Those of you that are readers of the comments of open threads will know that I watch cricket.

Being that they are both sports where someone throws a ball and you try to hit it with a bat, baseball and cricket have some similarities.

And that whole having too much time on my hands, led me to imagine what the Yankees would be like as a cricket team. So I wrote this.

First here's a basic primer for those who don't watch cricket (so everyone here on PSA, except for like 4 people):

Here's what a pitch essentially looks like:

Two sets of 3 stumps at the two ends of the dirt patch in the center. If a ball makes it to the boundary after hitting the ground, that's worth four runs. If it clears it in the air (think home run), it's worth 6. Otherwise you score runs by running between the two sets of stumps.

A cricket team has 11 players. Most teams will often pick 6 batsman (batters obviously), 4 bowlers(cricket equivalent of pitcher), and a wicketkeeper (think catcher). Teams will often have an all-arounder, which is someone that is decent at both batting and bowling. If i did this for all baseball teams, most wouldn't have an all-arounder. But seeing as the Yankees have a position player who has pitched, we shall use him. Two players are out there batting, with one of them on strike (the one who's being bowled at). At the end of each over, a different bowler bowls the next over at the opposite set of stumps than the previous over was bowled at. Thus which batsman is batting is rotated by running between the wickets and the end of overs.

Before the start of any match, there's a coin flip to decide who bats first. The team captain are allowed out on the pitch (field), to look at whether they would bowl or bat first. (Because your bouncing the ball, instead of throwing it in the air, the conditions of the pitch/field can have much more of an impact on the result of the game, which is why the home team doesn't always bat last like in baseball.) Whoever wins the coin flip decides whether to bat or bowl. (I'm a fan of an old cricket saying which is: 9 times out of 10 you bat first, and 1 times out of 10 you think really, really hard about bowling first, and then you bat.)

Now, I'm actually going to give three different lineups, because cricket has 3 different "formats": test/first-class cricket, one day cricket, and Twenty20. Let's start with one day cricket. Coin flip decides who bats. Each teams has 50 overs to bat (an over=6 deliveries, so they 300 deliveries on which to score runs. There's usually more than 300 because of no balls and wides, but i won't get into that.) Team A bats first. They bat until: they complete their 50 overs, or until 10 of their batsman have gotten out leaving only 1 left to bat, this is called being "all out". Someone from the top of the order doesn't come in from the top of the order, they're done. Team B bats until: they reach 50 overs, they're all out, or until they've surpassed Team A's total, at which point they win. If they don't surpass Team A's total in their 50 overs, or if they're all out with less than Team A, Team A wins.

Twenty20 is the same as one day cricket, only with each team getting 20 overs, or 120 deliveries to bat.

Test/first-class cricket is the famed 5 day matches. I won't get into all the details, but in this format each team gets to bat twice, and there are no restrictions on the amount of overs they face.

Another thing that I have to talk about is the ball. Unlike baseball, you don't get a new ball everytime one goes out of play. It would be way too much of an advantage for the bowlers to have a new ball every couple minutes, you get one new ball at the start of the innings. (In test cricket, you can change the ball after 80 overs.)

Now that that's over (sorry had to do that so that this would make any sense at all, even though it still probably doesn't), let's get on to who I would pick to play for a Yankees cricket team.

Yankees Test Team

Openers:There are many different philosophies on who opens the batting in test matches. The one I went with has been popular in recent cricket. Which is to have one person who's going to be patient and see off the new ball. And one batsman who will play his shots and not care that the ball is new. One of the greatest opener pairings of all time was Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer of Australia, who were very much like that. So opening the batting for the Yankees, I would have Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson.

Middle Order:The number three and four spots, is where cricket teams often put their best/most technically proficient players. But also people who can come in and face the new ball if needed. So I've chose Robinson Cano to bat third, and Alex Rodriguez to bat fourth. Derek Jeter is batting fifth for lack of a better place for him.

All-Arounder: Someone who can bat and bowl a little if necessary. Nick Swisher, obvs. He bats at number 6.

Wicketkeeper:Wicketkeepers usually bat at number 7 in tests, and this is no different. Russell Martin at 7.

Bowlers:First lets talk about the 4 bowlers I've picked. CC and Mariano are obvious. I also went with Pineda and someone I think would be a good test bowler in Ivan Nova. Nova strikes me as someone who would be good with the new ball. Now, usually one bowler can smash a few runs, and the Yankees are no different. So CC bats at 8. The rest are just in order of how good a batsman I think they'd be.

Yankees Test Team

1. Brett Gardner
2. Curtis Granderson
3. Robinson Cano
4. Alex Rodriguez
5. Derek Jeter(Captain)
6. Nick Swisher(All-Arounder)
7. Russell Martin(Wicketkeeper)
8. CC Sabathia
9. Michael Pineda
10. Ivan Nova
11. Mariano Rivera

Yankees One Day Cricket Team

Openers: The new ball is not as much of a big deal in one day cricket, so usually the teams best players open the batting. So I went with Grandy and Cano.

Middle Order:Ard at 3. Mark Teixeira didn't make my test team, but he does make this one batting at number 4. Jeter, Swisher and Martin (as the wk) are at 5, 6, and 7 again.

Bowlers:My only change in bowlers is Hiroki Kuroda in for Nova, and that's because in One Day cricket, varying your pace is a useful skill and Kuroda strikes me as one who would be able to do that.

1. Curtis Granderson
2. Robinson Cano
3. Alex Rodriguez
4. Mark Teixeira
5. Derek Jeter(Captain)
6. Nick Swisher
7. Russell Maritn(Wicketkeeper)
8. CC Sabathia
9. Hiroki Kuroda
10. Michael Pineda
11. Mariano Rivera

Yankees Twenty20 Team

I made only one change from the one day, and that is Andruw Jones in for Jeter at 5. Twenty20 is all about scoring quickly and Jeter doesn't strike me as someone who would be a great T20 player. Swisher would captain the T20 team in his place.

1. Curtis Granderson
2. Robinson Cano
3. Mark Teixeira
4. Alex Rodriguez
5. Nick Swisher(Captain)(All-Arounder)
6. Andruw Jones
7. Russell Martin(Wicketkeeper)
8. CC Sabathia
9. Hiroki Kuroda
10. Michael Pineda
11. Mariano Rivera

If you did read this, feel free to post your own team from the loose descriptions of the different roles I gave you, or cricket XIs for other baseball teams. If you didn't read, feel free to post your "LOL Didn't Read" gifs now.