It's the not-quite-like baseball game where everyone wears white and the pitcher throws the ball without bending his arm.

Wildly popular overseas, cricket has had a presence in Hawai'i with the Honolulu Cricket Club since the late 1800s.

The league starts up next month, and meets most Sunday afternoons at Kapi'olani Park.

"I just love the sport; it definitely teaches you about patience and endurance," said member Ambrish Shahi, 26, a native of India living in Honolulu.

Club members, numbering about 40, represent the countries where cricket is popular, including Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Canada, England, Fiji, Ghana, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates.

The club also travels to play other clubs, as it did this past weekend in a trip to San Francisco.

Australian import Rick Pike, who first moved to Hawai'i in 1995, was riding his motorcycle past Kapi'olani Park when he saw a group of men dressed in white — traditional garb for cricket.

"I did a double take," he said. "I was really excited. I nearly fell off my bike. I saw these guys in white. It took a second to register. I couldn't get over there fast enough."

Established in 1893, the club is one of the oldest sporting organizations in the Pacific. Its home has been at Kapi'olani Park since the mid-'60s.

Pike, 40, a cameraman for KGMB9, grew up playing cricket, similarly to the way "kids in America play baseball and it just becomes a part of the culture," he said.

You didn't need to grow up loving it to embrace it.

Hawai'i native Mark Berwick traveled to England for a vacation when he was 10, where he saw a cricket game on TV. It piqued his curiosity, but when he returned to the States, he didn't see it again until he was in San Francisco in his early 20s.

"I was like, 'That's that sport I've always wanted to try,' " he said of watching a group of cricket players.

Berwick, 38, grew up playing baseball, but said it is as similar to cricket as checkers is to chess.

"(Baseball) is a more simplistic game; there's a lot more strategy in cricket," said Berwick, the club's president. "There's a lot more strategy, period. It's a mentally challenging sport. Not to mention, you're standing out there for six hours. That can be mentally draining."

The bat-and-ball game is most similar to baseball, but the rules are vastly different, according to MSN Encarta Encyclopedia.

"It's really something you have to put in a video tape or show on a diagram to explain," Pike said. "The best thing is to come down (to Kapi'olani Park) and have a look."

A very basic terms, one player, the bowler (similar to a baseball pitcher), throws to the batter.

All similarities to baseball end there. There is no foul territory, no balls or strikes, and the batter doesn't have to run after hitting the ball.

Instead of throwing the ball only in the air, the bowler can bounce the ball off the ground, using different angles and speeds to throw off the batter.

"It's a lot of hand-eye coordination," Pike said.

Several key terms in cricket include the pitch, a manicured strip of grass where most of the action is. At the end of each pitch are three wooded poles called stumps, collectively known as a wicket. In grooves on the stumps are two small pieces of wood called bails. Four feet in front of and parallel to the wicket is a line called a popping crease.

The batter has a partner standing at the opposite wicket with a bat. If the batter hits the ball and decides to run, then both batter and partner run to the opposite popping crease, scoring a point each time they cross it. They can score numerous points by switching sides.

The fielding team can get the batter out one of four ways: the bowler can throw the ball past the batter, hit the wicket and knock off at least one bail (bowled); the batter blocks the ball from hitting the wicket with his body, called leg before wicket (LBW); the batter hit the ball and any fielder catches it on the fly (caught); and a fielder can get the ball while the batters are running, throw it, hit the wicket, and knock off at least one bail before the batter crosses the popping crease (run out).

The only player on the pitch with a glove is the wicket-keeper, or catcher, in cricket. Line drives, pop-ups, and ground balls must all be handled bare-handed, and the ball "is a little harder than a baseball," Berwick said.

Instead of set positions defensively, the players fielding the ball can shift according to the batter's offensive strength.

"Cricketers don't get pigeonholed into a certain position, like center field," Berwick said. "You're always being moved around. There are positions shifts all the time. They can put two people on one side of the field, and eight on the other."

Expanding upon the differences in cricket and baseball, Berkwick said even batting options are different.

"In baseball, you swing for contact or swing for power, and you occasionally bunt or hit the other way. In cricket, there are 12 different shots."

Berwick thinks cricket isn't picking up in America because it is a tough spectator sport, and hard to play on a whim.

"Cricket is a little handicapped; the batting wicket needs to be really flat and true. You can't just go to a football field or soccer ground. Cricket requires a specific facility."

Plus, it is a long game, sometimes taking up to eight hours.

"You have to be athletic," Shahi said. "It doesn't seem like a sport you have to run too much. But imagine standing there for five hours. You are constantly moving. Before the pitcher pitches, he has a run-up, and the fielders are moving as well."

Before the game the team captains decide how many pitches will be bowled. The Honolulu Cricket Club usually chooses 240 per team; professional leagues usually bowl about 300 pitches.

The object is to score as many runs as you can in your allotment of pitches. One team bats until its pitches are used or 10 batsmen are out.

For more information, go to http://home.hawaii.rr.com/cricket/hcc.htm or e-mail hawaii cricket@gmail.com.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.