Worldcup

WORLD CHAMPIONS !

Mission Accomplished

Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was Team India. The process that was started around 10 years back, under Captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, has reached its peak under the Leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The process saw its lowest point at 2007 world cup when Team India thrashed out in league matches. Come 2011 and I can say with very much pride that INDIA IS WORLD CHAMPION after 28 years! The warriors of team India who Changed the game and made India proud:





MS Dhoni: Emperor of World

Leading from the front

Midas Singh Dhoni touches and converts in Gold- 24 carat. He is in true sense the greatest leader(!) India has ever produced. Picture this: 114 for 3, India need another 160 odd runs with 6 runs per over. MS Dhoni with poor run with bat throughout WC. And boy, he promotes himself up to carry on left- right batting combination against wild Malinga and unplayable Murali.

How many people would come at that situation when your team is under huge pressure to rebuild innings that too in Big World Cup Final, your own form is the worst in career and people are talking about your position in the side, opponents are high on confidence (and perhaps skills), 121 crore fans expecting you to Win from  bottom of their heart  and none another than Yuvraj the best player in the tournament is waiting in dressing room!
In fact, if Dhoni had not come, it would have been a safe game for Dhoni himself. But a real warrior Dhoni is, did it, not to prove anything to anyone but to prove himself. This was the occasion, this was the challenge, his team required him the most, but nobody expecting him to confront this situation as Yuvraj was the option available, but Dhoni had different plans, he decided to took all the responsibility on his shoulders and finished the mission with unbeaten 91, smashing winning six.. This event separates him from a good captain  to the greatest leader. Now, he has gone beyond captaincy. He is being a captain with great success in the past as he has won Twenty-20 World Cup, 1st Ranking in Test Cricket, IPL Championship, Champions League Trophy and remember he is yet to loose a series in Test cricket. But, I think this is not just a captaincy, he is a great borne leader and he built a team knowing strengths and weaknesses of his team and opponents. He took bold decisions through out the World cup too. Many a times he was criticized  for his experiments when few went wrong, but he is great person to admit his mistakes. In fact he learned from his mistakes every now and then. But the best thing is that he never frightened to commit a mistake. People call Dhoni is Lucky, I don't think so. Dhoni writes his own luck  and that is what he has done in last 4 years for India!
Dhoni- the Emperor in India Cricket.

Yuvraj Singh:

Yuvi gives Indian team the aggression- I say arrogance- that a World Champion team needs to carry with them. Not to show off, but to lift the spirit of their own team! And don't forget, arrogance is acceptable when you are MoM for 4 matches and Player of tournament in World Cup! It suits you only when you score 362 runs with a massive average of 90.50 and claim 15 wickets in World cup tournament!
This is Yuvraj for you, 'Yuvraj' of Empire India!

Youngistaan:

Dream come true!

The brilliance of Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohali, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin was shown whenever required. Who can forget Gambhir's 97 runs- chasing 275- in WC final- when Sehwag and Sachin got out within first 6 overs? Probably Gambhir has played greatest inning of his life.
Virat, to whom India looks as future captain is good batter, athletic fielder. And Suresh Raina- my favorite- is superb finisher the best fielder and partnership breaking bowler.
You can invest your hopes in Generation next of Indian Empire!




Zaheer Khan:

To build an empire, you should be the best in all departments. Exception is Indian bowling, which is faaaar away from tag of best bowling unit. But standing out tall is Zaheer. He claimed 21 wickets- sharing top wicket taker spot in WC with Shahid Afridi. He led the attack from front and produced match wining performances- produced crucial wickets just when needed. All other bowling is still a big concern- though empire is built!

Ipl

Indian Premier League

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional league for Twenty20 cricket competition in India. It was initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), headquartered in Mumbai,^[3][4] and is supervised by BCCI Vice President Chirayu Amin, who serves as the league's Chairman and Commissioner. It is currently contested by 10 teams consisting of players from around the world. It was started after an altercation between the BCCI and the Indian Cricket League.^[5]
In 2010, IPL became the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on YouTube in association with Indiatimes.^[6] Its brand value is estimated to be around $3.67 billion in fourth season.^[7][8] According to global sports salaries review, IPL is the second highest-paid league, based on first-team salaries on a pro rata basis, second only to the NBA. It is estimated that the average salary of an IPL player over a year would be $3.84 million.^[9]

Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 First season 1.2 Second season 1.3 Third season 1.4 Fourth season 2 IPL Trophy 2.1 2008-2010 2.2 2011-2013 3 League organization 3.1 Franchises 3.2 Rules 4 Statistics and records 4.1 Winners 4.2 Performance of teams 4.3 Player signings 5 Television rights and sponsorships 5.1 Television rights 5.2 Sponsorships 5.3 Revenue and Profits 5.4 Mobile applications 5.5 Official website 6 Global following 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

[edit] First season

Main article: 2008 Indian Premier League

A Chennai vs Kolkata match at the M.A. Chidambaram Cricket Stadium won by Chennai Super Kings.

The inaugural season of the tournament started on 18 April 2008 and lasted for 46 days with 59 matches scheduled, out of which 58 took place and 1 was washed out due to rain. The final was played in DY Patil Stadium, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Every team played each other both at home and away in a round robin system. The top four ranking sides progressed to the knockout stage of semi-finals followed by a final. Rajasthan Royals defeated Chennai Super Kings in a last ball thriller and emerged as the inaugural IPL champions.

[edit] Second season

Main article: 2009 Indian Premier League

The 2009 season coincided with the General Elections in India. Owing to concerns regarding players' security, the venue was shifted to South Africa. The format of the tournament remained same as the inaugural one. Deccan Chargers, who finished last in the first season,were big underdogs, but came out as eventual winners defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final. Deccan set a target of 144 with the help of Gibbs(53) and defended it.

[edit] Third season

Main articles: 2010 Indian Premier League and 2010 IPL Player Auction

The third season opened in January 2010 with the auction for players. 66 players were on offer but only 11 players were sold. In this season, Deccan Chargers did not play at their preferred home location of Hyderabad, India due to the ongoing political crisis in the Telangana region . The new bases for the champions this season were Nagpur, Navi Mumbai and Cuttack. Four teams qualified for the semi-finals. The first semi-final was won by Mumbai Indians who defeated Bangalore Royal Challengers by 35 runs. Chennai Super Kings defeated Deccan Chargers in the second semi-final. The final was played between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. Chennai Super Kings won by a margin of 22 runs.

[edit] Fourth season

Main articles: 2011 Indian Premier League and 2011 IPL Player Auction

Chennai Super Kings are the most successful team in the tournament winning the championship twice and qualifying for the top four every time.

On 21 March 2010, it was announced in Chennai that two new teams from Pune and Kochi will be added to the IPL for the fourth season. However, the bid around the Kochi franchisee turned controversial resulting in the resignation of minister, Shashi Tharoor from the Central Government and investigations by various departments of the Government of India into the financial dealings of IPL and the other existing franchisees. Later, Lalit Modi was also removed from IPL chairmanship by BCCI. On 5 December 2010, it was confirmed that Kochi will take part in the fourth season of IPL.^[10]

The addition of teams representing Pune and Kochi was to have increased the number of franchises from 8 to 10. The BCCI originally considered extending the tournament format used in previous season to ten teams, which would increase the number of matches from 60 to 94. Instead, the round-robin stage of the tournament was to have been replaced by a group stage with two groups of five, limiting the number of matches to 74.^[11] But this format was replaced by another one in which each team would play 5 other teams in a two-way round robin format and there would be 2 teams against whom they would play only at home and remaining 2 teams against which they would play only away matches.Thus each team plays 14 matches.Top four teams would qualify for the semi-finals.
In October 2010, the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab had their franchises terminated for breaching ownership rules. The new Kochi franchise was also issued a warning to resolve all their ownership disputes.^[12] Two months later both teams were finally allowed to take part in the 2011 edition after a court ruling.^[13]
Chennai Super Kings won their second consecutive IPL title after defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs in the fourth season of IPL.^[14] CSK had beaten RCB in the playoffs too while RCB defeated Mumbai Indians to reach the final. This is the first time a franchise has won two IPL titles, had four consecutive semi-final visits, come to the finals three times, and successfully defended their title. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has led CSK from front and has been instrumental in the success of CSK. The top three teams namely CSK, RCB and MI have also qualified for the Champions League. Chennai Super Kings is the current Champions League champions too.^[15]

[edit] IPL Trophy

[edit] 2008-2010

The diamond-encrusted trophy of DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) Cricket was designed by Orra brand, owned by Antwerp-based Rosy Blue Group. It comprises a player in a gold leafing. He is shown holding a bat in his hand, next to a map of India. On the map, the names of all the IPL teams have been engraved by rubies. It took a team of as many as 14 craftsmen to make the trophy. Every year, the winners of the IPL T20 tournament are presented with a replica of this trophy, along with the prize money.

[edit] 2011-2013

A new trophy has been designed for IPL 4 in view of the two new teams which are now in the fray. It has been changed to a large cup instead of a map of India.

ashes

The Ashes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see The Ashes (disambiguation).

The Ashes
The Ashes urn is reputed to contain a burnt cricket bail.
Countries	Australia and  England
Administrator	International Cricket Council
Format	Test cricket
First tournament	1882/83
Tournament format	Test Series
Number of teams	2
Current trophy holder	England
Most successful	Australia (31 titles)
Most runs	Donald Bradman (5,028)
Most wickets	Shane Warne (195)
2010–11 Ashes series
v · d · e

The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues being in opposite hemispheres, the break between series alternates between 18 and 30 months. A series of "The Ashes" comprises five Test matches, two innings per match, under the regular rules for Test match cricket. If a series is drawn then the country already holding the Ashes retains them.
The series is named after a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, in 1882 after a match at The Oval in which Australia beat England on an English ground for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.^[1] The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.
During that tour a small terracotta urn was presented to England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, a bail.
The urn is erroneously believed by some to be the trophy of the Ashes series, but it has never been formally adopted as such and Bligh always considered it to be a personal gift.^[2] Replicas of the urn are often held aloft by victorious teams as a symbol of their victory in an Ashes series, but the actual urn has never been presented or displayed as a trophy in this way. Whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum at Lord's since being presented to the MCC by Bligh's widow upon his death.^[3]
Since the 1998–99 Ashes series, a Waterford Crystal representation of the Ashes urn has been presented to the winners of an Ashes series as the official trophy of that series.
England is the current holder after winning the Ashes in 2009 and again in the 2010/11 series in Australia.

Contents [hide] 1 Legend 2 Urn 3 Series and matches 3.1 Quest to "recover those ashes" 3.2 1884 to 1896 3.3 1897 to 1902 3.4 Reviving the legend 3.5 1905 to 1912 3.6 1920 to 1933 3.7 1934 to 1953 3.8 1954 to 1971 3.9 1972 to 1987 3.10 1989 to 2003 3.11 2005 to present 4 Summary of results and statistics 5 Match venues 6 Cultural references 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Legend

The first Test match between England and Australia was played in 1877, though the Ashes legend started later, after the ninth Test, played in 1882.
On their tour that year (1882) the Australians played just one Test, at The Oval in London. It was a low-scoring affair on a difficult wicket.^[4] Australia made a mere 63 runs in its first innings, and England, led by A. N. Hornby, took a 38-run lead with a total of 101. In their second innings, the Australians, boosted by a spectacular run-a-minute 55 from Hugh Massie, managed 122, which left England only 85 runs to win.
The Australians were greatly demoralised by the manner of their second-innings collapse, but fast bowler Fred Spofforth, spurred on by some gamesmanship by his opponents, refused to give in. "This thing can be done," he declared. Spofforth went on to devastate the English batting, taking his final four wickets for only two runs to leave England just eight runs short of victory in one of the closest and most nail-biting finishes in the history of cricket.
When Ted Peate, England's last batsman, came to the crease, his side needed just ten runs to win, but Peate managed only two before he was bowled by Harry Boyle. An astonished Oval crowd fell silent, struggling to believe that England could possibly have lost to a colony. When it finally sank in, the crowd swarmed onto the field, cheering loudly and chairing Boyle and Spofforth to the pavilion.
When Peate returned to the pavilion he was reprimanded by his captain for not allowing his partner, Charles Studd (one of the best batsman in England, having already hit two centuries that season against the colonists) to get the runs. Peate humorously replied, "I had no confidence in Mr Studd, sir, so thought I had better do my best."^[5]
The momentous defeat was widely recorded in the British press, which praised the Australians for their plentiful "pluck" and berated the Englishmen for their lack thereof. A celebrated poem appeared in Punch on Saturday, 9 September. The first verse, quoted most frequently, reads:

Well done, Cornstalks! Whipt us

Fair and square,

Was it luck that tript us?

Was it scare?

Kangaroo Land's 'Demon'^[6], or our own

Want of 'devil', coolness, nerve, backbone?

On 31 August, in the great Charles Alcock-edited magazine Cricket: A Weekly Record of The Game, there appeared a mock obituary:

SACRED TO THE MEMORY

OF

ENGLAND'S SUPREMACY IN THE

CRICKET-FIELD

WHICH EXPIRED

ON THE 29TH DAY OF AUGUST, AT THE OVAL

"ITS END WAS PEATE"

On 2 September a more celebrated mock obituary, written by Reginald Brooks under the pseudonym "Bloobs", appeared in The Sporting Times. It read:

In Affectionate Remembrance

of

ENGLISH CRICKET,

which died at the Oval

on

29th AUGUST 1882,

Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing

friends and acquaintances

R.I.P.

N.B.—The body will be cremated and the

ashes taken to Australia.

The death notice that appeared in The Sporting Times

Bligh promised that on the tour to Australia in 1882–83, which he was to captain, he would regain "the ashes". He spoke of them several times over the course of the tour, and the Australian media quickly caught on. The three-match series resulted in a two-one win to England, notwithstanding a fourth match, won by the Australians, whose status remains a matter of ardent dispute.
In the 20 years following Bligh's campaign the term "The Ashes" largely disappeared from public use. There is no indication that this was the accepted name for the series, at least not in England. The term became popular again in Australia first, when George Giffen, in his memoirs (With Bat and Ball, 1899), used the term as if it were well known.^[7]
The true and global revitalisation of interest in the concept dates from 1903, when Pelham Warner took a team to Australia with the promise that he would regain "the ashes". As had been the case on Bligh's tour 20 years before, the Australian media latched fervently onto the term, and, this time it stuck. Having fulfilled his promise, Warner published a book entitled How We Recovered The Ashes. Although the origins of the term are not referred to in the text, the title served (along with the general hype created in Australia) to revive public interest in the legend. The first mention of "The Ashes" in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack occurs in 1905, while Wisden's first account of the legend is in the 1922 edition.

Cricket World Cup

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the most recent tournament, see 2011 Cricket World Cup.

ICC Cricket World Cup
The current ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy.
Administrator	International Cricket Council
Format	One Day International
First tournament	1975, England
Last tournament	2011, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka
Next tournament	2015, Australia and New Zealand
Tournament format	multiple (refer to article)
Number of teams	19
Current champion	India (2 titles)
Most successful	Australia (4 titles)
Most runs	Sachin Tendulkar (2,278)
Most wickets	Glenn McGrath (71)
v · d · e

The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years. The tournament is the world's fourth-largest and fourth-most-viewed sporting event.^[1][2][2] According to the ICC, it is the most important tournament and the pinnacle of achievement in the sport.^[3][4] The first Cricket World Cup contest was organised in England in 1975. A separate Women's Cricket World Cup has been held every four years since 1973.
The finals of the Cricket World Cup are contested by all ten Test-playing and ODI-playing nations, together with other nations that qualify through the World Cup Qualifier. Australia has been the most successful of the five teams to have won the tournament, taking four titles. The West Indies and India have won twice, while Pakistan and Sri Lanka have each won once.
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup started on 19 February 2011 and commenced on 2 April 2011. The tournament was co-hosted by Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka with the participation of 14 countries. India won the cup by defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final, thus becoming the first team to win a world cup final on home soil.^[5]
From 1992 to 2011, at least one team from the Indian subcontinent has reached the World Cup final, Pakistan (winner) in 1992, Sri Lanka (winner) in 1996, Pakistan (runner up) in 1999, India (runner up) in 2003, Sri Lanka (runner up) in 2007, India (winner) and Sri Lanka (runner up) in 2011.

Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Before the first Cricket World Cup 1.2 Prudential World Cups 1.3 1987–1996 1.4 Australian treble 2 Format 2.1 Qualification 2.2 Tournament 3 Trophy 4 Media coverage 5 Selection of hosts 6 Tournament History 7 Performances by Teams 7.1 Debutant teams 7.2 Overview 7.3 Team results 7.4 Legend 8 Awards 8.1 Man of the Tournament 8.2 Man of the Match in the World Cup Final 9 Tournament Records 9.1 Main individual and team records 10 See also 11 References 12 Notes 13 External links

History

Main article: History of the Cricket World Cup

Before the first Cricket World Cup

The first ever international cricket match was played between Canada and the United States, on the 24 and 25 September 1844. However, the first credited Test match was played in 1877 between Australia and England, and the two teams competed regularly for The Ashes in subsequent years. South Africa was admitted to Test status in 1889.^[6] Representative cricket teams were selected to tour each other, resulting in bilateral competition. Cricket was also included as an Olympic sport at the 1900 Paris Games, where Great Britain defeated France to win the gold medal.^[7] This was the only appearance of cricket at the Summer Olympics.
The first multilateral competition at international level was the 1912 Triangular Tournament, a Test cricket tournament played in England between all three Test-playing nations at the time: England, Australia and South Africa. The event was not a success: the summer was exceptionally wet, making play difficult on damp uncovered pitches, and attendances were poor, attributed to a "surfeit of cricket".^[8] In subsequent years, international Test cricket has generally been organised as bilateral series: a multilateral Test tournament was not organised again until the quadrangular Asian Test Championship in 1999.
The number of nations playing Test cricket increased gradually over the years, with the addition of West Indies in 1928, New Zealand in 1930, India in 1932, and Pakistan in 1952, but international cricket continued to be played as bilateral Test matches over three, four or five days.
In the early 1960s, English county cricket teams began playing a shortened version of cricket which only lasted for one day. Starting in 1962 with a four-team knockout competition known as the Midlands Knock-Out Cup,^[9] and continuing with the inaugural Gillette Cup in 1963, one-day cricket grew in popularity in England. A national Sunday League was formed in 1969. The first One-Day International event was played on the fifth day of a rain-aborted Test match between England and Australia at Melbourne in 1971, to fill the time available and as compensation for the frustrated crowd. It was a forty over match with eight balls per over.^[10]
The success and popularity of the domestic one-day competitions in England and other parts of the world, as well as the early One-Day Internationals, prompted the ICC to consider organising a Cricket World Cup.^[11]

Prudential World Cups

The Prudential Cup trophy

The inaugural Cricket World Cup was hosted in 1975 by England, the only nation able to put forward the resources to stage an event of such magnitude at that time. The 1975 tournament started on June 7.^[12] The first three events were held in England and officially known as the Prudential Cup after the sponsors Prudential plc. The matches consisted of 60 six-ball overs per team, played during the daytime in traditional form, with the players wearing cricket whites and using red cricket balls.^[13]
Eight teams participated in the first tournament: Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and the West Indies (the six Test nations at the time), together with Sri Lanka and a composite team from East Africa.^[14] One notable omission was South Africa, who were banned from international cricket due to apartheid. The tournament was won by the West Indies, who defeated Australia by 17 runs in the final at Lord's.^[14]
The 1979 World Cup saw the introduction of the ICC Trophy competition to select non-Test playing teams for the World Cup,^[15] with Sri Lanka and Canada qualifying.^[16] West Indies won a second consecutive World Cup tournament, defeating the hosts, England, by 92 runs in the final. At a meeting which followed the World Cup, the International Cricket Conference agreed to make the competition a quadrennial event.^[16]
The 1983 event was hosted by England for a third consecutive time. By this time, Sri Lanka had become a Test-playing nation, and Zimbabwe qualified through the ICC Trophy. A fielding circle was introduced, 30 yards (27 m) away from the stumps. Four fieldsmen needed to be inside it at all times.^[17] India, an outsider quoted at 66-1 to win by bookmakers before the competition began, were crowned champions after upsetting the West Indies by 43 runs in the final.[

Best Captains

List of India national cricket captains

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of all cricketers who have captained Indian national cricket team at the international level. The list includes all Indian captains of men's, women's and youth cricket. India became a full member of the Imperial Cricket Conference (now the International Cricket Council) on 31 May 1926. On 25 June 1932 it became the Test nation after England, Australia, South Africa, the West Indies and New Zealand when they took on England at Lord's. They played only seven tests, which were all against England, before the Second World War, losing five matches and drawing twice. Their first game against other opposition came in 1947–48 when they played Australia.
The Indian team's greatest successes came in 1983, when they won the Cricket World Cup under the captaincy of Kapil Dev, and 2011, when they won the world cup again under Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Also, they won the Under-19 World Cup twice under the captaincy of Mohammad Kaif in 2000 and in 2008 under Virat Kohli . Also, under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India won the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup. India came runner-up in World Cup 2003 under Saurav Ganguly who has the record of most number of Indian test wins (21) under his leadership (Visit scganguly.com[1] for more details). Mithali Raj led India to its best result in Women's ODI cricket when the team advanced to the finals of the 2005 Women's Cricket World Cup. Raj is also one of the three women's captains who have led their side to a victory in women's Test cricket, the others being

Wicket-keeping

Wicket-keeper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A wicket-keeper in characteristic position, ready to face a delivery. This keeper is "standing up" close to the wicket, for a slow pace bowler or spin bowler

A pair of wicket-keeping gloves. The webbing which helps the keeper to catch the ball can be seen between the thumb and index fingers.

India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni successfully stumps a South African batsman out during a match played in Chennai in 2008.

Adam Gilchrist standing up to Shane Warne in 2005. Andrew Strauss is the batsman.

The wicket-keeper (also spelt wicketkeeper and often shortened to keeper) in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike. The wicket-keeper is the only member of the fielding side permitted to wear gloves and external leg guards.^[1]
It is essentially a specialist role although a keeper is occasionally called upon to bowl, in which case another member of the fielding side temporarily keeps wicket. The role of the keeper is governed by Law 40 of the Laws of Cricket.^[2]

Contents [hide] 1 Purposes 2 Substitutes 3 Leading Test match wicket-keepers 4 Leading One day wicket-keepers 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Purposes

The keeper's major function is to stop deliveries that pass the batsman (in order to prevent runs being scored), but he can also attempt to dismiss the batsman in various ways:

• The most common dismissal effected by the keeper is for him to catch a ball that has nicked the batsman's bat, called an edge, before it bounces. Sometimes the keeper is also in the best position to catch a ball which has been hit high in the air. More catches are taken by wicket-keepers than by any other fielding position.
• The keeper can stump the batsman by using the ball to remove the bails from the stumps, if the batsman has come out of his crease during a delivery.
• When the ball is hit into the outfield, the keeper moves close to the stumps to catch the return throw from a fielder and, if possible, to run out a batsman.

A keeper's position depends on the bowler: for fast bowling he will crouch some distance from the stumps, in order to have time to react to edges from the batsman, while for slower bowling, he will come much nearer to the stumps (known as "standing up"), to pressure the batsman into remaining within the crease or risk being stumped. The more skilled the keeper, the faster the bowling to which he is able to "stand up", for instance Godfrey Evans often stood up to Alec Bedser. [1]
Wicket-keeping is a specialist discipline and it requires training consistent with the level expected of a specialist batsman or bowler. However, the modern-day keeper is also expected to possess reasonable batting skill, suiting him for the middle order at least. Wicket-keepers who are also capable of batting at the top of the order are known informally as keeper/batsmen.
Since there is only room for one keeper in a cricket side, selectors (especially at the international level) are often faced with a difficult choice between two or more skilled keepers. Often, one of the two keepers is an exceptional keeper, but only an average batsman, whereas the other is a keeper/batsman who is clearly better at batting, but not quite as good a keeper as his rival. One such selection dilemma was that faced by England selectors in the 1990s between Jack Russell (the pure keeper) and Alec Stewart (the keeper/batsman). They were never able to consistently choose between the two until 1998, when Russell began to fade: prior to that, they had regularly swapped the role, often with Stewart maintaining his place when not wicket-keeping thanks to his batting skill. Another prime example is that of Pakistani wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who is renowned for being a very inconsistent wicketkeeper who fluffs easy chances, but has remained a fixture in the team over the last decade because his batting is considerably superior to the alternatives'. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kumar Sangakkara, Brendon McCullum and Mark Boucher are the top keeper/batsmen today in cricket.
The keeper may also have a captaincy role. Uniquely, they are usually involved in every delivery of an innings, and may be in a position to see things that the captain misses. They can frequently be heard encouraging the bowler, and may also indulge in the practice (not meant to be overheard) of "sledging" the batsman with well timed comments about their skill, appearance or personal habits.
The keeper is the only fielder allowed to touch the ball with protective equipment, typically large padded gloves with webbing between the index finger and thumb, but no other webbing. The protection offered by the gloves is not always adequate. The England keeper Alan Knott sometimes placed steaks inside his gloves for added cushioning. Wicket-keepers also tend to wear leg pads and a box to protect the groin area.
Wicket-keepers are allowed to take off their pads and bowl, and this is not uncommon when matches are drifting to draws or a bowling team is desperate for a wicket. Two keepers have removed their pads and taken hat-tricks in first-class cricket: Probir Sen for Bengal v Orissa at Cuttack in 1954-55 and A.C. (Alan) Smith for Warwickshire v Essex at Clacton in 1965; Smith was a most unusual player in that he was primarily a wicket-keeper, but was sometimes selected as a frontline bowler.

[edit] Substitutes

According to Law 2 of the Laws of Cricket, a substitute (taking the place of an ill or injured player) may not keep wicket.[2]
This rule is sometimes suspended, by agreement with the captain of the batting side, although Law 2 does not provide for such agreement to be made. For example, during the England—New Zealand Test Match at Lord's in 1986, England's specialist keeper, Bruce French was injured during England's first innings. England then used 4 keepers in New Zealand's first innings: Bill Athey kept for the first two overs; 45-year-old veteran Bob Taylor was pulled out of the sponsor's tent to keep, immaculately, for overs 3 to 76; Bobby Parks, the Hampshire keeper, was called up for overs 77 to 140; and Bruce French kept wicket for the final ball of the innings.

[edit] Leading Test match wicket-keepers

The following wicket-keepers have taken 200 or more dismissals in Test cricket.^[3]

Leading Test match wicket-keepers by dismissals1
No	Name	Country	Matches	Caught	Stumped	Total dismissals
1	Mark Boucher2*	South Africa	131	472	22	494
2	Adam Gilchrist	Australia	96	379	37	416
3	Ian Healy	Australia	119	366	29	395
4	Rod Marsh	Australia	96	343	12	355
5	Jeffrey Dujon	West Indies	81	267	5	272
6	Alan Knott	England	95	250	19	269
7	Alec Stewart	England	82	227	14	241
8	Wasim Bari	Pakistan	81	201	27	228
9	Ridley Jacobs	West Indies	65	207	12	219
10	Godfrey Evans	England	91	173	46	219
11	Adam Parore	New Zealand	78	197	7	204

Notes in Table

1. Statistics are correct as of 6 April 2010
2. Indicates current player

[edit] Leading One day wicket-keepers

The following wicket-keepers have taken 200 or more dismissals in one day cricket.^[4]

Leading one day wicket-keepers by dismissals1
No	name	Country	Matches	Caught	Stumped	Total dismissals
1	Adam Gilchrist	Australia	287	417	55	472
2	Mark Boucher2*	South Africa	291	399	22	421
3	Kumar Sangakkara2*	Sri Lanka	291	267	74	341
4	Moin Khan	Pakistan	219	214	73	287
5	MS Dhoni*	India	186	181	60	241
6	Ian Healy	Australia	168	194	39	233
7	Brendan McCullum*	New Zealand	192	207	14	221
8	Rashid Latif	Pakistan	166	182	38	220
9	Romesh Kaluwitharana	Sri Lanka	189	131	75	206
10	Jeffrey Dujon	West Indies	169	183	21	204