Cricket

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 sited at each end. One team, designated the batting team, attempts to score as many runs as possible, whilst their opponents field. Each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a set number of overs have been completed, the innings ends and the two teams then swap roles. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, during their period batting.

Links To Peel
According to Margrave Of The Marshes, Peel co-founded the Dallas County Cricket Club in 1962 while living in America, although information found on the internet has stated that it was founded in 1960 by an immigrant from Africa. 

Peel recalled his days as a member of the Dallas Country Cricket Club, where he had a game broken up when members of the local university US football team invaded the pitch:

''“They were much bigger than us. And also, I have to say, a great deal more stupid too. And the same sort of attitudes dictated American foreign policy at the time, which was rather frightening.”''

In 1988, Peel played for a charity cricket match where he described on his 13 June 1988 happy to score 21 runs:

"On the weekend on Saturday in fact, I spent whole of my afternoon at a cricket match, charity cricket match, no great distance from my home. One of these things, I haven't played around two years and I expected to make a fool of myself, but I scored rather a princely twenty one. It may not sound alot to you, but it was alot to me. And I .. well taken runs I thought. A six too out of the ground, some cars ill advisely having a car boot sale on the edge of the pitch. Impressive stuff rather pleased with myself. I also took the hardest catch I ever taken in my life, one of those right up in the air things, where you have to run around the boundary standing there waiting the whole life passes by in front of you, while you wait for it to come down, usually you drop it, but on this occasion I caught it and as I say I was hugely pleased with myself."

Overall Peel was enthusiastic about playing cricket, although on his 20 July 1999 show he stated that he was not keen on watching the game:

''”I like playing cricket, I have to say. I’m not very keen on watching it. But the last team I played in, I eventually got dumped by them for wearing an unsuitable sunhat. It’s absolutely true.”''

One of Peel's favorite broadcasters was a Cricket commentator named John Arlott, who Peel mentioned on Radio Radio (Transcript):

"I used to listen to cricket commentaries when John Arlott was doing them. I wasn’t interested in cricket but it was just such a joy to hear him improvising, you know."

A keen player of Cricket, one of Peel's favorite songs was based on the lyrics of the game called When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease, which was sang by Roy Harper. The song was intended for John Walters to play at Peel's funeral, however Walters died first, and Peel's first show following his death (31 July 2001) featured the song at the very end. After Peel's death, Andy Kershaw's tribute programme to him also ended with this song.