One of my many memories of our trip to London and Scotland in 2006 was sitting in the hotel in Glasgow with very tired feet waiting for the Champions League Final between Arsenal and Barcelona to start. (That's soccer, or football, people!) Clarice and I were both exhausted, it was the last night in Scotland and we just wanted to rest so we decided to watch the game in our room. We had an hour before the match started and the only thing I could find on their 5 stations that was even mildly interesting was cricket.
Now, I'm a fan of almost any sport as long as I can understand the rules, and I generally pick things up pretty quickly. Cricket, however, stumped me. We watched for an hour and neither of us understood one thing that happened. The most we got was, "I think they are trying to know down the sticks with the ball." How profound.
When Paul and Amber came to the States for a year we became good friends through Clarice's work with Paul on their project. Paul played cricket all his life, only stopping to make the trip to the States. He played serious cricket for his local club and, I believe, still holds some records there. While they were in the States they introduced us to the surrealy sport of Rugby League and we drug them off to Purdue to see college football (among all the other things they did). In an year I never had a chance (or a reason) to ask him to explain cricket to me.
When we decided to undertake this adventure in Australia, Paul was determined to take us to a cricket match. The cricket season doesn't really start until December, being a summer sport, and on the first weekend of the year Paul and Amber took us to see the first day of the 5-day test match between #1 in the world Australia and #2 South Africa. (That's right, then entire contest would take 5 days)
Now, like I said, I'm up for almost anything once. My in-laws got me into ice fishing for crying out loud, but when Paul said, "Bring a book" and he was serious... I was aprehensive. The day went from 10:00 until 6:00 and when it was over Australia, even though they batted first, were still batting. BUT, I did learn the rules and even some of the strategies behind the game. What I didn't learn, no matter how many people I asked, why is it called cricket?
We had a good time, mostly watched the game (I didn't get much book reading done), enjoyed some great weather and had a good time with friends. Later in the week, after the 5-day Test, the same to sides played a few 20/20 matches where each side only gets 20 "overs". It is a version that is designed to be played in a couple of hours and generally resembles a "home run derby" in that, because it is so much shorter batters have to take more risks and swing for the fences (though there are no fences).
There is also a THIRD type of cricket called "One Day Cricket" where each side gets 50 "overs" to score as many runs as possible. Crazy. I'll never figure out how to follow cricket, but I have a fairly decent understanding now of how to watch cricket. I'd gladly go again, but I doubt any of you Americans would want to go with me. And we think baseball is slow! :-)
Now, I'm a fan of almost any sport as long as I can understand the rules, and I generally pick things up pretty quickly. Cricket, however, stumped me. We watched for an hour and neither of us understood one thing that happened. The most we got was, "I think they are trying to know down the sticks with the ball." How profound.
When Paul and Amber came to the States for a year we became good friends through Clarice's work with Paul on their project. Paul played cricket all his life, only stopping to make the trip to the States. He played serious cricket for his local club and, I believe, still holds some records there. While they were in the States they introduced us to the surrealy sport of Rugby League and we drug them off to Purdue to see college football (among all the other things they did). In an year I never had a chance (or a reason) to ask him to explain cricket to me.
When we decided to undertake this adventure in Australia, Paul was determined to take us to a cricket match. The cricket season doesn't really start until December, being a summer sport, and on the first weekend of the year Paul and Amber took us to see the first day of the 5-day test match between #1 in the world Australia and #2 South Africa. (That's right, then entire contest would take 5 days)
Now, like I said, I'm up for almost anything once. My in-laws got me into ice fishing for crying out loud, but when Paul said, "Bring a book" and he was serious... I was aprehensive. The day went from 10:00 until 6:00 and when it was over Australia, even though they batted first, were still batting. BUT, I did learn the rules and even some of the strategies behind the game. What I didn't learn, no matter how many people I asked, why is it called cricket?
We had a good time, mostly watched the game (I didn't get much book reading done), enjoyed some great weather and had a good time with friends. Later in the week, after the 5-day Test, the same to sides played a few 20/20 matches where each side only gets 20 "overs". It is a version that is designed to be played in a couple of hours and generally resembles a "home run derby" in that, because it is so much shorter batters have to take more risks and swing for the fences (though there are no fences).
There is also a THIRD type of cricket called "One Day Cricket" where each side gets 50 "overs" to score as many runs as possible. Crazy. I'll never figure out how to follow cricket, but I have a fairly decent understanding now of how to watch cricket. I'd gladly go again, but I doubt any of you Americans would want to go with me. And we think baseball is slow! :-)
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