Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of eleven, and the second most popular sport on the planet after football. From five-day Test matches to the explosive Twenty20 format, it is followed by billions across India, England, Australia, Pakistan and beyond — a game of patience, tactics and moments of pure drama.
The legends of the game
Every era of cricket is defined by a handful of players who redrew what was possible. These are names that transcend the sport.
Sachin Tendulkar
India · “The Little Master”
Most international runs ever
Sir Don Bradman
Australia · the greatest batsman
Test average of 99.94
Virat Kohli
India · the modern run-machine
Master of the chase
Shane Warne
Australia · the king of spin
“Ball of the century”
Sir Vivian Richards
West Indies · pure dominance
The most feared batsman of his era
MS Dhoni
India · “Captain Cool”
Won all three ICC white-ball trophies
The tournaments that stop nations
Cricket’s biggest events bring entire countries to a standstill. These are the ones that matter most.
The ICC Cricket World Cup
50-over cricket’s biggest prize, every four yearsThe Ashes
England vs Australia — the oldest rivalryThe Indian Premier League (IPL)
The richest T20 league on earthThe T20 World Cup
Twenty-over cricket’s global showdown2011: India win at home
Dhoni’s six seals a nation’s dream2019: the Super Over final
England beat New Zealand by the barest margin
How is cricket actually played?
Two teams of eleven take turns to bat and bowl. The batting side tries to score runs by hitting the ball and running between two sets of wickets, while the bowling side tries to dismiss the batsmen and restrict the score. A dismissal — bowled, caught, LBW, run out and more — brings a new batsman to the crease.
The format sets the length: Test matches last up to five days, One Day Internationals give each side 50 overs, and Twenty20 crams the drama into 20 overs a side. Whoever scores more runs, within the rules of the format, wins.
Cricket by the numbers
- 11Players a sidePlus limited substitutes
- 6Balls an overLegal deliveries
- 99.94Bradman’s averageThe most untouchable record in sport
- 3Main formatsTest · ODI · T20
Things nobody knew
The details that separate a fan from a fanatic.
A cricket ball can top 160 km/h
The fastest recorded delivery — by Shoaib Akhtar in 2003 — clocked 161.3 km/h, faster than most highway speed limits.
The longest match lasted 12 days
The 1939 “Timeless Test” between England and South Africa was abandoned as a draw — the English team had to catch their ship home.
Bradman’s 99.94 is sport’s greatest gap
No other batsman is close; he needed just four runs in his final innings to average 100, and was dismissed for a duck.
The IPL is worth billions
The Indian Premier League’s media rights have sold for over $6 billion, making it one of the most valuable sports leagues per match anywhere.
Different formats, different balls
Test cricket uses a red ball (and sometimes pink for day-night games), while white balls are used in limited-overs matches for visibility.
It’s the world’s #2 sport
With an estimated 2.5 billion fans, cricket trails only football in global following — driven overwhelmingly by South Asia.
Prep for a Quelo quiz
Where Cricket battles are actually won.
- 01Records & record-holdersMost runs, most wickets, highest scores — the numbers are the backbone of cricket trivia.
- 02World Cup historyWho won when, and where — a favourite category that catches casual fans.
- 03The rules & termsLBW, hat-trick, duck, maiden — knowing the jargon wins the quick ones.
- 04Captains & milestonesIconic captains and the tournaments they won come up again and again.
Are you really a Cricket expert?
7 questions · 10 seconds each · one shot at the leaderboard.
So… how well do you actually know Cricket?
You just read the guide. Time to prove it — and find out where you’d land on the Quelo leaderboard.