Cricket: Baseball on the other Side of the Pond

Chick lit and women’s fiction are very popular in the U.K., but baseball – around which my novel “Keeping Score” revolves – is not. In fact, the sport isn’t played at all there – they play something named for the insect that tried to keep Pinocchio from doing the wrong thing. Luckily, my UK friend and fellow writer Sheryl Browne generously agreed to try to explain the similarities and differences of the two sports. She even did a table! Thanks so much, Sheryl!

Hi everyone! Jami and I decided to do a little blog swap, an across the pond comparison of things UK and USA. I thought I’d kick off with a comparison between baseball and cricket. What could be more British than cricket, after all? Picture the scene, blue skies, ice cream clouds drifting by; perfect Sunday afternoon silence, punctuated only by the soft thwack of wood against leather and the rustle of crisp packets. This is the rustic ritual of cricket: locals coming together, whatever their status, to compete in a sports-manly fashion on a level playing field, the village green.

“The Cricketers Inn, Longparish, Hampshire” by Mike Cattell on Flickr

So to the comparisons: Both games are members of the bat and ball family of games and, surprisingly (to me anyway), the basic principles are the same. The playing equipment, terminology, number of players, field and rules, however differ. Here’s a quick overview:

	Baseball	Cricket
Bat	Club shaped with a tapered barrel.	A cylindrical handle attached to a flat wooden block (blade).
Ball	The core of the ball is cork, rubber or a mixture of both. Colour: white with red leather stitching.	A cricket ball is made of cork and string and covered with red leather. Colour: red.
Protective Gear	Defence: gloves in non-throwing hand, hard plastic headgear and padding. Catchers: plastic shin-guards, padded chest protectors, and wire masks moulded into a hard plastic shell. Batters: hard plastic helmet, shin-guards, glove.	Batsman: pads, helmet and other padding for body parts. No protective gear is worn by fielders except those who stand very close to the batsman.
Umpires and Referees	Usually 4 umpires in major league games.	2 umpires on the field, 3rd umpire off the field, 1 match referee.
Number of players	9 or 10 depending on league rules.	11 players.
Balls/pitches allowed per batsman	No limit.	Limited by the number of balls bowled in a match.
Maximum runs scored from a ball/pitch	Four (Home Run with all bases occupied - Grand Slam).	Six.
Batting order	Predetermined.	Flexible
Field shape	A quadrant (diamond) shape.	Elliptical with thin rectangular area in the middle – pitch.

No, I’m not going to attempt to get technical about the rules, thus prompting ardent fans to bury heads in hands in utter despair. Simplistically, though, in both cricket and baseball, the players of one team attempt to score points known as runs by hitting a ball with a bat, while the members of the other team field the ball and attempt to prevent runs/scoring. In cricket, the batsman is attempting to defend the wicket (which, if struck, will put him ‘out’). In baseball, the batter is attempting to defend the strike zone.

I stand to be corrected (ooh, er). Meanwhile, Howzat?

"YourOut” by Britanglishman, on Flickr.

Thanks so much for letting me loose on your lovely blog, Jami!

Meet Sheryl

Sheryl Browne brings you Fabulous, Poignant, Heart-breaking Romance. Her novel Recipes for Disaster, commissioned by Safkhet Publishing, was shortlisted for the Innovation in Romantic Fiction Award. Sheryl now has five books published under the Safkhet Soul imprint -

Recipes for Disaster - Sexilicious Romantic Comedy combined with Fab, Fun Recipes.

Somebody to Love – Sigh with contentment, scream with frustration. At times you will weep.

Warrant for Love - Three couples in a twisting story that resolves perfectly.

A Little Bit of Madness – White Knight in Blue rescues The Harbour Rest Home.

Learning to Love – Exploring the Fragility of Love, Life and Relationships.

- and has since been offered a further contract. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Sheryl grew up in Birmingham, UK, where she studied Art & Design. She works part-time in her own business and is a mum and a foster mum to disabled dogs.

Sheryl’s latest book, Learning to Love, started life as a short, entitled The Memory Box - the theme of which is bereavement in childhood, which was accepted by the Birmingham City University to be published in their Anthology, Paper and Ink.

Learning to Love

Exploring the Fragility of Love, Life, and Relationships

Widower, Dr David Adams, has recently moved to the village – where no one knows him, ergo there’s no fuel for neighbourhood gossip – to start afresh with is ten year old son, if only he can get to a place where his son wants to speak to him. Angry and withdrawn, Jake blames his dad for the death of his mother, and David doesn’t know how to reach him.

Andrea Kelly has too many balls in the air. With three children and a “nuts” mother to care for, her fiancé can’t fathom why she wants to throw something else into the mix and change her career. Surely she already has too much on her plate? Because her plates are skew-whiff and her balls are dropping off all over the place, Andrea points out. She needs to make changes. Still her fiancé, who has a hidden agenda, is dead-set against it.

When Andrea’s house burns mysteriously to the ground and Andrea and her entourage are forced to move in with the enigmatic Dr Adams, however, the village drums soon start beating, fuel aplenty when it turns out someone does know him – the woman carrying his baby.

Sheryl Links:

Sheryl’s Website

Safkhet Publishing

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Author Facebook

Romantic Novelists’ Association

Sheryl is a Loveahappyending Lifestyle Author and Feature Editor.

Twitter: @sherylbrowne