Various forms of cricket exist and the sport may broadly be divided between major and minor versions. Major cricket includes several variations in which top-class players have taken part such as Test cricket, first-class cricket, single wicket, limited overs cricket and Twenty20. At all levels, the rules are often modified. At international or first-class levels this is usually in order to make the game more commercially attractive. In minor domestic club cricket, matches are usually played over one to two days, either two innings per side or one innings per side with limited overs. At still lower levels, the rules are often changed simply to make the game playable with limited resources, or to render it more convenient and enjoyable for the participants. Variants of the sport are played in areas as diverse as sandy beaches to ice floes.

A first-class match is generally defined as a high-level international or domestic match that takes place over at least three days on natural (as opposed to artificial) turf. First-class games are two innings per side. Like Test matches, if the game is not completed over the allotted time then it is drawn. Games where the teams have only one innings each are not first-class (including One Day Internationals).

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly ( pronunciation (help·info); born 8 July 1972) is a former Indian cricketer, and captain of the Indian national team. Born into an affluent family, Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother Snehasish. He is regarded as one of India's most successful captains in modern times. He started his career by playing in state and school teams. Currently, he is the 5th highest run scorer in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and was the 3rd person in history to cross the 10,000 run landmark, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq. Wisden ranked him the sixth greatest one day international batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Bevan.

After a series of playing in different Indian domestic tournaments such as the Ranji and Duleep trophies, Ganguly got his big-break while playing for India on their tour of England. He scored 131 runs and cemented his place in the Indian team. Ganguly's place in the team was assured after successful performances in series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia, winning the Man of the Match awards. In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he was involved in a partnership of 318 runs with Rahul Dravid, which remains the highest overall partnership score in the World Cup tournament history.

Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM (born 29 October 1971) is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.

Hayden holds the record for the highest score made by an Australian batsman in Tests (380). He formed one of the most prolific opening partnerships in world Test cricket for Australia with Justin Langer, and in ODI cricket with Adam Gilchrist. Upon his retirement, in January 2009, Hayden's Test average was 50.7; he had scored the second most runs in Test Cricket by an opening batsman; and was equal 6th (with Jacques Kallis) on the all-time list for Test centuries.

Hayden made his debut for the Australian team in the 4–8 March 1994 Test Match against South Africa in Johannesburg, scoring 15 and 5. His next Test selection was in the 1996–97 season, with three tests each against the West Indies and South Africa. He made his maiden century (125 against the West Indies in Adelaide), but averaged only 21.7 for the series with two ducks. He was dropped from the team, as the selectors favoured other openers, in particular Mark Taylor and Matthew Elliott, for the next few years. At the time, he was compared occasionally to Graeme Hick, a fine domestic performer but not quite good enough to make it at the highest level.

Michael Paul Vaughan OBE (born 29 October 1974 in Manchester) is a retired cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England. A classically elegant right-handed batsman and occasional off-spinner, Vaughan was ranked one of the best batsmen in the world following the 2002/3 Ashes, in which he scored 633 runs, including three centuries. Vaughan was an opening batsman and forged a successful England partnership with Marcus Trescothick, though he had often batted in the middle order for England. He was the captain of the England team when they regained the Ashes in 2005, eighteen years after having last won the trophy.

Known for his shrewd captaincy and man-management skills, Vaughan captained England in 51 Tests between 2003 and 2008, winning 26 (a national record) and losing 11; England won all seven home Tests of the 2004 summer under Vaughan, and the pinnacle of his captaincy career came with a 2–1 victory in the 2005 Ashes, England's first Ashes victory since 1986/7. However, a recurring knee injury, his decision to move down the batting order to accommodate other openers (Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook) and the pressures of captaincy took their toll on Vaughan's batting during the latter part of his career: in Tests he averaged 50.95 when not captain, and 36.02 as captain. Vaughan announced his retirement from first-class cricket on 30 June 2009.

Ricky Thomas Ponting AO (born 19 December 1974), nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australia national cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket, the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.

Ponting made his first-class debut for Tasmania in November 1992, when just 17 years and 337 days old, becoming the youngest Tasmanian to play in a Sheffield Shield match. However, he had to wait until 1995 before making his One Day International (ODI) debut, during a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand in a match against South Africa. His Test debut followed shortly after, when selected for the first Test of the 1995 home series against Sri Lanka in Perth, in which he scored 96. He lost his place in the national team several times in the period before early-1999, due to lack of form and discipline, before becoming One Day International captain in early-2002 and Test captain in early-2004.