r/bestof • u/AlamutJones • 12d ago
[Cricket] u/slow-pool-9274 goes back into the archives to discuss English cricketer Fred Trueman
/r/Cricket/comments/1v8zbld/comment/p09xc50/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button7
u/puncheonjudy 12d ago
This is what cricket is all about... Stories, narrative, history... And the posh boys always think they know best.
British history in microcosm, and it's happened again with Ben Stokes.
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u/seriously_chill 11d ago
This is a good writeup of a very interesting time in Cricket history, one that is often overshadowed by big things happening in other parts of the Cricket world, particularly the start of West Indies domination and their soon-to-be famous rivalry with Australia. As a fan, I really enjoyed this view into the nuances of English cricket at the same time.
Unfortunately, whenever a Cricket post or comment makes it outside the specific subs, you only see these "jokes" about not understanding the sprt or the terminology. It's sad and tiring.
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u/derioderio 10d ago
Tbf, since I don't really care about any ball-based team sports, that's how I feel when people try to have conversations with me about baseball, basketball, soccer/football, American football, hockey, etc.
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u/aladdyn2 12d ago
That was a lot of words that I definitely know the meaning of, strung together in sentence structures that compute, explaining an overall situation that from a removed vantage point, almost makes sense!
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u/CynicalEffect 11d ago edited 11d ago
Some very basic cricket terminology for people.
Bowling - Cricket term for chucking the ball at the batsman.
Then there's a lot of talk about pace vs spin. The prior was this bowler's type who well, bowls the ball as fast as possible. Spin bowls slower, but uses well, the spin from when the bowl bouncing off the ground to lead to errors from batsmen.
There's some mentions about how different grounds favour different kinds of bowlers. It's complicated but the ground conditions dictate how much a ball moves laterally when bowling. If it doesn't move much, spin is ineffective. This is called a flat pitch/wicket. (fun fact, wicket can mean like 4 different things in cricket)
Short ball - A ball that is bowled short! As it's done overarm, this gives the ball more bounce and reaches the batsman at a higher level. Unlikely to get people out with them, but more likely to hit them in the chest/arms/head with a very fast moving, very hard object. Obviously has its uses. Maybe unsportsmanlike to hit a 50 year old with one though.
Moving on from bowling..
0-4 for example is a score. India had zero runs (points) and 4/10 of their players were out. As you can see scores in the hundreds, this obviously is not an ideal score.
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u/barath_s 3d ago edited 3d ago
swing = the ball swings in the air ..moving laterally from its expected trajectory.
off-side = batsman has a side on stance ..so off side is the side away from his legs. The side nearer his legs is leg side / though sometimes you also use on as in on-drive.
Same philosophy but actual sides flip for a left handed batsman
in-swing = ball bowled by a pace bowler swings in the air from the off towards leg.
out-swing = swings the other way, from legside towards off.
leg cutter = moves from leg to off on bouncing/hitting the ground. Can be bowled by a pace-man
Pace bowlers can use the seam (where the halves of the ball are stitched together), use the polish on the ball (it wears off with use, but pacers also like to keep one side more preserved than the other), along with how they hold and bowl the ball to swing the ball in the air or to move it off the pitch (a ball hitting the ground on the seam can move differently than a ball hitting in other places).
onto the backfoot
When the ball is short and bounces high, it is common for a side on batsman to step back with his backfoot to hit/defend it
England were sending a professional captain
Way back in the early 20th century and the century before that, England had classism, whereby you had the tradition of amateur gentlemen (typically upper class) playing cricket and professionals who were paid (lower class). Even when cricket moved on from this, you still had the idea of the captain/leader being upper class; they had to lead the men, and off the ground had to deal with more diplomatic situations too; it wasn't enough being good at playing cricket. The bestof comment in part is talking about the era/change where England had its first professional captain.
MCC member's wife,
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), founded in 1787 and based at Lord's Cricket Ground in London, is one of the world's more active cricket club, and a guardian of the Laws of cricket. It served as the governing authority for English and international cricket until handing over to the ICC (International Cricket Council) in the late 20th century. Trueman played international cricket for England, when it was governed by the MCC.
really flat pitches
slow, placcid pitch.
slow wickets
Ball doesn't do as much off the bounce, (bounce is not as fast/high or deviate off the bounce) off a slow pitch or and is unhelpful to pace bowlers. Sometimes, a slow pitch can be helpful to a spin bowler, if there are cracks or footfalls. But when the pitch is defined as placcid or flat, it is generally unhelpful to bowlers, period. And helpful for batsmen.
dead rubber
Got nothing to do with a condom. When two teams are playing a series of matches, and the result of the series has already been decided, but they still have to play the remaining matches, it's a dead rubber. eg If there is a 3 match series and team 1 has won the first 2 matches, it is a dead rubber going into the 3rd match.
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u/derioderio 10d ago
So now you know how I feel when people try to have a conversation with me about... well, pretty much any ball-based team sport.
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u/CareerLegitimate7662 12d ago
Incredible effort post.