How to Play the Card Game Cricket

Cricket (or Card Cricket) is a two player card game which is designed to mimic the bat and ball sport of Cricket. It was originally played during World War II by British POWs, and was learned by others in the same camps, including some of the guards. This card game is mostly played in Great Britain, however it is also found in multiple other locations around the World, including South Africa. Each of the two players represents an entire Cricket team, and the game is designed to mimic one test match of two innings (with each player having two opportunities to bat and bowl). The game is played using one standard 52 card deck.

The players will take turns, alternating being the bowler and the batter. As in a real Cricket match, a coin can be tossed before play (called the Toss), with one player calling heads or tails. If that player calls correctly, he chooses whether he wants to bat first or bowl first. Alternately, players can each draw one card from the shuffled deck and the player drawing the higher card can elect to be the bowler or batter first.

During play, players will deal cards to a layout. In this layout, in certain circumstances, cards can be covered based on a sum total, and thus each card in the deck has a summing value. The following chart shows this summing value for each card in the deck:

Card	Sum Value
Ace	1
Jack, Queen, or King	10
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10	Value marked on card

The bowling player has the first turn, and the turn alternates amongst the two players.

Special combinations in Card Cricket

Special combinations in Card Cricket

During each turn, a player thus begins by thoroughly shuffling the deck and placing it face-down on the table. He then begins dealing a layout of nine cards, in three rows of three cards each. He deals in sequence starting with the upper left card in the layout and finishing with the bottom right card in the layout. However, as the player deals, if certain combinations appear as he deals the grid, he then immediately covers each of the cards that are part of that combination with new cards from the deck. As soon as such a combination is discovered, the player should immediately cover the cards in that combination with new cards from the deck. If, in covering these cards with new combinations he creates a new combination in the layout, once he completes covering the cards from the previous combination, he can then cover the cards in the new combination. After covering these cards, he can then continue dealing out the remaining cards to complete the 3 by 3 card grid.

The special combinations that might be found are as follows:

Combination totaling 11 - If the player finds exactly two cards that form an additive sum of 11, the player may cover both of these cards with new cards from the deck.
Row of Three - If a player finds three cards of the exact same rank (such as three tens or three Kings) in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line, he may cover these three cards with new cards dealt from the top of the deck.
King, Queen, Jack - If there is a King, Queen, and Jack, found anywhere uncovered in the grid, the player may cover each of these three cards with a new cards from the top of the deck.

A player is never required to cover valid combinations with new cards (but usually would choose to, as this will increase his score). However, if he does opt to so cover the cards, he must do this immediately, interrupting filling in the grid to cover these cards. If any additional special combinations are created in covering these cards, once he has covered the requisite cards from the previous combination, he may then begin covering cards for the new combinations if he so chooses. In addition, any special scores or results of the three card combination are still recorded (such as extra runs earned or a wicket falling). Although the player must deal to the grid in specific order (left to right, top to bottom), in covering cards from the special combination, he may look at the top card in the deck before placing it over one of the cards to thus be covered.

The player continues playing cards (and covering valid combinations) until he has fully filled the entire grid and there are no more valid combinations to cover. If a player manages to exhaust the entire deck and still has valid moves or empty spaces yet to fill in the grid, he gathers all the cards up back into a face-down pile, cuts the deck (without shuffling) and begins dealing to an entirely new grid.

A player's turn ends once his grid is full and he has no additional available combinations that can be covered in that layout. A player should keep a count of the total number of cards played during that round (including those to multiple layouts dealt, if applicable). Once this occurs, the results of the play of cards to this grid will be different dependent on whether a player is the batter or the bowler on that particular turn:

Scoring in Card Cricket

Scoring in Card Cricket

For the bowling player, if he manages to play a total of 21 cards, this equates to the fall of one wicket. For each additional 21 cards he managed to play during that turn, one additional wicket falls. Thus, the bowling player, over the course of one or more of these turns, should keep a running total of the number of wickets that fall. Each player has a total of 10 wickets before their turn as batter ends. Thus, once these 10 wickets have fallen, the inning will immediately end for the current batter. For each combination of Jack, Queen, King found in the layout during the bowling player's turn, the batting player earns one additional run. For each combination of three cards of the exact same rank in a line, the batting player earns 4 additional runs.

For the batting player, he earns one run for each card he manages to play during that turn. For each combination of a Jack, Queen, and King played on the layout, if these cards are of mixed suits, he earns one additional run. If the Jack, Queen, and King are all of the same suit, he scores three additional runs. For a combination of three cards of the exact same rank in a line (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal), this adds one to the number of wickets that have fallen (the batsman has been run out) for this player. However, the bowling player must see and announce this in order for him to claim and add the wicket. If this wicket totals 10 for the turn, the batting player's inning immediately ends.

The bowling and batting player continue to alternate turns, dealing out these layouts until a total of 10 wickets fall for the current batting player (which will occur over the course of several turns). Once this total of 10 wickets fall, regardless of whether the batter or bowler are currently in process of taking their turn, that inning ends. The bowler and batter then swap roles, with the previous batter becoming the bowler and the previous bowler set as the batter. With the roles reversed each player again continues playing over a number of turns until a total of 10 wickets fall. Once each player has had the opportunity to be the batter and bowler once, a round ends. A second round, played identically to the first is then played. After two full rounds have been played, the player with the higher total number of runs is declared the entire game winner.

Variations and Optional Rules

Alternate Rule set: An alternate rule set for playing this game was submitted in 2006 by Derek Hill, in the letters section of the British newspaper, the Daily Mail.

The alternate version of the same is played very similarly to the standard game with a few differences which make for a faster and simpler game. The following are the differences as described for that version:

In this version, the batting player starts first instead of the bowling player.
Showing a Jack, Queen and King on the grid still may be covered by the player whose turn it is, but do not earn any runs for the batting player as in the standard version of the game.
Three cards in a line on any grid of the exact same rank always cause one wicket to fall for the current batter, regardless of which player is actually playing his turn.
Three cards in a direct sequence (regardless of suit) in a line on the grid, during either player's turn, force the fall of one wicket, for the current batter. For the purposes of these sequences, the sequencing of the cards in the deck are as follows: Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace. Aces can be considered either high or low, and thus can appear at the top or bottom of a sequence which contains them.

In all other aspects this alternate version of the game is played identically to the standard game as described above.

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