Although it may be difficult to take seriously a game which includes jargon like "silly mid off" (a fielding position) and "out for a duck" (bowled out on the first ball), cricket is in fact, a sport with a massive International following.

This may be surprising as the game has a reputation for being fiendishly complicated, but as the following humorous exposition, "cricket as explained to a foreigner," shows, cricket is actually simplicity itself.

"You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he is out. When they are all out, the side that's been out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

"When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out, he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who are all out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game."

I hope this will help you understand cricket.

You still haven't told us what happens to the poor cricket. Does it go back in the cage and a fresh one is used?

Makes perfect sense to me, pinfire!

fjohn, the poor insect gets eaten by the duck

God! And I thought Rugby was complicated! At least Rugby can't last for five days!

Now if pinfire can explain the Duckworth/Lewis scoring system, or the rules relating to a left-arm, round the wicket, wrist-spinning LBW dismissal, I will be MOST impressed..

And people thought my punzzles were confusing

I was all set to say, "Finally, someone is explaining this to me!", but I am now so confused I think I will just stick with the punnzles!