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Cricket Paraphernalia
Cricket is played using a ball, a bat, two wickets (one for each team), and protective gear. A cricket ball is small enough to fit a hand in closed fist position, having a circumference of 8.81 to 9.00 inches (224 to 229 millimeters) and a weight ranging 5.5 to 5.7 ounces (156 to 163 grams). Hard and covered with leather, its color is either red with white stitching on its equatorial seam, the traditional color, or white with red stitching. A cricket bat is a willow wood shaped like a blade and comes with a handle, usually rubber-gripped. The blade is flat on the front for batting, humped on the back for strength. Its width reaches a maximum 4.25 inches (108 millimeters) and its length totals a maximum of 38 inches (965 millimeters). A wicket is a wooden structure consisting of three stumps hammered into the ground forming a line; their upper ends joined by two bails. The stump is a wooden post, cylindrical in shape but grooved at the top so that the ends of the bails can fit into them. The bail is a turned piece of wood with a bulging middle section called the barrel. When arranged to form a wicket, the outside edges of the stumps should not be more than 9 inches (228 millimeters), close enough to block the cricket ball from passing through them. Batsmen wear protective gear that includes batting pads, chest pad, thigh pads, batting gloves, batting helmet, and box (groin protector). Wicket keepers wear shin guards and padded gloves. Fielders, meanwhile, have no special gear except those standing close to batsmen, which normally wear helmets and shin guards. |
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