Don’t expect many donkey drops at the Coliseum the next week and a half. But there will be plenty of sloggers, dibbly dobblies and, if you listen closely, the sweet – or sickening – sounds of a death rattle echoing through the A’s old home.

Major League Cricket is making its debut in the Bay Area this week. The six-team league, which includes the San Francisco Unicorns, was established three years ago in the hope of exposing the world’s second-most popular sport (after soccer) to a new audience.

Cricket is not new to the United States. The 1844 match between the U.S. and Canada in Toronto is considered the sport’s first international event. But for the most part, interest in cricket in the United States has drawn mostly, well, crickets. Many Americans had no idea there was even a U.S. national team until, led by Oracle developer Saurabh Netravalkar, the U.S. stunned Pakistan in a T20 World Cup match last summer.

The Bay Area is one of the stronger cricket communities in the U.S., so the games in Oakland could draw significant interest. It’ll also appeal to curious sports fans.

For those unfamiliar with cricket, here is a primer about the sport and what’s happening at the Coliseum starting Thursday.

What is the MLC?

The San Francisco Unicorns were a charter member of Major League Cricket in 2023, along with the Los Angeles Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians New York, the Seattle Orcas, the Texas Super Kings, and the Washington Freedom. All the games were played in Grand Prairie, Texas and Morrisville, North Carolina the first two seasons. This season Oakland and Lauderhill, Florida will host nine games each, with the 16 others in Grand Prairie.

The first nine games of the season will be played at the Coliseum, starting with the Unicorns’ opener Thursday at 6 p.m. against Netravalkar and the defending champion Freedom in a rematch of last year’s championship match. The Unicorns also play Saturday (6 p.m. vs. the Knight Riders) and Sunday (6 p.m. vs. MI New York).

The Oakland leg of the season concludes on June 18, when the league moves to Texas for two weeks before the regular season ends in Florida. The playoffs are July 8-13 in Texas.

What’s going on?

Cricket is often compared to baseball. Both are bat-and-ball games where the object is to hit the ball where your opponent isn’t and to score runs. Bowlers, like pitchers, use high velocity and deception to get the ball past their opponent (in this case, to knock over the wicket or stumps) or induce a catchable ball to the 11 defensive players in the field.

Cricket is played on an oval – balls can be batted or deflected in any direction and potentially produce runs. There is no foul territory, which baseball fans who attended games at the Coliseum will find amusing.

MLC plays Twenty20 cricket, a streamlined – and increasingly popular – version of the sport. It’s only been around since 2003 but will be part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, ending cricket’s 128-year absence at the Games. Test matches, the most traditional form of cricket, can last up to five days. One-Day Internationals (ODIs) last around eight hours.

T20 matches take about three hours, and batters tend to be more aggressive because of the condensed format. Following a coin toss to see who bats first, each team plays one inning, which lasts until the team has attempted to bat 120 balls, has scored more points than its opponent or made 10 outs.

There are 10 ways to record an out in cricket. The most common are: caught (a batted ball is caught in the air by a fielder), bowled (the batsman misses the pitch and it knocks down the wicket), given leg before wicket (the batsman used their body to block the ball from hitting the wicket) and run out (a runner is beat to the wicket by a throw or a fielder).

At the center of the playing area is the strip, a 66-foot-long (and 10-foot-wide) stretch with wooden wickets at either end. There is one batter positioned at either end of the strip, and the bowler faces one batter at a time.

If the ball is put in play, the batter and partner stationed on the bowler’s side of the strip can run toward the opposite end (with bats in hand) before one of the fielders knocks down a wicket with a throw, but they don’t have to. (Think of the kids’ game rundown or hotbox.) If the throw beats the runner, they are out.

If both runners are successful, it’s worth one run. If they can cross the length of the strip twice, it’s worth two, and so on. If a ball rolls or bounces outside of the edge of the oval (called the boundary and typically roped off), it’s worth four points. A ball that clears the boundary on the fly (between 250-300 feet) is the cricket equivalent of a home run and worth six points.

Using a straight-arm delivery – bending your elbow to throw is illegal – the hardest-throwing bowlers don’t quite reach 100 miles per hour. The balls are slightly harder and smaller than a baseball. The balls have a raised seam down the middle, which is very useful because most “pitches” are intended to be skipped on the ground near the feet of the batters. Some bowlers are skilled enough to skip the ball around the batter to strike down the wicket.

Bowlers throw six pitches and then are subbed out (called an over). Unlike in baseball, bowlers can sub back in, but only for four overs. T20 matches consist of 20 overs. Batsmen continue until they make an out.

Who’s winning?

A successful inning for an individual batter is around 40 runs, and 160 is considered a good team score.

But following the score as the match progresses can be confusing.

The first thing to remember is the teams do not alternate batting. Team A will face its 120 pitches or make 10 outs, then Team B bats.

Here is how last year’s title match between the Unicorns and the Freedom looked:

Freedom 207/5 (20 overs)/ Unicorns 111 (16 overs)

What it meant: The Freedom batted first and scored 207 points and made five outs in 20 overs. The Unicorns scored 111 points before they made their 10th – and final – out in the 16th over.

IN CASE YOU HEAR IT

Wicket – The Aloha of cricket jargon has multiple meanings. The most common is the three wooden posts (or stumps) positioned behind the batter and held together at the top by two bails. The pitch, the strip in the center of the playing surface where the bowler faces the batter, can also be called the wicket, and a batter who is put out can be referred to as taking a wicket.

Sticky wicket – Originates from references to when a wet pitch (or the wicket) is drying out after a rainstorm, creating inconsistent bounces. Also known as sticky dog.

Biffer – A big, aggressive hitter looking to slog the ball – hit it high and far. A batter swinging for the “boundary” and six points. The opposite is a rabbit, who bats low in the order and is not a good hitter. Even worse is a ferret.

Pie chucker – A bowler who is easy to get a hit against. Also called cafeteria and buffet bowling. A dibbly dobbly is an easy pitch to hit, but can induce non-scoring contact.

Crease – A series of straight white lines painted at the edge of the pitch near the wickets used, among other things, to judge if a run has been scored.

Death rattle – The sound of the ball missing the bat and breaking the wicket.

Duck – When a batter is dismissed without scoring a run. Golden duck is retired on the first ball thrown.

Peach – A high velocity ball that is practically unhittable. A corker is similar, but because of location or movement and not speed. A donkey drop can also be nearly unhittable – a lob, similar to the eephus pitch in baseball thrown as high as possible in an attempt to drop behind the batsman onto the wicket.

Perfume ball – A ball that bounces near a batter’s face, close enough to smell it.

Sledging – Trash-talking during the match. Some players are world class.

Gardening – When a batter scratches at the pitch with his bat between deliveries, usually to try and smooth out the surface. A pitch that is uneven or has cracks is considered spicy.

Boot Hill – The defensive area to be covered on the batsman’s dominant side. High upside to get an out but perilous because of the location. Much like the “hot corner” in baseball.

Chucker – A bowler who delivers with a bent elbow. Implies the bowler is cheating.

If you want to go

There will be at least one match at the Coliseum every day from Thursday through June 18. Two matches are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

The games will be streamed on WillowTV, Sling TV and CBS Sports Network.

More information: https://www.majorleaguecricket.com/

Originally Published: June 11, 2025 at 3:35 AM PDT