The wickets are sets of three small, wooden posts that are at each end of a rectangle of short grass called 'the pitch', which is 22 yards long. The pitch is inside a much larger oval of grass called the 'area of play'. The area of play is a 30 yard circle inside the cricket ground or stadium.[1] The fielding team can attempt to get batting players "out" in a number of ways. When a player is out, a teammate will replace them in the field. When a team no longer has two "not-out" players left to score, then the other team gets the chance to try to score. In shorter games of cricket, a team may also have to stop batting when the ball has been thrown to their players a certain number of times. After both teams have had enough chances to score, the team with the most runs wins.

The game started to gain popularity in England in the 16th century. The earliest definite reference to the sport is in a court case of 1598.[2] The Guildford court heard John Derrick, a coroner, that fifty years earlier, "he and diverse of his fellows did run and play [on the common land] at cricket".[3][4] Later, the game spread to countries of the British Empire in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Today, it is a popular sport in England, Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, New Zealand, the West Indies and several other countries such as Afghanistan, Ireland, Kenya, Scotland, the Netherlands, and Zimbabwe.