Laws of cricket, not rules of cricket. Cricket isn't really that hard to understand; I'm an American and I've never played it and have only had a few chances to watch it but I'm learning. Mostly you have to unlearn your baseball assumptions and learn the strange vocabulary. The laws of cricket are arcane but are not really all that complicated. Historical note: the cricket ball is traditionally red. Two hemispheres of red leather joined at the equator by a seam of stitching. IIRC, the white cricket ball came along recently (ie, last 20-30 years) for One Day Internationals and night matches, to have a ball that was more visible under lights. Up until recently (ie, within my lifetime) cricket wasn't played at night. In fact, cricket players traditionally wore white and colored uniforms didn't come along until the same time as white balls and ODI and night matches. Cricket has changed a lot in the past several decades. Someone more conversant in cricket can correct me if I've erred on the details above.
You're pretty much spot on, Dave. Traditionally, cricket is played with one ball for each team's innings, although it can be replaced after 80 overs (or around 240 deliveries), but this is optional for the bowling team. The older the ball gets, the more it moves around and the better it grips, so it is possible to change bowling strategies depending on the state of the wicket, the weather, and the performance of your bowlers. The red ball is used in Test matches, held in daylight hours and with all white uniforms for both teams, and there is a white sightscreen on the boundary behind the bowler's arm to aid visibility for the batsman. This is fine, because as the ball gets dirtier and older, the batsman can still see it clearly against the white of the sightscreen and the fielders' clothing. When matches at night were first started (limited overs, not Tests), a white ball was used with a black sightscreen and players wore coloured uniforms. Unfortunately the white ball wears into a black colour, and a different ball is used from each end to ensure visibility. This means teams are restricted as to what type of bowling can be used - the ball swings and spins less. Thus the issue of consistency of colour is important from the point of view of using one ball for the whole innings, balancing the battle between bowler and batsman, and hence sometime in the future playing Test matches at night.
Er, 80 overs is more like 480 deliveries. Sorry, my maths isn't good after a long day on the golf course...:-)
Crickets have pink balls? Geez, I never seen that on the Discovery Channel. That must be painful.
They are always rubbing their legs together, after all.
