Cricket can be easily understood, if only given attention.  Now, for Europeans, Asians, Australians, etc., there is no need to try and convince them to watch cricket, or its highlights... and there is truly no better way to watch it than on BBC.

Here's how to understand the basics of Cricket: 

• There are two teams, each with eleven players, and they play on what is called a pitch, which is the center of the cricket field. 
• Each team gets three hundred balls in order to score runs, and this plays out much like baseball. 
• There is a batsmen, who essentially hits the ball pitched, or bowled, by the bowler whose objective is to get the batsmen out. 
• The fielders, ten players, assist the bowler, attempting to stop the batsmen from making runs.
• The batsmen stands in front of a wicket, which is basically a stick that stands atop three other sticks.  The bowler's goal is to knock the wicket down, thus retiring the batsmen. 
• The bowler must throw overarm, but is not allowed to bend the arm at the elbow, and the ball usually bounces one time before reaching the batsmen. 
• If the batsmen hits the ball hard enough, without it being caught in mid-air, or having the opposing fielders knock down the wickets, then they can run to exchange places with the other batsmen who is standing opposite, and then a run is scored. 
• Up to four runs can be made like this in one hit.  One batsmen can earn up to a hundred runs in one turn at bat.

Cricket is truly a unique sport, that should be given more attention.  Once understood, which honestly takes watching a complete match, it can be very exciting and will open one's mind to other sports of the world.  The best place to see this most interesting sport is on BBC, where the world comes alive.