Ebbie, there was a time when they could last longer but these days (and always in my memory!) they do set a time limit.

There are varients of the game with different limits, the shorter one day versions being limited on overs (I guess in US terms the number of pitches or throws allowed). The one day in a sense can be more exciting as you get to see a result in a short time but the test matches are aptly named and are the big challenge and fascinating even if they don't always produce a chase for runs in a limited time.

For out and out excitement, the last test has to rank as one of the best ever games of cricket. It had everything and down to 2 runs left, none of us knew which way it was going to go. And you saw so many twists and turns, the most significat IMO being "freddy" Flintoff smacking (yes he's a big powerful bloke who can really thump the ball) the ball all over the park, This at a time England seemed dead and buried, On the other hand one only had to watch what Shane Warne was doing with the ball...

In case you don't know Ebbie, in cricket there are different types of bowler and the captain decides who to use when in the game. There are fast bolwers, who can bowl the ball at the batsman at speeds of 90mph but Warne is a slower bowler, a leg spinner and the greatest master of this art I have ever seen. He can make one ball bounce and turn at almost 90 degrees from its original direction and another gathering a little pace on the bounce moving striagt on. And I don't think any batsmen has ever fully worked out exactly what ball is going to do what.

A fast bowler may be trying to do different things like land the ball on the seam to get a deflection/movement or make the ball swing (get a little movement in the air so the ball almost takes a bend in its course). These different arts are so specialised that I believe there has only ever been one bowler who could do more than one style at test level. He (Garry Sobers) is just before my real memory unfortnately.

Anyway, thats just part of the game, deciding what bowler to use when. Then you've got where to put the fielders, eg. do you have them all standing close in case a batsman makes a mistake or do you have them staning further away in case they are hitting the ball well to save runs, have you got a trap that a batsman may fall into? Then there are individual contests within the main contest - effectively the batsman and the bowler trying to show each other just who is the boss of who and so on.

I hope I've managed to explain some of that to you at least fractionally reasonably. Cricket to those of us who enjoy it is absolutely fascinating with all its aspects. I enjoy a lot of sports to watch, mostly ball games including football (soccer) and rugby but for the ultimate challenge, I can think of no game that comes close to cricket.