CRICKET - credits, sources, and what is reconstructed ===================================================== THE ORIGINAL ------------ Cricket is a folk game with no single author. It was recognised in England as early as 1700; the earliest known Code of Laws was drawn up in 1744 by "Noblemen and Gentlemen" who used the Artillery Ground in London, revised in 1755 by "Several Cricket Clubs, particularly the Star and Garter in Pall Mall", and again in 1774 and 1786. Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was formed in 1787 and adopted the first MCC Code of Laws on 30 May 1788. MCC has been recognised as the sole authority for the Code ever since and holds the World Copyright. (All of the above is from the "Significant dates in the history of the Laws" page of the source document below.) Publisher / custodian of the Laws : Marylebone Cricket Club, Lord's Cricket Ground, London NW8 8QN Governing body : MCC, with the International Cricket Council as the sport's global governing body THIS IS AN INDEPENDENT REIMPLEMENTATION. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or connected to Marylebone Cricket Club or the International Cricket Council. No MCC code, art or asset is used. The Laws are quoted only as the rules this simulation implements. THE RULES SOURCE ---------------- MCC, "The Laws of Cricket (2017 Code 4th Edition - 2026)", Official, (c) Marylebone Cricket Club 2026, World Copyright Reserved. https://www.lords.org/mcc/about-the-laws-of-cricket https://www.lords.org/getattachment/8c96a135-beff-4a46-b5c6-2a02a7245386/Laws-of-Cricket-2017-Code-4th-Edition-(2026).pdf Also consulted and diffed against, clause by clause, for every Law used here: MCC, "The Laws of Cricket (2017 Code 3rd Edition - 2022)". https://www.lords.org/getmedia/db31df04-e6b0-446e-8fc0-34674fb16c71/Laws-Of-Cricket-3rd-Edition-2022_1.pdf The LBW predicate is semantically identical between the two editions; only its wording changed ("pitches" became "first lands", "full-pitch" became "without landing"). Law 4.1 gained three ball sizes and rounds the senior ball's lower weight bound from 155.9 g to 156 g. A NOTE ON WHICH EDITION IS IN FORCE. The 4th Edition's preface is signed 1 October 2026. This build implements the 4th Edition. Where a difference exists it is recorded above; none of them changes a verdict this game can reach. CITATION STYLE. The document identifies its Laws as "LAW 21 No ball" in its headings and cross-references them in running text as "Law 7.2 (The bowling crease)", with sub-clauses nesting to four levels (2.3.1.1 exists). That is the style used throughout this build. There are no Rules, no sections and no letter suffixes. THE PHYSICS SOURCES ------------------- R. D. Mehta, "Cricket Ball Aerodynamics: Myth Versus Science", Experimental Physics Branch, NASA Ames Research Center (2000). NASA NTRS document 20000112958. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20000112958/downloads/20000112958.pdf Used for: the mechanism of conventional and reverse swing; the measured peak side force (0.3 times the ball's weight at about 30 m/s with the seam at 20 degrees and 11.4 rev/s of backspin); the onset speed of about 15 m/s; the three measured reverse-swing onset speeds (100 mph for a new two-piece ball, about 80 mph for a new four-piece ball, about 65 mph for one of roughly 100 overs' use); the finding that 75 % of the lateral deflection happens over the second half of the flight; and the "swinging an old ball" case in which a roughness contrast produces swing at zero seam angle. R. D. Mehta, "Aerodynamics of sports balls", Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics (1985); NASA NTRS 19850049027 (abstract). Cited for context only. R. Cross, "The Physics of Cricket", School of Physics, University of Sydney. https://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/cricket.html Used for: the air density (1.21 kg/m^3); the drag coefficient, which his two independent statements (terminal velocity 123 km/h, and drag = 1.7 times the ball's weight at 160 km/h) pin at 0.545 and 0.547; the industry drop test (2.0 m onto a heavy steel plate rebounding to 0.56-0.76 m, so a coefficient of restitution between 0.529 and 0.616 - Cross states plainly that "There is no such official rule for a cricket ball"); the slide-versus-grip bounce dichotomy; the bat collision formula v_out = E*v_in + (1+E)*V with E from about 0.1 near the tip to about 0.3 half way up the blade; and the sweet spot about 150 mm from the tip. WHAT IS FAITHFUL ---------------- Every dimension in the game is a Law's own figure, and the game's own harness checks each one against its imperial original: Law 4.1 ball 156-163 g, circumference 22.4-22.9 cm Law 5 bat at most 10.8 cm wide and 96.5 cm long (Appendix B) Law 6.1 pitch 20.12 m by 3.05 m Law 7.2 bowling crease 2.64 m, its BACK EDGE being the line Law 7.3 popping crease 1.22 m in front, BACK EDGE, unlimited in length Law 7.4 return creases 1.32 m either side, INSIDE EDGES, unlimited Law 8.1 wicket 22.86 cm wide - over the OUTER FACES of the outer stumps, which was settled by measuring Appendix D's own raster pixels Law 8.2 stump tops 71.12 cm, diameter 3.50-3.81 cm Law 8.3 bail 10.95 cm overall, barrel 5.40, spigots 3.50 and 2.06, projecting no more than 1.27 cm above the stumps Law 17.1 an over is 6 valid balls; Laws 17.3.2.3/4 exclude No balls and Wides Law 19.6.2 six and four; Law 19.7.1 requires a Six to be struck by the bat and first grounded beyond the boundary Law 21 No ball, including the three-condition foot Law 21.5, the double-bounce and off-the-pitch clauses 21.7, and Law 41.7.1's waist-height non-landing delivery Law 22 Wide ball, including 22.1.3's head height, and 22.4.1's rule that a striker can neither manufacture nor avoid a Wide by moving Law 23 Byes and Leg byes, including 23.2.1's two conditions and 23.3's disallowance Law 29.1 the wicket is broken when a bail is COMPLETELY REMOVED Law 30.1.1 a batter is in their ground if person or bat is grounded behind the popping crease Law 32.1.1, 32.2 Bowled, and its precedence over every other mode Law 33.1, 33.4, 33.5 Caught, no runs, and its precedence after Bowled Law 36 Leg before wicket, as the conjunction of 36.1.1 to 36.1.5, with 36.2.1's first-interception rule, 36.2.2's simultaneous bat-and-pad rule, 36.2.3's straight-line projection and 36.3's off side Law 21.17, 22.9 what a No ball and a Wide each rule out RECONSTRUCTED - the Laws do not fix these, and say so ----------------------------------------------------- 1. THE WIDE DISTANCE. Law 22.1.2 says only that a ball is wide "unless it is sufficiently within reach for the striker to be able to hit it with the bat by means of a normal cricket stroke". No distance appears anywhere in the Laws; the familiar painted wide guideline is a playing regulation, not a Law. Reconstructed here as one maximum legal bat length (96.5 cm, which IS from Law 5) to the off side of where the striker stands, and half of that on the leg side where the body blocks the stroke. 2. WAIST AND HEAD HEIGHT, for Law 41.7.1 and Law 22.1.3. Both belong to the striker, not to the ground, and the Laws fix neither. Reconstructed from standard stature proportions: waist at 0.60 of stature, head height at stature, for a 1.78 m striker. 3. THE PITCH'S FRICTION AND RESTITUTION. Law 6.2: "The umpires shall be the sole judges of the fitness of the pitch for play." The Laws fix no bounce, hardness or friction at all. The four pitch types here take their normal restitution from Cross's measured drop-test band and their friction from the requirement that the slide/grip transition falls between the two worked cases Cross describes. An extra term for turf deformation is included and labelled, because a rigid-sphere bounce alone cannot lose as much speed as Cross reports. 4. THE FORCE NEEDED TO REMOVE A BAIL. Law 29.1 states a GEOMETRIC criterion - "at least one bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps" - not a physical one, and Law 29.2.2 adds that mere disturbance is not removal. No force, energy or speed threshold appears in Law 29, Law 8 or Appendix D. The predicate here is MCC's and exact; the threshold is derived from the bail geometry the Laws do fix: Law 8.3.1's 1.27 cm cap on the projection above the stumps forces a groove at least as deep as the barrel diameter minus that cap, and a bail leaves its groove when the stump top is given more than sqrt(2 g h). The barrel diameter itself, the wood density and the ball-on-stump restitution are reconstructed. 5. THE SEAM'S EXTRA DEVIATION OFF THE PITCH. Mehta says only that "more movement can be obtained off the pitch if the ball bounces on the seam". The size of it is reconstructed. 6. THE RELEASE POINT AND THE BAT SPEED. Neither is a Law. 7. THE FIELD. There IS a fielding side - you simply cannot place it. It is a fixed ring of ten fielders at reconstructed positions (mid-off, cover, point, third man, fine leg, square leg, midwicket, mid-on, long-off, long-on) with a reconstructed 3.4 m reach; a ground stroke passing within that of a fielder is cut off there, and the runs follow from how long the ball takes to be returned. The Laws place no fielder anywhere, so every one of those numbers is reconstructed. Law 18's definition of a run and Law 19's boundary allowances are applied exactly. This matters more than it looks: without the ring, every well-timed stroke reached the rope. A perfectly-timed robot measured a strike rate of 305 with 149 boundaries in eight innings, which is not cricket. 8. CATCHES. Whether an edge or a lofted stroke is caught is modelled probabilistically from how long the ball hangs and how far it travels, because the field cannot be moved to make the catch. Law 33's conditions for a fair catch are otherwise implemented. 9. THE BOUNDARY. Law 19.1 leaves it to the umpires before the toss. 68 m is used here, which is a typical square boundary. RECONSTRUCTED. 10. THE TIMING WINDOW. How much a millisecond of mistiming costs is not a Law. The standard deviation used (24 ms) was chosen by measuring the game's own timing curve: a robot batting at a fixed offset from perfect scores 330 runs per hundred balls at 0 ms and 21 at 50 ms either side. WHAT DIFFERS FROM A REAL MATCH, DELIBERATELY --------------------------------------------- - It is a batting-and-bowling contest, not eleven a side. There is one batter at a time and the field cannot be set, because a browser player cannot act on a fielding side. Laws about the non-striker, substitutes, runners, the follow-on, the toss, declarations, intervals and unfair play are outside the scope. - Dismissals implemented: Bowled (Law 32), Caught (Law 33) and LBW (Law 36). Run out (Law 38), Stumped (Law 39), Hit wicket (Law 35), Hit the ball twice (Law 34), Obstructing the field (Law 37) and Timed out (Law 40) are not, because each needs a fielding side or a second batter. - DRS and "umpire's call" are ICC playing conditions, not Laws, and are absent. An LBW here is decided on the geometry, with no margin either way. - Law 31 requires an appeal before a batter is given out. There is no fielding side to appeal, so a dismissal is given when its conditions are met. FINDINGS ABOUT THE SOURCE ITSELF -------------------------------- Three places where MCC's own printed figures do not agree with each other. All three are reported rather than quietly resolved, and the harness measures each: - Law 4.1 gives the ball's circumference as "8.81 in/22.4 cm". 8.81 in is 22.377 cm. Over the mid-range that is 0.31 mm of circumference, or 49.8 micrometres of radius - enough to move an LBW that would just clip a stump. - Law 6.1 gives the pitch as "10 ft/3.05 m in width" and bounds it by lines "5 ft/1.52 m" either side of the middle stumps. 2 x 1.52 = 3.04, not 3.05: a 1 cm disagreement inside one sentence. Law 21.7.2 decides "off the pitch" by reference to the SIDES, so the 1.52 m half-width is the operative figure and is what this build uses. - Law 7.4 gives the return creases as "4 ft 4 in/1.32 m"; the imperial is 1.3208 m. A 0.8 mm gap, which the harness shows can flip a No ball. And one thing the Laws leave genuinely undefined: "between wicket and wicket", "the line of the off stump" and "a normal cricket stroke" appear nowhere else in either edition, including Appendix A, which exists to define words not defined in the text. This build reads the corridor as the outer faces of the outer stumps, which is what Appendix D's own dimension arrows show when its raster is measured; the harness also evaluates every case under the stump-centre reading and reports that 4.64 % of them differ. TOOLS AND ART ------------- All code is original and hand-written. The renderer is hand-written WebGL2 with no libraries. The icons and the social card are generated with Pillow by a script that is not shipped.