Comparison of baseball and cricket facts for kids
Baseball and Cricket are two exciting bat-and-ball games. People all over the world, both boys and girls, play them. While they share some similarities, they also have many differences. These include their rules, special words used, and how they are organized. Even their past is both alike and different.
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Where Did These Games Come From?
Many people used to think that baseball grew directly from cricket. Both games can be traced back to England. They even use some of the same words, like innings, umpires, runs, and outs. This makes the idea of a direct link seem very logical. Some baseball historians also believed cricket was baseball's main ancestor.
However, experts now think the connection is more like two cousins. Both games likely came to England with people from Flanders. These people settled in different parts of England. Cricket developed in the southeast, while baseball started in western England. Baseball began as a game mostly for children, but cricket was often played by adults.
Both games arrived in America with English immigrants. By the 1840s, cricket was popular along the East Coast, especially in Philadelphia and New York. Around the same time, baseball began to form organized clubs. Cricket was more popular until the American Civil War. After the war, baseball became very popular across the country. Cricket is still played in some places today, like Philadelphia.
How Are Baseball and Cricket Alike?
Both baseball and cricket are bat-and-ball games. In both sports, one player throws the ball, and another player tries to hit it with a bat.
- In cricket, the thrower is called a bowler, and the hitter is a batsman.
- In baseball, the thrower is a pitcher, and the hitter is a batter.
Players on the field try to catch the ball after it's hit. Both games often use two umpires to make sure the rules are followed.
The goal in both games is to score points, called "runs." Batters or batsmen run between special spots to score these runs. The fielding team tries to get the ball to these spots or to players near them to stop runs from being scored. Sometimes, a batter can hit the ball so far that it goes out of the playing field. This scores a lot of runs at once, like a "home run" in baseball or "six runs" in cricket.
After a certain number of players are "out," the teams switch roles. The team that was fielding now gets to bat, and the team that was batting goes out to field. After both teams have had enough turns to bat, the team with the most runs wins the game.
What Makes Them Different?
Even though they are similar, baseball and cricket have many differences:
- The Bat: A cricket bat is flat on the hitting side, while a baseball bat is round.
- Players: A cricket team has eleven players, but a baseball team has nine.
- Bat Holding: Cricket players usually hold their bat down, resting on the ground, before hitting. Baseball players hold their bat up, ready to swing.
- Playing Field: The fields for each game are different in size and shape.
- The Ball: Both balls are similar, but a cricket ball is usually a bit heavier than a baseball. Baseball covers are always white, but cricket balls can be red or white.
- Getting Out: In cricket, once a batsman is out, they cannot bat again for the rest of their team's turn (inning). In baseball, a player who gets out might get another chance to bat later in the game if their team's turn continues.
Images for kids
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The "safe havens" of both games, which the batting team's players run between to score points, with the risk of being gotten out (prevented from scoring further points) when they are not in them, are shown in green. The cricket field, with the wickets (targets to be hit with the ball to attempt to get batsmen out) in brown, is on the left.
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A view of the playing field at Fenway Park in Boston, US
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A panoramic view of Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India during the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final.
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A One Day International cricket match in progress at Eden Park. The lighter strip is the cricket pitch.
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The typical bowling action of a fast bowler.
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The typical motion of a baseball pitcher throwing from a set position.
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Leg Spin bowler Shane Warne about to release a spin delivery.
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Australian Fast bowler Brett Lee's follow through
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The normal fielding arrangement in baseball.
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Pickoff attempt on runner (in red) at first base
