“Cricket is a batsman’s game”
“Cricket is a batsman’s game” is a popular cricket adage. “No longer is cricket regarded solely as a batsman’s game with bowlers there to act as stooges as it were” was printed in the South China Sunday Post-Herald (Hong Kong) on June 23, 1957.
“Cricket is a batsman’s game” was printed in the book Way of Cricket (1961) by Richie Benaud. Benaud (1930-2015) was an Australian cricketer who became a popular commentator.
Ron Knight explained in a post to the newsgroup rec.sport.cricket on February 9, 2004:
“Cricket is a batsman’s game, where the batsman can stay at his crease indefinitely as long as he doesn’t care about scoring, and can still keep his wicket a long time with conservative play. Getting a batsman out in cricket is a momentous occasion. Baseball is a pitcher’s game, where the batsman who reaches base once in three times is exceptionally good and the feat equivalent to taking a wicket is hitting a home run.”
Wikipedia: Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 20-metre (22-yard) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this and dismiss each player (so they are “out”). Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground. When ten players have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches. They communicate with two off-field scorers who record the match’s statistical information.
Wikipedia: Richie Benaud
Richard Benaud OBE (/ˈbɛnoʊ/; 6 October 1930 – 10 April 2015) was an Australian cricketer who, after his retirement from international cricket in 1964, became a highly regarded commentator on the game.
23 June 1957, South China Sunday Post-Herald (Hong Kong), “No Longer Do Bowlers Act as Stooges” by Dennis Hart, pg. 28, cols. 7-8:
No longer is cricket regarded solely as a batsman’s game with bowlers there to act as stooges as it were.
OCLC WorldCat record
Way of cricket.
Author: Richie Benaud
Publisher: London, Hodder & Stoughton [1961]
Edition/Format: Print book : English
Google Books
The Illustrated Weekly of India
Volume 90
1969
Pg. 19:
Cricket is primarily a batsman’s game. It is the batsman who comes in for the greatest criticism, but only the intelligent have blamed the slow wickets and bowlers who peg away defensively at the leg stump, to a legside field, which tends to slow the game down and cuts out many of cricket’s most attractive strokes.
7 November 1974, The Times of India (Mumbai, India), “Nehru Stadium wicket will be ideal for West Indian batsmen” by K. N. Prabhu, pg. 9, col. 3:
Cricket is a batsman’s game. The crowds come to watch them. The truism was reiterated by West Indies manager Gerry Alexander on his arrival in Bombay the other day.
Google Books
Talking Cricket with Frank Crook
By Frank Crook
Sydney, Australia: BC Enterprises for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
1989
Pg. 79:
I think that the shame is that one-day cricket is a batsman’s game and bowlers don’t get recognised.
19 April 1994, The Times (London, UK), “Lara’s theme is a hit; Brian Charles Lara” by Tunku Varadarajan, pg. ?:
Whatever Curtly Ambrose and the galaxy of great bowlers before him might say, cricket is a batsman’s game.
Google Groups: rec.sport.cricket
Americans and Cricket
Ron Knight
2/9/04
(...)
Cricket is a batsman’s game, where the batsman can stay at his crease indefinitely as long as he doesn’t care about scoring, and can still keep his wicket a long time with conservative play. Getting a batsman out in cricket is a momentous occasion. Baseball is a pitcher’s game, where the batsman who reaches base once in three times is exceptionally good and the feat equivalent to taking a wicket is hitting a home run.
Twitter
janet holmes
@holmesjnt
It was the Australian former cricketer, Richie Benaud, who once famously said that “Cricket is a batsman’s game,” a quote that perfectly ..
4:37 PM - 12 Aug 2009
27 May 2012, Sunday Times (London, UK), “Bowlers who break no-ball rule can often spend hours regretting their foot fault” by David Gower, pg. 9L
Bowlers tell us this is a batsman’s game and how hard they have to work to get us out, especially on good pitches such as this one at Trent Bridge. Why make the task any harder? To a batsman, the solution appears to be simple: keep your foot well behind the line. Bowlers, it seems, don’t necessarily see it that way.
Twitter
Barna Sports
@BarnaSports
Cricket is a batsman’s game. Richie (Richard) Benaud Way of Cricket.
2:52 AM - 29 Apr 2014
Quora
Is cricket a batsman’s game?
Vamsi Krishna Biduru
Answered Jul 29, 2015
Well. I Partially Accept That Cricket Is A Batsman’s Game. Especially, After Inclusion Of Batting Power Play Years Back
Twitter
Sky Sports Cricket
@SkyCricket
“Cricket is a batsman’s game!”
@waqyounis99 talks through the toe-crushing techniques he used to devastating effect in his playing days before @Athersmike demonstrates the ways modern batsmen might try to counter them…
Watch the video in full 👉 http://skysports.tv/aUoa0Q
2:17
Waqar’s toe-crushing techniques!
Watch England vs Pakistan live now on Sky Sports Cricket.
6:57 AM - 11 May 2019
The Quint (India)
Yuzi Chahal’s Super Spell Shows Wrist Spin May Dominate World Cup
RAJAN MAHAN
June 7, 2019
The old adage that ‘cricket is a batsman’s game’ seems apt for the modern era. With field restrictions galore and talented batsmen hitting scoops, sweeps and slogs to craft countless boundaries, bowlers are often little more than ‘whipping boys’ in ODIs.