Cricket Vs Golf: What do You Need to Know?

Both cricket and golf have a large fan base, and many competitions across the professional and amateur world. The games are quite different but enjoyed by a wide range of people. Cricket is a fast paced, adrenaline fuelled game.

Whereas golf is seen as more of a strategic and gentle paced, tactical game. Both games involve hitting a ball, to score points. Golf is a solo game, whereas cricket is a team sport. Both games welcome newcomers and you will find plenty of access to different clubs in your area. The games have many differences and we will discuss the rules of both including facts about golf and cricket.

The Game of Cricket

Cricket is quite a complex game and has many different rules, considered to be more than most sports. It is a very popular game that is played on a large field known as the cricket ground. There are two teams both of which contain 11 players. One team bat, and one team fields. The batting team’s objective is to score as many runs as possible while the fielding team is tasked with dismissing the opposing batsmen. Test cricket is the most traditional form, and each team takes its turn to be the batting side and the fielding side. There are other forms of cricket, for example, Twenty20 and 50 over matches.

How Do You Score?

The batsmen score runs, they must hit the ball and run to the opposite end of the pitch to score one run. There is a batsman at each end meaning someone is always in front of the wickets. If the ball has gone a decent length away, they may continue to run to score more each time. If they hit a boundary with the ball, they are awarded four or six runs immediately.

Four runs are scored when the ball passes the boundary but hits the ground on the way. A six is scored when the ball passes the boundary without touching the ground at all. As soon as the ball is struck, the batsmen will start running, but if a four or six is declared any runs they have made are null and void. Runs can also be scored in other ways, from a wide ball, no ball, byes and leg byes. These runs are awarded to the team, rather than the actual individual batsmen. 

A wide ball is declared by an umpire when he considers that there was no reasonable opportunity for the batsmen to actually score from the throw. If the ball is over the head of the batsmen, it is a no-ball. A single run is added when a wide ball is declared, plus any runs made by the batsmen himself.

A no-ball is declared for a range of reasons, including when the ball goes over the head of the batsmen. It is also declared if a bowler is in the wrong place when he bowls if the ball is a dangerous ball which means it has been bowled directly at the batsmen, if it bounces more than twice before reaching the batsmen, or if any of the fielding team are stood in illegal positions. If the batter can hit the ball, he may score runs from a no ball.

A bye happens when the ball is not a wide ball or a no ball, but it still passes the batsmen and runs are scored without him having to hit the ball.

A Leg Bye is when the ball hits the batsmen, and he attempts to play the shot, rather than avoid it; he may claim runs on a leg bye.

The Game of Golf

A golf course is a wide-open green space, which contains many different holes. 18 holes which are structured by the design of the course form the basis of a game. Where space is at a premium, a nine-hole golf course may have been designed in which case players complete two rounds to make up the game.

For each hole there is a teeing area. The golfer selects their ball, and places it on a small spike which is stuck in the grass and called a golf tee. They are at liberty to select the best golf club from their bag and take a swing at the ball aiming to make it go as far as straight as possible. Once each golfer has taken their shot, whoever’s ball landed furthest away from the hole starts again, this continues until all balls are on the green.

The area immediately surrounding the hole, is called the green and the grass is kept very short around it. The players will switch to a putting club and try to putt the ball into the hole. From the teeing area, the aim is to send the balls flying into the air as far away as possible, whereas in the putting area skill and control are used to try and ensure the ball goes into the hole.

There are a predetermined number of strokes considered appropriate to get a ball from the teeing area into the hole, these are known as the par. 3 to 5 is considered the average number for a hole. If you can get the ball into the hole in less than the par your shot is a birdie. If it takes one more than the par it is known as a bogey. 

The Clubs

In golf there are four types of club: woods, putters, irons, and wedges. You use a wood when you want to hit the ball very far away; so, from the tee and sometimes on the fairway. There are several types of wood, number one is called a driver, number two is called a brassy, number three is called a spoon, and there are others. Irons can hit different distances, and there are nine different irons. When you reach the green, you use a putter.

So, as you can see the two games are quite different, but both contain some very fixed rules. There are also strict dress codes and etiquette that must be adhered to in both games.