🇬🇧
Ball Sports
Cricket
A bat-and-ball team sport where two teams take turns batting and fielding, scoring runs by running between wickets or hitting boundaries.
🇮🇪
Traditional & Cultural Sports
Hurling
Ireland's ancient national sport — 15 vs 15 played with a wooden hurley and a small leather sliotar, described by some as 'the fastest field game in the world'.
Two bat-and-ball games born in the British Isles — one gentle, one ferociously fast.
| Attribute | Cricket | Hurling |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Ball Sports | Traditional & Cultural Sports |
| Origin | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 🇮🇪 Ireland |
| Estimated origin | c. 16th century | pre-5th century (Táin Bó Cúailnge references) |
| Team or individual | Team | Team |
| Players | 11 per team | 15 per team |
| Playing area | cricket ground | pitch |
| Field dimensions | Oval field, roughly 137–150 m across; 22-yard (20.12 m) pitch at the centre. | 130–145 m long × 80–90 m wide — larger than a football pitch. |
| Match duration | ~200 min | ~70 min |
| Match structure | One or two innings per side; format determines length. | Two halves of 35 minutes at senior inter-county level. |
| Scoring | Runs are scored by running between the wickets or by boundaries. Wickets fall when a batter is dismissed. The team with more runs at the end wins. | Scores are written 'goals-points' — e.g. 2-15 means 2 goals + 15 points = 21 aggregate. |
| Objective | Score more runs than the opposition before losing your wickets — or by bowling them out for fewer runs in the overs available. | Score more than the opposition by shooting the sliotar into the goal (3 points) or over the crossbar between the posts (1 point). |
| Governing body | International Cricket Council | Gaelic Athletic Association |
| Olympic sport | Yes | No |
| Popularity | global | regional |
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