Cricket is a wonderful game and one I played for many years.
To explain even the basic rules to someone who has never seen the game could prove to be quite a task.
I played ‘wicket keeper’ for Heckmondwike second eleven for 20 years. (the town called Heckmondwike really exists)
I am now paying for this position with creaking knees and bad hip joints. (Crouching behind the stumps for hours at a time)
One of the things I have heard that none cricketers don’t understand is that, if you start in the morning, then around 12:30 pm you break for lunch.
Everybody comes off the pitch and has lunch. The two teams dine together in perfect harmony.
Later in the day you also break for tea.
Once again everyone comes off and has a sit down meal in the pavilion. Then play is resumed again.
There are two umpires (referees) They make all the decisions and keep count of balls bowled per over.
They also decide wether a cricketer is out or not.
If they say you are not out (and you were legally out) Then, you are not out.
Runs are scored on how many times you run between the wickets (grounding your bat each time in the wicket area)
If the ball goes over the pitch boundary but touches the ground before getting there, 4 runs are scored.
If it goes over the boundary without touching the ground then 6 runs are scored.
Each team bats until everyone is out (or, in limited overs rules, each team has the same amount of overs) then the team with the highest score wins.
But, in league cricket there are such things as winning draws and losing draws.
You might think that when a cricketer goes out to bat the object would be to hit the ball clean over the boundary every time and rattle off 6 after 6.
This would be frowned upon by the team captain and you would quickly find yourself dropping down the batting order and eventually out of the team.
6's are only usually scored when either, things are desperate or the bowler bowls you a dolly. (Now what’s a dolly?)
I hope this clears up the rules of cricket.
NB: PLC’s could be used for controlling the scoreboard. Not only displaying the present score but average runs, runs per over needed, comparison graphs for each teams scoring etc.