Inside Out

e-lesson Week starting: 21st July 2008

1. Cricket
The subject of this week’s lesson is cricket, a traditional sport that is loved by
millions of people, but which is also baffling to many others.

Level
Intermediate and above (equivalent to CEF level B1 and above)

How to use the lesson

1. Brainstorm on the subject of cricket. Do any of your students know anything about
it? Would they say it has similarities with any other sports? In which countries do
they think it is popular?

2. Divide the class into two groups, A and B. Give one copy of Worksheet A to each
student in Group A along with the corresponding part of Worksheet C, and one copy
of Worksheet B to each student in Group B with the corresponding part of
Worksheet C.

3. Tell your students they have the same text on cricket, but that there is different
information missing from each worksheet. Explain that they are going to ask a
member of the other group some questions to help them complete the text, but first
they need to prepare the questions.

4. Give the students at least ten minutes to read through the text and check any new
vocabulary, then give them another ten minutes to work together in their groups to
prepare and write down the questions they need to ask in order to complete the text.
Monitor this activity to make sure that the students are formulating the questions
correctly (see suggestions below).

5. When all the students have prepared their questions, divide them into pairs so that
each student from Group A is working with a student from Group B. They should
take it in turns to ask and answer the questions they have prepared and write the
answers in the spaces in the text. Tell students not to look at their partner’s text.
Allow at least ten minutes for this activity.

6. When both students have finished asking and answering, allow them to compare
worksheets. Then check answers in open class.

7. Ask the students to put away Worksheets A and B or to temporarily hand them
back to you. Then, keeping the students in pairs, hand out Worksheet D and give them
another ten minutes for the gap-fill exercise in which they have to fill in individual
words that are now missing from the text. If the students cannot remember what the
words are, encourage them to try to work them out from the context of the sentence.
You might also want to point out that some of the words feature in the glossary.

8. Check answers in open class.

This page has been downloaded from www.insideout.net.

It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2008.
 Inside Out
Answers:

Exercise 1 (questions/answers)

1. Who tends to be quite proud of cricket’s subtle complexities? (cricket fans)

2. Where did cricket originate? (England)
3. Where did cricket spread to? (many parts of the former British Empire)
4. Which country / Who are the current cricket world champions? (Australia)
5. What is cricket a bit similar to? (baseball)
6. Who probably wouldn’t appreciate the comparison between cricket and baseball?
(cricket fans)
7. What is the shape of a cricket field? (roughly oval)
8. What is a cricket field usually at least 50% bigger than? (the average football pitch)
9. How many players are there in a cricket team? (eleven)
10. How many players does the batting team have on the pitch at any one time? (two)
11. What is the batsmen’s objective? (to score as many runs as possible)
12. What does the batsman use to score runs? (a wooden bat)
13. What does the bowler have to make the ball do before it beaches the batsman?
(bounce off the pitch)
14. What does the bowler try to do? (get the batsman ‘out’)
15. How high is the wicket / are the three vertical pieces of wood in the wicket?
(seventy centimetres)
16. What happens when ten of a team’s players are out, or when the bowling team has
thrown the ball a certain number of times? (it is the other team’s turn to bat)
17. How long do the longest cricket matches last? (five days)
18. How long do the faster-moving cricket matches last? (one day or just a few hours)

Exercise 2 (gap-fill)

1. easiest 2. subtle 3. proud 4. originated 5. Empire 6. appreciate

7. tend 8. sophisticated 9. oval 10. turns 11. score 12. wooden 13. end
14. leather 15. thrown 16. reaches 17. block 18. catches 19. winner
20. action

2. Related Websites
Send your students to these websites, or just take a look yourself.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/default.stm
The cricket section of the BBC Sports website. Includes a section on laws and
equipment. Intermediate level and above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket
The entry for cricket in Wikipedia. Lots of information. Intermediate level and above.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Do-the-English-Love-Cricket?&id=669823
A text (approximately 300 words) addressing the question ‘Why do the English love
cricket?’ Intermediate level and above.

This page has been downloaded from www.insideout.net.

It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2008.