99. Club cricket

Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are always observed. Club cricket is also now played in the United States and Canada, as both countries have large communities of immigrants from mainstream cricket-playing regions such as the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia.

Club cricket is usually played in league or cup format. Games are limited by either time or over’s. Limited overs games usually last between 20 and 60 overs per innings. A less common, but more traditional, format is limiting the game by time only. Games can range from a few hours in the evening to two days long.

Matches are generally of one innings per side except in two day games (mainly played in Australia and New Zealand). Two day matches are played over both Saturday and Sunday, or, alternatively, over successive Saturdays (though this can sometimes have unfortunate effects on the game where the condition of the pitch and ground changes radically from one week to the next). These matches usually have two innings per side.

Most players are amateur, but often cricket clubs employ the services of professionals as coaches and players.Standards of play can vary from semi-professional to occasional recreational level. While many clubs train in similar ways to professional teams, village or park cricket is played purely for fun, and club cricket is often enjoyed as much for the social element as for the competition