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This 5 minute video does a great job of explaining the basic rules of the game. I highly recommend watching it - LINK

I think if I compare cricket to baseball, it will make it easier for you to understand.

1. Cricket has 11 players on each team. Each team has about 6 batsmen, 1 wicketkeeper (catcher) and 4 bowlers (pitchers).

2. In cricket each team gets to bat for a fixed number of balls (pitches). Each team gets to bat once. You try to score the maximum runs possible in the number of balls (pitches) allocated to you for your inning. The other team tries to get 10 of the batting team's players out which signals the end of the inning. The team batting second tries to outscore the first team. They also have the predetermined number of balls (pitches) in which to outscore the other team.

3. In cricket there are two bases (called ends). The game always starts with two batters and they continue to play until they get out. Also they don't always have to run every time they hit the ball, so the batsmen spend much longer time batting than in baseball.

I know almost everything there is to know about cricket. I should, given my name. I can answer any questions you may have about the sport of cricket to help you understand better. Cricket is pretty damn entertaining once you get the hang of it.

Remember these simple rules and you will be fine:

1) In cricket you don't have to run if you hit the ball if you think you can't complete the run safely.

2) In cricket you have to use a minimum of 5 bowlers (pitchers) in every game and each bowler gets to bowl (pitch) 6 balls at a time and then he switches with the next person.

3) In cricket a ball hit into the crowd (home run) results in 6 runs. If the ball rolls to the boundary (rope/advertising hoarding) along the ground, it results in 4 runs.

4) The runs are high in cricket because every hit that results in a batsman reaching the other base (only two bases in cricket) results in a run. So if you compare it to baseball, it is like a batter scoring 1 run for reaching the 1st base, 2 runs for reaching the 2nd base and so on. Also in cricket the batsman keeps playing until he gets out. Doesn't matter how many runs he hits or how many times he rounds the two bases.