It’s Hardly Cricket

by Bryan

6 comments

1 Kryten42 { 09.21.10 at 11:06 am }

LOL Bryan! 😉 😀

I played cricket in my youth, as did most Aussies! The biggest misconception ins that the Pommies (British to colonials) know how to play it! LMAO (One only has to see them in the Ashes series to know that’s a lie). 😉

I like the more recent 20/20 (or Twenty20) games, especially because it absolutely annoys the traditionalists! 😆

Although the format has proven successful, it has been argued that since Twenty20 encourages far-from-technical cricket, youngsters wanting to pick up the game will be misguided into believing that cricket is all about trying to hit 6s and 4s no matter how you do it.

I would have thought that getting more kids interested in any sport no matter how you do it, is a huge bonus to be encouraged! 😀

Wikipedia – Twenty20

It’s just for fun and to make Cricket a bit more appealing to the masses! As the first International between Aus & NZ shows:

On 17 February 2005 Australia defeated New Zealand in the first men’s full international Twenty20 match, played at Eden Park in Auckland. The game was played in a light-hearted manner – both sides turned out in kit similar to that worn in the 1980s, the New Zealand team’s a direct copy of that worn by the Beige Brigade. Some of the players also sported moustaches/beards and hair styles popular in the 1980s taking part in a competition amongst themselves for best retro look, at the request of the Beige Brigade. Australia won the game comprehensively, and as the result became obvious towards the end of the NZ innings, the players and umpires took things less seriously – Glenn McGrath jokingly replayed the Trevor Chappell underarm incident from a 1981 ODI between the two sides, and Billy Bowden showed him a mock red card (red cards are not normally used in cricket) in response.

Fun for all! 😆

I actually played and preferred baseball, when I discovered we had a team at College. I went for the tryouts, and found I wasn’t a bad pitcher. 🙂 I remember that year a US Navy warship came to Melbourne, and they had one of the top navy Baseball teams, so someone organized for them to come to our College for a display game and give some tips. They broke most of our bat’s (they were only wood, no steel rods up the middle), list most of the balls, and broke a few windows! 😆 We loved it, school wasn’t so impressed! Academics & administrators have no sense of humor! 😆

Some Aussies play for major league US teams, and now (apparently, I saw a news item here a few months ago), we are successfully recruiting US stars to play here. 🙂

Hey! Our Woman’s baseball team defeated the US team (again) this year! Wahooo! 😛 😆

hmmmph! Our junior squad was beaten by Taiwan in Canada but! Drat! 😐

Australia claimed the silver medal at the junior world baseball championships, losing 8-4 to Taiwan in Sunday’s tournament final in Thunder Bay, Canada.

The runners-up finish is Australia’s best ever result at the championships and came after they sprung a 2-1 defeat on favoured Cuba in the semi-finals.

Australia were dreaming of an even bigger result early in the final when Josh Matavesi scoring off an error in the third inning and hit a triple-RBI home-run in the fourth inning to establish a 4-1 lead.

But the Taiwanese fought back strongly after a rain delay in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring four runs upon the resumption to seal the title.

It was the damned rain!! Grrrr! 😉 😆 Next year! 😛

BTW… Baseball is just as unintelligible to most of the World as cricket. they have much in common! 😆

2 Badtux { 09.21.10 at 9:35 pm }

Cricket is a sport much in the same way that baseball is a sport — i.e., as an excuse for grown men to dress up funny and stand around in the grass for a few hours doing not much of anything. As for obscure rules — the infield fly rule. ‘Nuff said :).

3 Bryan { 09.21.10 at 11:52 pm }

I’ll let y’all fight it out because I’ve always felt it was totally insane to hand clubs of any sort to children. Children tend to be vicious by nature, and you shouldn’t arm them.

4 jams o donnell { 09.22.10 at 2:28 am }

Bryan, please don’t try to understand cricket. It’s a more tedious sport than (American) football! For God’s sake what sort of game can last five days and still end in a draw….

5 Kryten42 { 09.22.10 at 2:48 am }

LOL @ jams!! 😀
I agree with that! 😆

I was taken to a gridiron game, and I didn’t get it, especially when it just kinda ended for no apparent reason! One of the ex-pat Brit’s working for GD that had taken us said (and I quite from memory): “Basically, it continues until the ref has had enough and wants to go home, or he thinks the crowd has been tortured enough! Then they decide who won.”

I never was sure if he was joking, or half-joking! 😆 Seemed an accurate statement to me at the time! I also asked about a qtr way through “Why do you call it football? It’s only been kicked once! And everyone stood around while that bloke kicked it, and he had to have help to do that!” 😉 😀

6 Bryan { 09.22.10 at 10:19 pm }

I hold no brief for American-rules non-football. I live among fanatics to go to high school games on Friday, college games on Saturday, and professional games on Sunday, but I view it as nothing more than semi-regulated gang warfare that sucks up money that could be better used sweeping streets.