LAWS OF CRICKET

Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game. Any action which is seen to abuse this spirit causes injury to the game itself. The major responsibility for ensuring the spirit of fair play rests with the captains.

The laws of cricket are a set of rules framed by the Marylebone Cricket Club, which outline all aspects of how the game is played from how a team wins a game, how a batsman is dismissed, through to specifications on how the pitch is to be prepared and maintained. Although the MCC is a private club based in London and no longer the game’s governing body, the MCC retains copyright in the laws and only the MCC may change the laws, although nowadays this would usually only be done after discussions with the game’s global governing body the International Cricket Council.

The Laws are intended to apply to all two innings matches; the International Cricket Council has implemented “Standard Playing Conditions for Test Matches” and “Standard Playing Conditions for One Day Internationals” to augment the Laws of Cricket. Similarly, each cricketing country has implemented Playing Conditions to govern domestic cricket. Note that the Laws do not provide for One Day or Limited Overs cricket; these modifications have been made by the Playing Conditions for One Day Internationals. Teams may agree to alter some of the rules for particular games. Other rules supplement the main laws and change them to deal with different circumstances. In particular, there are a number of modifications to the playing structure and fielding position rules that apply to one innings games that are restricted to a set number of fair deliveries.

THE INDIAN CRICKET TEAM

The Indian cricket team is an international cricket team representing India. Cricket of India has millions of fans across the country. It is one game that unites the whole of India. The Indian Cricket Team is currently the highest paid sports team in the world. It is governed by the, Board of Control for Cricket in Idia, the cricket governing body in India.

History
India played its first Test in 1932. The first match was played against England at the Lords. India lost the Test. The Indian Cricket Team had to wait till 1952 to register its first win and the feat came when they defeated England at Madras. In the 1960s, the team really improved their game and began to emerge as one of the stronger sides in cricket. By the 1970s, the team had created a strong position for themselves in world cricket. The 1980s was a wonderful decade for India. Not only did they win the 1983World Cup, they also won the Asia Cup twice. In the recent past India have performed very well and continue to assert their position as a strong opponent. They reached the finals of the 2003 World Cup and finished runners up.

Performance
It might have taken the Indian Cricket Team 20 years to register their first international win, but ever since, India have just kept improving their game over the years. India is the sixth nation to have gotten Test status. The team has acquired a reputation of being invincible at home and quite weak while playing away matches. However this pattern seemed to change in the last five years or so when the team started to win Tests abroad and even defeated strong teams like Australia and West Indies in their respective countries. India have also played well in the ODIs and had a very successful World Cup in 2003 where they overcame every challenge to cruise into the final, only failing to overcome the final hurdle against Australia. The team has not done very well in the recent series against the West Indies, and were unlucky to miss out on a series against Sri Lanka due to bad weather. With the World Cup coming up, the team will surely pull their socks up and perform to their full potential.