<DIV><DIV>Cricket Explained offers the sports enthusiast a user-friendly introduction to baseball's British cousin, a game that shares with America's national pastime the common ancestor "rounders". <P>This is the definitive beginner's guide to the game of cricket, written by a world authority on the sport, the co-inventor of the Coopers & Lybrand World Cricket Ratings System. Cricket Explained takes the reader from the game's fundamentals -- basic rules, terminology, equipment -- to the finer points of strategy, individual playing styles, and cricket lore. <P>The book includes a combined glossary/index for easy reference and is illustrated throughout with the lighthearted drawings of British cartoonist Mark Stevens. So even if you don't know "short leg" from "silly mid off" or a bowler from a batsman, you'll come away from Cricket Explained with an understanding for this truly international sport which, like baseball, is loved both for its elegant simplicity and its vexing complexity. <P>Among the topics covered in Cricket Explained's concise, user-friendly entries are: <BR>-- Cricket's history<BR>-- Making sense of the action on the field<BR>-- Batsmen and the batting order<BR>-- Fielders and fielding positions<BR>-- Fielding and batting tactics<BR>-- Scoring and statistics<BR>-- Bowling strategy<BR>-- How many players are required<BR>-- How runs are scored, outs are made, and a game is won<BR>-- Umpires and the rules<BR>-- Bowlers and their individual styles<BR>-- Different types of cricket played throughout the world <BR></P></DIV></DIV>