Cricket has players.
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field , at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket ( a set of three wooden stumps ) at each end . At the start of each game , two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play . The play begins when a member of the fielding team , known as the bowler , delivers the ball from one end of the pitch to the other , towards the wicket at that end , in front of which stands one of the batsmen , known as the striker . The most common forms of dismissal are bowled , when the bowler hits the stumps directly with the ball ; leg before wicket , when the batsman prevents the ball from hitting the stumps with his body instead of his bat ; and caught , when the batsman hits the ball into the air and it is intercepted by a fielder before touching the ground .