Last Updated on 5 days by Charbel Coorey

10 fun cricket facts you might not have known | Some fun and interesting cricket facts that you might not have known previously

Even if you’re not too familiar with cricket, one common theme is that it seems to go on forever. Whether you spent your youth playing “kwik” cricket or you’re an avid follower of the sport, cricket is woven throughout the DNA of hardcore fans around the globe.

For example, it’s almost as important to many Brits as football, so its relevance to British popular culture can’t be overstated. With such a long and storied history, there will be plenty of cricket facts you may have overlooked.

Here are 10 of our favourite cricket facts!

1. The longest ever cricket match lasted 12 days

You’ve probably heard some of the jokes in the UK about how cricket matches last a long time. Even if you’ve watched a cricket game unfold over a couple of days, though, you haven’t come anywhere near close to watching the longest match ever recorded. That honour goes to the England-South Africa Test match in 1939, which lasted an astonishing 12 days and still concluded without a clear winner. That’s either riveting or stultifying, depending on who you ask!

2. There are cricket commentators who never played T20 cricket

T20 cricket is essentially the future when it comes to competitive versions of the sport. It’s a truncated version of the standard cricket game in which each team only gets one innings, with a maximum number of 20 overs allowed. Despite the ubiquity of this form of cricket, though, many of its current commentators never got a chance to play it. In an interview with Betway, commentator Ian Bishop says that although he was initially frustrated by it, he now considers it just as “pure” as other cricket formats.

3. The first England Cricket World Cup was won by the women’s side

The inaugural Cricket World Cup (known today as the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup) was held in 1975, but two years before that, the women’s World Cup took place. The England women’s cricket team actually took home the trophy, smashing Australia with a winning score of 279/3.

4. 111 is widely considered to be an unlucky score

You’d think that achieving a score of 111 runs would be something to celebrate, wouldn’t you? However, many cricket players – especially those who are particularly superstitious – regard this score as bad luck. 111 resembles the wickets and stumps in cricket, so many view this score as a bad omen of things to come. Obviously, this has never been substantiated, because there really is no such thing as a “bad omen”. Still, it’s pretty spooky, no?

5. The phrase “good innings” comes from cricket

Have you ever heard the British idiom “good innings”, as in “he had a good innings”? That phrase originates from cricket. The idiom means that someone had a good try at something or lasted for a good amount of time, and it derives from a player’s “innings” in cricket, in which they’re able to score a high amount of runs as a batsman. The next time you use the phrase “good innings”, give some thought to its origins in the world of cricket!

6. Only one player has hit a six from the first ball of a Test match

Test cricket refers to the highest level of play internationally, with only certain teams achieving the coveted “Test status” needed to play at this level. To this day, only a single batsman has managed to hit a six from the first ball bowled at a Test match, and that’s West Indies batsman Chris Gayle. The West Indies went on to win the game against Bangladesh, of course; with a force of nature like Gayle wielding the bat, there was pretty much no way they could lose…

7. The greatest Test cricket upset happened in 1952

Way back in 1952, Australia faced off against South Africa in Melbourne in a game of Test cricket. South Africa were not looking like the favourites at the game’s outset; they were weak and untested and had only scored a single win during their last ten Test games. Despite these handicaps, South Africa emerged with a 373-run total and a 13-wicket score. Numbers-wise, this is arguably the single greatest Test cricket upset in history.

8. The highest number of Test runs sits at over 15,000

Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar currently has the record for the highest number of Test runs in history. He’s managed to rack up an incredible 15,921 runs across 200 matches, making him an incredibly formidable force at the wicket. Runners-up include Australia’s Ricky Ponting, who scored 13,378, and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, who managed 13,289. As you can tell, Tendulkar is miles above both of these players, so hats off to him!

9. The two most common reasons for pausing a game are pretty obvious

We wish we had something more quirky and out-there to relate when it comes to the two main reasons for either pausing or postponing a cricket game. However, the actual answer to this question is probably a lot more mundane than you’d like. That’s right: cricket games are most often suspended or paused for bad light or for rain. It makes sense; after all, it’s hard for players to see in front of them or play to their usual standard if the rain is bad. Still, we’d have liked something a little more outlandish.

10. Cricket was at the Olympic Games precisely once

If you’ve ever wondered why they don’t play cricket at the Olympic Games, they did, but only once. The 1900 Olympic Games played host to cricket after the sport was originally due to appear at the 1896 Games, but was withdrawn due to a lack of interest (no, really). Only two countries fielded teams for the 1900 Olympics: the UK, which was hosting the competition, and France. As you might expect, given that France isn’t a nation known for its cricketing prowess, England won.