Ball Games Played Around the Globe- Part III

Stickball

Stickball is a street game related to baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game played in large cities in the Northeastern United States, especially New York City and Philadelphia. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ball, typically a spaldeen, pensie pinkie, high bouncer or tennis ball. The rules come from baseball and are modified to fit the situation, for bases or buildings for foul lines. The game is a variation of stick and ball games dating back to at least the 1750s.

 

Tetherball

Tetherball is a North American game for two opposing players. The equipment consists of a stationary metal pole, from which is hung volleyball from a rope, or tether. The two players stand on opposite sides of the pole. Each player tries to hit the ball one way; one clockwise, and one counter (anti-) clockwise. The game ends when one player manages to win the ball all the way around the pole so that it is stopped by the rope. It must not bounce.

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summer Olympic Games since 1964. The ball is usually played with the hands or arms, but players can legally strike or push (short contact) the ball with any part of the body.

Water polo

Water polo, or Water ball, is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores the most goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water (using a sort of kicking motion known as "eggbeater kick"), and players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing the ball into a net defended by a goalie. Water polo, therefore, has strong similarities to the land-based game of team handball.

 

Beach soccer

Beach soccer, also known as beach football or beasal, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand. The game emphasizes skill, agility and shooting at goal. The irregularity of the soft-sand playing surface leads to a totally different style of play than is used in association football, with a greater degree of improvisation. The compact pitch, much smaller than a normal association football pitch, allows players to score from anywhere on the sand, leading to an average of sixty attempts at goal in a single game. With an average of scoring rate of one goal every three or four minutes, around eleven goals are scored in total per game.

 

Cricket 

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. A run is scored by the striking batsman hitting the ball with his bat, running to the opposite end of the pitch and touching the crease there without being dismissed. The teams switch between batting and fielding at the end of an innings.

 

Golf 

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players (or golfers) use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes. Golf is defined, in the rules of golf, as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules." It is one of the few ball games that do not require a standardized playing area.

 Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a good return. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including people in wheelchairs.

 

Water basketball 

Water basketball is a water sport which mixes the rules of basketball and water polo, played in a swimming pool. Teams of five players each must shoot at the goal with a ball within a certain time after gaining possession.

 

Gilli-Danda 

Gilli-Danda is an amateur sport played in the rural areas and small towns all over India and Pakistan especially in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, as well as Cambodia and Italy. "Gilli Danda" origins in India date back to the "Maurya Dynasty" or even before that. This game is an extremely famous local game played all over the sub continent and even in South Asia. Gilli Danda is also believed to be the origin of many such European and American games like Cricket, Baseball & Softball. This is due to the similarities of this game to the current version of Cricket or Baseball.

Baseball 

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a 90-foot diamond. Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and later advance via a teammate's hit or other means. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turns at bat for each team constitutes an inning and nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins.