Meet jogo de taco, cricket’s distant cousin from Brazil

There are several sports involving bats and balls, with cricket and baseball being the most popular of the lot.

However, there are several variations of the bat-ball game all over the world. The jogo de taco or bete-ombro is one such variation which became popular in the streets of Brazil.

Also known as bets, taco and pau na lata in Portuguese, bete-ombro is a game of bat and ball, originating on the streets of Brazil. In English, it loosely translates into bet-shoulder.

Like cricket, jogo de taco is played between two teams, with one team striking the ball with a wooden bat while the other side fields.

There are a number of other similarities between cricket and taco but there are many distinctive features as well. 

Jogo de taco equipment

While cricket bats are thick and heavy, flat on one side and curved on the other, the taco - bat in Portuguese - is a plain wooden stick of around 2.5 feet in height, four inches wide and only a couple of inches in thickness.

The stumps, called casinhas, are basically three sticks six inches in height, which are placed upright in a conical shape so that they support each other. The two pairs of stumps are separated by around 20 metres. These stumps are called ‘house’ since casinha means little house in Portuguese. Children playing on the streets often use a bottle or a can to replace the stumps.

There is a ball (bola), made of rubber, closely resembling a tennis ball rather than the cork and leather ball used in cricket.

How to play jogo de taco

To decide who bats or fields first, a bat is soaked on one side and left dry on the other. The willow is then thrown up and the team that correctly calls which side the bat will land on gets to decide whether to bat or field.

The pair choosing to bat first will take position in front of the stumps on either side while the one of the fielding duo will stand behind the stumps and throw the ball towards the batter on the other side.

There’s no sequence or over system in jogo de taco. Whichever player from the fielding team has the ball, becomes the bowler. The other player from the fielding team automatically becomes the wicketkeeper.

Rules of jogo de taco

Just like in cricket or baseball, the aim of the batting side is to hit the ball and run to the other end to score runs.

After hitting the ball, the batting side has to touch their bats when running between the wickets. If the bats don’t touch, the run is not counted. Each successful run counts as one point.

Unlike cricket, jogo de taco has no boundaries but players can take as many runs as possible after hitting the ball as long as they don’t get out.

A little circle, two feet in diameter marked on the ground just in front of the stumps, signifies the batting crease in jogo de taco or bete-ombro and is crucial to the mechanics of the game.

The batter needs to keep the bat inside this circle at all times to be safe. If the bat is out of the circle, the fielding team can run them out by hitting the stumps with the ball, much like run outs or stumping in cricket.

Unlike cricket, having any part of the body inside the circle doesn’t count, it needs to be the bat.

In addition to being run-out or stumped, batters can also be dismissed by being bowled, or caught. Similar to three strikes in baseball, if a batter fails to connect with the ball three times in a row, he is considered out.

When a player is out, the roles are switched and the fielding team takes up the bat.

The sport is mostly played in the streets of Brazil by children and has a set of official rules. Games generally continue until any one of the teams reach a specific number of points, usually 10.

Moreover, the game can also end if the fielding team catches a direct hit from the batter before the ball hits the ground. The fielding team is declared the victor regardless of the number of points scored at that point.

A Mundial e Bets or World Cup of bets (jogo de taco World Cup) was held across six cities in Brazil back in 2016.