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Fast Facts

  • 1. Overarm bowling was invented by a woman – Christina Willes in the early 1800s. She was the sister of a cricketer and when bowling to her brother in their garden at home, she was inconvenienced by her puffy skirt, which made the underarm action difficult, so she started bowling overarm. Go sister!

  • 2. Former Prime Minister John Howard once suggested that the only job in public life more important than his own was that of Australia’s cricket captain.

  • 3. Most cricket grounds have the pitch running north to south. This is so the setting sun doesn’t get in the batsmen’s eyes.

  • 4. The distance from the middle of the ground to the boundary can be anything from 50 to 80 metres. Australian fields are generally bigger than English fields, due to the availability of real estate and the fact that our grounds often double as an AFL ground.

  • 5. While women’s test matches are played over four days rather than the standard five, they can still manage the same number of overs as men do in five-day test. Even though men struggle to bowl 90 overs in a day, women can manage 115 overs, mainly due to the shorter run-ups.

  • 6. The ‘doosra’ is a rare and tricky bowling delivery in which the ball spins in the opposite direction to that for an off-break in an attempt to produce a catch by the wicketkeeper or slip. Its legality is controversial.

  • 7. Third Umpires are off-field umpires who make the final decision on questions referred by the two on-field umpires using television replays. They were introduced in 1992 in the test series between South Africa and India.