109 Fun Facts About Cricket

Which is the only cricket fielder allowed to wear gloves?

Wicket-keeper: any other fielder who wilfully stops the ball with a cap or anything else that isn't part of the body hands the batting side five penalty runs.

The 22 yards of a cricket pitch equal exactly one of which old land-measuring unit?

Chain: surveyors measured land with Edmund Gunter's 22-yard chain of 100 links, handy because ten square chains make exactly one acre.

What did cricket add in 1775 after a bowler's deliveries kept passing clean through the wicket?

A third stump: Lumpy Stevens beat batter John Small three times in one match, the ball slipping through the gap each time, and Small survived to win the game.

What is an over called when the bowler concedes no runs?

Maiden: byes and leg byes don't spoil one, because those extras aren't charged to the bowler.

Which is the most common way for a batter to be dismissed in Test cricket?

Caught: it accounts for more than half of all Test dismissals, which is why close catchers such as the slips wait behind the bat for an edge.

What does the umpire do to signal that a batter is out?

Raises a forefinger: but only once the fielding side has appealed, because an umpire cannot give a batter out unless asked.

In 2023 Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews became the first batter in international cricket dismissed in which way?

Timed out: his helmet strap broke as he took guard, and Bangladesh appealed when he wasn't ready to face a ball within the two minutes allowed.

What does 'lbw' stand for?

Leg before wicket: it became a way of being out in 1774, after batters began deliberately using their legs to stop balls that would have hit the stumps.

How is it decided which team bats first in a cricket match?

A coin toss: from 2016 to 2019 England's County Championship let the visiting captain skip it and simply choose to bowl first, a trial meant to encourage spin bowling.

What colour is the traditional cricket kit?

White: coloured team kits reached the modern game only in the late 1970s, first in Kerry Packer's breakaway World Series Cricket.

By what formal name is cricket's rulebook known?

The Laws: there are 42 of them, always spelled with a capital L, and a private London club rather than the sport's governing body still owns the copyright.

Which sporting term for a feat of three began in cricket?

Hat-trick: the name is said to come from the hat a bowler was given for taking three wickets with consecutive balls, and ice hockey and soccer later borrowed the term.

Which 1771 incident made cricket put a limit on the bat?

A bat as wide as the wicket: Thomas White walked out with it in 1771, and the rival team's written protest fixed the limit of four and a quarter inches still in force.

What material forms the core of a traditional cricket ball, beneath its string winding and leather case?

Cork: it is wound with string and stitched into leather, and fielders polish one side of that leather on their trousers so the ball will swing in the air.

Which bearded doctor, the greatest cricketer of Victorian England, is still known by his initials?

W. G. Grace: he kept playing into old age, and in the last innings he ever batted, aged 66 in 1914, he made 69 not out.

Which Hampshire village club was the focal point of English cricket in the 1760s and 1770s?

Hambledon: its captain Richard Nyren kept the Bat and Ball Inn beside the ground on Broadhalfpenny Down, where the village club hosted and beat sides billed as England.

The first Australian cricket team to tour overseas, in 1868, was made up of whom?

Aboriginal stockmen: the 13 players sailed to England and played 47 matches in six months, ten years before any official Australian side made the trip.

The first-ever Test match, between Australia and England in 1877, was played in which city?

Melbourne: Australia won by 45 runs, and when the Centenary Test was staged on the same ground in 1977, Australia won by exactly 45 runs again.

The Ashes takes its name from a mock obituary for English cricket published in which paper in 1882?

The Sporting Times: its notice said English cricket had died at The Oval, adding that the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

The tiny Ashes urn is reputed to contain the ashes of what?

A wooden bail: the urn was a personal gift to England captain Ivo Bligh on the 1882-83 tour of Australia, so the real one never changes hands whoever wins.

Where does the original Ashes urn permanently reside?

The MCC Museum, London: the urn sat on Ivo Bligh's mantelpiece until he died in 1927, when his widow gave it to the club at Lord's.

What happens to the Ashes if a series ends level?

The current holder retains them: that is how Australia kept the Ashes when the 2019 and 2023 series in England both finished 2-2, without winning either.

How did Don Bradman's final Test innings end?

A duck: four runs would have lifted his career average to 100, but England's Eric Hollies bowled him with the second ball he faced, leaving it at 99.94.

As a boy, Bradman practised alone by hitting a golf ball against a water tank with what?

A cricket stump: the ball flew back off the tank's brick stand at speed and odd angles, and the solo game is credited with perfecting his timing.

Which controversial tactic did England use in the 1932-33 Ashes to curb Don Bradman?

Bodyline: England captain Douglas Jardine had his fast bowlers aim short balls at the batter's body, a plan that strained relations between the two countries and was soon banned.

Don Bradman's 1948 Australian touring side in England is remembered by which nickname?

The Invincibles: Don Bradman's side went through its entire tour of England without losing a match, winning the Test series 4-0.

Sachin Tendulkar was the first batter to score how many international centuries?

100: the hundredth came against Bangladesh in March 2012, just over a year after his 99th, and India still lost the match.

Sachin Tendulkar, a Test player at 16, bowed out in 2013 with his 200th Test in which city?

Mumbai: it was not the city's turn to host a Test, but he asked for a farewell on his home ground and the Indian board made an exception.

Which award was Sachin Tendulkar the first sportsperson to receive?

Bharat Ratna: India's highest civilian honour was limited to art, literature, science and public service until the rules were widened in 2011, two years before his final Test.

Which captain sealed India's 2011 World Cup final win over Sri Lanka by hitting a six?

MS Dhoni: out of form all tournament, he promoted himself up the order and made an unbeaten 91, sealing the win with a straight six.

Who won the inaugural 1975 Cricket World Cup?

West Indies: captain Clive Lloyd hit a century in the final at Lord's, and Viv Richards ran out three Australians as the chase fell 17 runs short.

Which captain led India to a huge upset of the defending champions in the 1983 World Cup final?

Kapil Dev: earlier in the tournament his unbeaten 175 rescued India from 17 for 5 against Zimbabwe, and in the final his side defended a total of just 183.

Which Australian captain won the 2003 and 2007 World Cups?

Ricky Ponting: his 140 not out flattened India in the 2003 final, and his 2007 side made Australia the first team to win three World Cups in a row.

Which team recovered from a dismal start to win the 1992 Cricket World Cup?

Pakistan: rain rescued them after England bowled them out for 74 in the group stage, yet they beat the same opponents by 22 runs in the final.

How was the tied 2019 World Cup final at Lord's finally decided?

On boundary count: England and New Zealand tied on 241 and again in the super over, and three months later the ICC scrapped the tiebreak in favour of repeated super overs.

Why were World Cup innings cut from 60 to 50 overs in 1987?

Shorter subcontinental daylight: India and Pakistan were hosting the first World Cup held outside England, and 50 overs a side has been the standard ever since.

Which non-Test nation reached the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup?

Kenya: the co-hosts beat Sri Lanka and were handed more points when New Zealand refused to play in Nairobi over security fears.

Who was the first bowler to take 800 Test wickets?

Muttiah Muralitharan: he began his farewell Test against India in 2010 needing eight wickets and took the 800th with the very last ball he bowled.

Shane Warne's 'Ball of the Century' in 1993 bowled which England batter?

Mike Gatting: Warne's first ball in an Ashes Test spun sharply past his bat to hit off stump, and Warne went on to take 34 wickets in the series.

Shane Warne took 708 Test wickets bowling which style?

Leg spin: the art was almost forgotten in a game dominated by fast bowling until Warne's success brought it back.

Brian Lara's record unbeaten 400 in a 2004 Test was made against which team?

England: Lara had set the record with 375 against the same opponents in 1994, lost it to Australia's Matthew Hayden in 2003 and won it back the following year.

Brian Lara is nicknamed 'the Prince' of which Caribbean capital?

Port of Spain: in 1994 the Trinidadian broke Garry Sobers's 36-year-old Test record with 375 and, weeks later, hit 501 not out for Warwickshire.

Which English bowler took 19 of the 20 Australian wickets in a single 1956 Test?

Jim Laker: he took nine wickets in the first innings and all ten in the second, leaving his Surrey spin partner Tony Lock the single wicket he missed.

Lord's cricket ground in London is named after whom?

Thomas Lord, its founder: he opened his first ground in 1787 where Dorset Square now stands and moved it twice before settling on the present site in 1814.

What unusual feature does the Lord's outfield have?

A slope of about 8 feet: a remnant of the hill the ground was built on, it runs from the north-west boundary down to the south-east, and bowlers must adjust their line to it.

Which annual Test match is traditionally staged at the MCG in Australia?

The Boxing Day Test: the date long belonged to a state match rather than a Test, and the Test became an annual fixture only in 1980.

What colour ball is used in day/night Test matches?

Pink: ball makers trialled yellow and orange too before settling on a pink that stays visible under floodlights, first used in a Test at Adelaide in 2015.

Why was cricket's last 'timeless' Test, in Durban in 1939, called off unfinished?

A ship to catch: set 696 to win, England were just 42 runs short on 654 for 5 when they had to leave for the boat home.

Which country's governing body introduced Twenty20 at professional level in 2003?

England and Wales (ECB): the board wrote the rules to win a younger audience for county cricket, and the format spread round the world within two years.

Who won the first ICC World Twenty20 in 2007?

India: they beat Pakistan by five runs in the final, a win that created the huge subcontinental market for T20 on which the IPL was quickly built.

Which Bollywood star's company bought the IPL's Kolkata team in 2008?

Shah Rukh Khan: his Red Chillies Entertainment paid $75.09 million for Kolkata, as the eight teams fetched almost double their combined reserve price.

In 2010 the IPL became the first sporting event to be broadcast live on which platform?

YouTube: under a two-year deal with Google, all 60 of that season's matches were streamed on a dedicated channel almost everywhere outside the United States.

Which two IPL teams were suspended for two seasons over a 2013 betting scandal?

Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals: two stand-in teams took their places for 2016 and 2017, and Chennai won the title in their first season back.

What is the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method used for?

Setting a revised target after rain: it replaced a rule that, in a 1992 World Cup semi-final, turned a tight chase into an impossible target from a single ball.

Which annual reference book, cricket's 'bible', was first published in 1864?

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack: founder John Wisden was a bowler who once took all ten wickets in an innings, every one bowled, and his book has come out every year since.

Which country was banned from international cricket from 1970 until 1991?

South Africa: the ban over apartheid lasted 21 years, yet the returning side reached the World Cup semi-finals at its first attempt in 1992.

Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup semi-final against India was awarded by default because of what?

Crowd unrest at Eden Gardens: India had slid to 120 for 8 chasing 252 when spectators threw bottles and lit fires in the stands, and the match was awarded to Sri Lanka.

The earliest definite reference to cricket comes from a 1597 court case in which Surrey town?

Guildford: John Derrick, a 59-year-old coroner, testified in a dispute over a plot of land that he had played the game there as a schoolboy some fifty years earlier.

In 2023 the IOC voted cricket back into the Olympics for the 2028 Games in which city?

Los Angeles: cricket's only previous Olympic appearance was in Paris in 1900, when Great Britain beat France in the one match played.

Great Britain won gold in the only cricket match of the 1900 Olympics by beating which country?

France lost by 158 runs in Paris, fielding a team in which ten of the players were British nationals.

The first international cricket match, in New York in 1844, pitted the United States against which country?

Canada won by 23 runs on a Manhattan ground at what is now 30th Street and Broadway, more than 30 years before the first Test match.

What did Australia's Cameron Bancroft use to rough up the cricket ball in the 2018 Cape Town scandal?

Sandpaper, which players normally keep for maintaining their bats, was spotted by TV cameras and earned captain Steve Smith and David Warner twelve-month bans.

Which Nobel Prize-winning playwright played two first-class cricket matches for Dublin University?

Samuel Beckett, a left-handed batter and medium-pace bowler, remains the only literature laureate to have played first-class cricket.

In 1981 Greg Chappell told his brother Trevor to bowl the final ball against New Zealand in what way?

Underarm along the ground, so the batter could not hit the six needed to tie. New Zealand's prime minister called it an act of true cowardice, and the tactic was banned.

Which admiral's name do cricketers give to the supposedly unlucky score of 111?

Nelson is the name, and umpire David Shepherd made a habit of taking a foot off the ground whenever the scoreboard showed it, to ward off bad luck.

Which Oscar-nominated 2001 Bollywood film shows drought-hit villagers taking on British officers at cricket?

Lagaan, whose title means the land tax the villagers are playing to escape, earned India a rare nomination for the foreign-language Oscar.

Which Australian bird gives its name to the brand of cricket ball used for Tests in most countries?

Kookaburra balls are used for Tests in most countries, though England prefers the hand-stitched Dukes, whose prouder seam helps it swing more.

What name did Australian media give England's travelling cricket supporters during the 1994–95 Ashes tour?

Barmy Army was meant as a jibe at fans who kept chanting while England were being beaten, and the supporters promptly printed it on T-shirts.

Cricket bats are traditionally carved from the wood of which tree, then treated with raw linseed oil?

Willow is tough enough to take a hard ball at speed without splintering, yet light to swing. The variety grown for the job is even called cricket bat willow.

What must the fielding side do before a cricket umpire is allowed to give a batter out?

Appeal, usually with a shout of 'Howzat', because an umpire cannot dismiss a batter unasked. Those who are plainly out tend to walk off without waiting.

What is the traditional name for a cricket team's first substitute, often seen carrying out the drinks?

Twelfth man duties are fielding for an injured teammate and ferrying drinks, because a traditional substitute may not bat, bowl or act as captain.

What is the nickname of the dark myrtle cap worn by Australia's Test cricketers for more than a century?

Baggy green was once handed out afresh for every tour, and the one Don Bradman wore in his final season sold for A$425,000 in 2003.

Which Australian city's Test cricket ground is known as the Gabba, after the suburb of Woolloongabba?

Brisbane's ground staged cricket's first tied Test in 1960, and for 21 years it doubled as a greyhound track with weekly night meetings.

By what nickname, echoing rugby's All Blacks, is New Zealand's men's national cricket team known?

Black Caps was chosen in January 1998 through a naming competition run by the team's sponsor, Clear Communications.

In cricket scoring, runs from byes, wides and no-balls are grouped under which heading on the scorecard?

Extras are credited to the batting team rather than to any one batter, and in Australia they go by the name sundries.

Which limited-overs cricket term covers overs when only two fielders may stand outside the 30-yard circle?

Powerplay overs open the innings: the first ten in a one-day international and the first six in a Twenty20, after which more fielders may drop back.

Edgbaston, home of Warwickshire and a regular England Test cricket venue, is in which city?

Birmingham's ground staged the first senior floodlit match in English cricket in 1997 and England's first day-night Test twenty years later.

What name does cricket give to verbally needling an opposing batter in the hope of breaking concentration?

Sledging, by Ian Chappell's account, got its name in 1960s Australia after a player who swore in front of a woman was likened to a sledgehammer.

In a cricket scorebook, which mark records a delivery that brings no run and no wicket?

A dot is why commentators talk about dot balls. A wide, by contrast, goes into the book as a small cross.

What is the cricket term for a lower-order batter sent in late in the day to protect better players?

Nightwatchman is the role, and it can pay off handsomely: several have survived until morning and gone on to score a Test century.

Which cricket delivery, unveiled by Bernard Bosanquet in 1900, turns the opposite way to the bowler's usual ball?

Googly is the usual name, though it is also called a Bosie after its inventor, who first tried it in a county match at Lord's in July 1900.

What can a Test cricket captain enforce when the opposing side trails by 200 or more runs after the first innings?

The follow-on makes the trailing side bat again straight away, and the qualifying margin drops to 150 runs in three- and four-day matches.

In limited-overs cricket, what is a batter awarded on the delivery after a bowler oversteps for a no-ball?

A free hit lets the batter swing without fear, because the bowler cannot dismiss them from that delivery. The rule reached international cricket in October 2007.

Which English cricket ground staged England's first home Test in 1880 and football's first FA Cup final?

The Oval hosted the first FA Cup final in 1872, eight years before its first Test, and staged most of the finals up to 1892.

Which Australian TV tycoon launched World Series Cricket in 1977 after being refused Test broadcast rights?

Kerry Packer signed leading players from around the world in secret, and his rebel series made coloured clothing, helmets and floodlit matches standard.

Which Australian fast bowler walked out to bat against England in 1979 carrying a bat made of aluminium?

Dennis Lillee meant it as a marketing stunt for a friend's company, and hurled the bat away in disgust when England's captain complained it was damaging the ball.

Who in 1968 became the first batter to hit six sixes in one over of first-class cricket?

Garry Sobers did it as Nottinghamshire's captain against Glamorgan at Swansea, at the expense of an unfortunate bowler named Malcolm Nash.

Which England bowler was hit for six sixes in one over by Yuvraj Singh at the 2007 World Twenty20?

Stuart Broad's over cost 36 runs and took Yuvraj to a fifty off just 12 balls, then the quickest in international cricket.

The Test cricket trophy contested by India and Australia is named after Sunil Gavaskar and which Australian captain?

Allan Border went 153 Tests in a row without missing a match, and like his Indian co-honouree he scored more than 10,000 Test runs.

Which Indian city is home to the Narendra Modi Stadium, built to hold 132,000 cricket fans?

Ahmedabad's arena, originally named Motera Stadium after its suburb, became the biggest stadium of any sport by capacity when it was rebuilt.

The International Cricket Council left England in 2005 and moved its headquarters to which city?

Dubai got the nod after the British government refused the tax concessions the governing body wanted, and it lies closer to South Asia, the game's biggest earner.

Which country became the tenth nation to play Test cricket when it hosted India in November 2000?

Bangladesh made 400 in their first Test innings, with Aminul Islam scoring 145, though India still won by nine wickets inside four days.

England's attacking 'Bazball' approach to Test cricket, adopted in 2022, was named after which head coach?

Brendon McCullum, known as Baz, took the job in May 2022, though he has said the label cannot capture the nuances of his team's approach.

Which Romantic poet played for Harrow in the first Eton v Harrow cricket match in 1805?

Byron's match began what is reckoned the oldest modern sporting rivalry between two schools, with more than 180 meetings since.

Which Australian all-rounder was the first from her country to play in both cricket and football World Cups?

Ellyse Perry made her debut for both national teams at 16, and scored the Matildas' only goal in their 2011 World Cup quarter-final.

Which Australian Twenty20 cricket competition, launched in 2011, features the Sydney Sixers and Hobart Hurricanes?

Big Bash League teams are tied to cities rather than states: eight franchises replaced the six state sides of the competition it succeeded.

Which Australian first-class cricket competition was founded in 1892 with a £150 donation from an English earl?

Sheffield Shield honours Lord Sheffield, who gave the money at the end of an English tour. Three colonies contested the first season, in 1892–93.

Which line on a cricket pitch, four feet in front of each wicket, must a batter reach to complete a run?

The popping crease is also the line a bowler's front foot must not wholly overstep, and the two lines lie 58 feet apart, which is how far a batter runs.

Which figure tops the famous weathervane at Lord's cricket ground, given by architect Sir Herbert Baker in 1926?

Father Time has had a rough ride: a barrage balloon's cable wrenched him from his perch during the Blitz, and lightning struck in 1992.

Running out a non-striker who backs up too far is informally named after which Indian cricket all-rounder?

Vinoo Mankad did it to Australia's Bill Brown in a 1947–48 Test, having already dismissed him the same way, after a warning, earlier on the tour.

Which Australian captain scored the first double century in one-day international cricket, against Denmark in 1997?

Belinda Clark made 229 not out at the Women's World Cup, and no man reached 200 in the format until 2010.

India's top first-class cricket trophy was renamed in 1935 after which prince, the first Indian international cricketer?

Ranjitsinhji never played for India: his 15 Tests were all for England, after he had made his name at Cambridge University and Sussex.

Which cricket delivery, popularised by Saqlain Mushtaq, is named from the Hindi and Urdu for 'the other one'?

Doosra was the call a teammate behind the wicket used when he wanted Saqlain to bowl it, and commentator Tony Greig picked the word up on air.

In cricket, what is an opener said to have done when left not out after all ten partners are dismissed?

Carried the bat is the phrase, and the feat is rare: the first Test instance came in 1889, when an opener made 26 not out while his side fell for 47.

Which comic novelist named his most famous character after a Warwickshire cricketer he watched at Cheltenham in 1913?

P. G. Wodehouse borrowed the surname of bowler Percy Jeeves for his unflappable valet. The real Jeeves was killed at the Somme in 1916.

Which insurance company sponsored the inaugural men's Cricket World Cup, staged in England in 1975?

Prudential lent its name to the trophy itself: the first three tournaments were each officially called the Prudential Cup.

Which England captain led the winners of the first Women's Cricket World Cup in 1973?

Rachael Heyhoe Flint went unbeaten in six Test series as captain, and in 1973 she also became British television's first woman sports presenter.

Which Surrey and England opener, known as 'The Master', is first-class cricket's leading run-scorer and century-maker?

Jack Hobbs spent most of his childhood in near poverty in Cambridge, yet finished with more than 61,000 first-class runs and close to 200 centuries.

Which Sri Lankan city's Test cricket ground sits beside a UNESCO-listed fort and was devastated by the 2004 tsunami?

Galle's ground is fringed on two sides by the Indian Ocean, and in the weeks after the wave struck it sheltered hundreds of displaced people.