### Instruction:
what is cricket and why is it popular in Asian countries?

### Response:
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in Asian countries. One of the worlds biggest cricket teams are India. The reason for so much popularity is multifold. Top reason is when English invaded South east asia they brought this game to the continent. Originally this game was only played by upper class, and later adopted by other classes as well. To play cricket you need one bat and one ball. Bat will be made up of wood and ball can be either tennis ball or hard ball which is made up of leather. You need a wicket which is 3 sticks and 2 bails on top. One person throws the ball and other person try to protect his wickets with the bat. The length of the wicket is 22 yards. Batsman can hit the ball for runs. To make runs, there are two ways. First is to hit the boundary, which can fetch either 4 or 6 runs. Second way is to run between the wickets and make as many runs as you can. There are other ways to get runs as well, like if its a wide ball or no ball. For a team to win a match, they either have to make more runs then the other team or get them all out before they can make more runs then them. Most popular cricket format is T20, then One day internationals (ODI) and then Test matches. T20 is the shortest form and have 20 overs and 2 innings. ODI has 50 overs and 2 innings. Whereas Test is the longest format and can carry on for 5 days, with 90 overs every day and up to 2 innings per team. Both men and women play cricket. Worlds biggest cricket league is IPL in india. PSL in Pakistan is considered as the second best league. There are 2 cricket worldcups. T20 worldcup is played every 2 years and ODI worldcup is played every 4 years. There is also World Test and ODI championship as well, which is player every year.