Cricket Rules-This is a nice short video explaining some of the basic rules and objectives of the game of cricket.

Welcome to the greatest game of all - Cricket. This site will help explain to an absolute beginner some of the basic rules of cricket. Although there are many more rules in cricket than in many other sports, it is well worth your time learning them as it is a most rewarding sport. Whether you are looking to play in the backyard with a mate or join a club Cricket-Rules will help you learn the basics and begin to enjoy one of the most popular sports in the world.

The cricket rules displayed on the home page here are for the traditional form of cricket which is called "Test Cricket". However there are other formats of the game eg. 50 over matches, Twenty20 Cricket etc where the rules differ slightly.

Player/Official Cricket Rules-Cricket is a game played between two teams made up of eleven players each. There is also a reserve player called a "twelfth man" who is used should a player be injured during play. The twelfth man is not allowed to bowl, bat, wicket keep or captain the team. His sole duty is to act as a substiture fielder. The original player is free to return to the game as soon as they have recovered from their injury.

To apply the law and make sure the cricket rules are upheld throughout the game there are two umpires in place during games. Umpires are responsible for making decisions and notifying the scorers of these decisions. Two umpires are in place on the playing field while there is also a third umpire off the field who is in charge of video decisions. This is where the call is too close for the on field umpires and they refer it to the third umpire who reviews slow motion video replays to make a decision.

Game Structure-Test cricket is a game that spans over two innings. This means that one team needs to bowl the other team out twice and score more runs then them to win the match. Another key difference between test cricket and other forms of cricket is the length of the innings. In test cricket there is no limit to the innings length. Whereas in one day cricket & Twenty20 cricket there are a certain amount of overs per innings. The only limits in test cricket is a 5 day length.

Before the game begins an official will toss a coin. The captain who guesses the correct side of the coin will then choose if they want to bat or field first. One team will then bat while the other will bowl & field. The aim of the batting team is to score runs while the aim of the fielding team is to bowl ten people out and close the batting teams' innings. Although there are eleven people in each team only ten people need to be bowled out as you cannot have one person batting alone. Batting is done in pairs.