Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
A couple hundred years ago there was a mass exodus from the United Kingdom to North America and one of the things those people brought with them was a game called “rounders.” After years of tinkering that became known as baseball and is now one of the most popular sports on this continent.
Then years later there was a wave of new arrivals from Europe and with them came a game known as “association football.” Somehow soccer was derived in a slang form for the name and it stuck largely to distinguish itself from grid-iron football, which is more native to North America.
Recent immigration, largely from Middle-East countries, has been robust in the last decade or so and with them has come the game of cricket. As these new residents settle in the introduction and development of the game has taken off and nowhere is that more evident than right here in Prince Albert.
“It’s a gentleman’s game,” says Raman Deep, the president of the Prince Albert Cricket Association. “There is no better way to spend a weekend and it also provides a social network (for the participants).”
To an outsider looking in the game looks a bit like baseball and while there might be some similarities the sport is definitely unique.
Deep and the vice-president of the PACA, Mohib Mohammed, took a few moments during their recent opening-day schedule to glaze over the basics of the game and this is what was gleaned from that tutorial.
Cricket, like baseball, is a bat-and-ball game. However, in cricket there are 11 players on each side while baseball has just nine. Cricket is played in an oval-shaped field with a rectangular pitch located in the centre. The pitch is just over 20 metres long and three metres wide. Baseball, of course, is referred to as a diamond with a pitcher’s mound situated 60 feet and six inches from home plate.
For baseball, the person throwing the ball is a pitcher. In cricket that person is called a bowler. Strangely, the person hitting the ball in both sports is called a batter, but that is where the similarities start and finish other than the ultimate objective being the team that scores the most wins the game.
For baseball, the home team gets the final at-bat, there are nine innings to a game (unless the score is tied) and each time a player crosses home plate that team gets one point.
Not in cricket.
A coin toss prior to the game determines who bats first and when that is settled that team does all of its batting until there are 10 outs (wickets) or 120 pitches whichever comes first. There is a batter facing the bowler to try and make contact with the ball, but there is another runner at the other end of the pitch who can also score a point if the ball is hit safely. If the batter hits the ball and it hits the ground and bounces out of the oval field that is worth four points. If it is hit clearly out of the playing field then that scores six points.
In baseball there is an unlimited number of pitches that can be thrown, but for cricket – at least in the version known as T20 – there is a maximum of 120 pitches per side. The caveat to this though is each bowler can only throw six in a row in what is called an over. So, in a game there are 20 overs (hence the term T20) with someone new coming in after every sixth pitch.
In baseball a player is put out when the ball is caught in the playing field without hitting the ground or if it is thrown to a base before the runner reaches it. In cricket a player is also out if the ball is caught before hitting the ground, but rather than reaching a base they have to pass a set of wickets which are at either end of the pitch. But, the runner does not have to run if they feel they haven’t hit it far enough for them to reach the wickets safely.
There are many other rules and nuances to the game, but that is a very basic explanation of the game. There is an amazing amount of strategy required, but exposure is the first step to understanding it.
And, that exposure continues to grow as Deep says not even a decade ago there were just four teams in the entire province. Now there are over 80 with Prince Albert alone having four clubs that compete in the Saskatoon Cricket League.
As mentioned T20 is the more common format for the game played here (international games are known as tests and they can last multiple days) with teams placed in divisions based on their level of experience.
For Prince Albert the four teams are split by ability with the Giants and Emperors competing in the higher T20 Division B while the Jaguars and Phantoms do battle in the lower T20 Division C.
Games are played mostly on the weekends with the local clubs having had their opening day last weekend as the season was delayed a couple of weeks due to bad weather. Each team got in its first game of the season at that time with the Giants winning 73-72 over the Prairie Tigers, the Phantoms edged the Phoenix 57-56 and the Emperors outscored the Bisons 132-104. Just the Jaguars were unable to win their opener when they were crushed 147-77 by the Predators. All opposing teams were from Saskatoon.
Next up for the local squads is another series of home games, which are always held at Red Wing School north of the city, with the Phantoms taking on the Scorchers on Saturday at 1 p.m. while the Jaguars will host the Dynasty on Sunday, also at 1 p.m. The Giants get things going on Saturday at 9:15 a.m. when the Tuskers will pay a visit with the Emperors having the early start on Sunday, also 9:15 a.m., and the Raptors will be providing the opposition.
While the season is over early in the summer, the local organization took steps last winter to continue to grow the sport as a youth development camp was held at the Alfred Jenkins Field House. It is expected this, and other programs, will continue to be made available with more information to be found by contacting the PACA at: info@pacricketassociation.com.
