hello …! are there any cricket lovers here?
I think they’re okay, but my frog thinks they’re delicious.
I like them outside.
I play softball each and every summer, and at the diamond adjacent to us there’s a lot of East Indian fellows who play cricket. Ever since we had to watch Lagaan for the unit on Bollywood in my Film Music course, I’ve wanted to try and learn to play cricket. There was also a chap from India who played softball in our grad summer league, who could hit the ball like a ton of bricks, but couldn’t figure out baserunning for the life of him. I’m hoping that means that if I ever pick up a cricket bat, I won’t have to completely learn the swing from scratch!
I’m an England fan, so obviously, no.
I don’t like cricket, ah. Oh no!
I love it, ah. YEAH!
Pakistani Cricket fan, with all the heart break, anguish and (very) occasionally glory that entails.
You may have to. A cricket shot, depending on where the ball is, may call for a vertical bat or a horizontal bat, with weight transference either to the leading foot or the trailing, and probably movement of the feet as well - think of tennis for an analogy. On the other hand, softball should have trained your sighting eye and after hitting with a round bat you should find a flat-faced bat easy to handle.
After the last Ashes series, “I’m an Australian fan, so obviously, no.”
But actually yes, I am. I don’t support any football teams (in any code) and pretty much think competitive sport fandom is something that I have outgrown, but as soon as the batsmen walk out into the centre I’m hooked.
I have absolutely no problem watching a test match for five days which ends in a draw, as long as it’s an entertaining game.
Cricket is one of life’s true pleasures
As I become slightly more crumbly and crotchety I find myself falling out of love with football and more in love with cricket and rugby.
It might because I have small children now and I just find the level of cynicism, vitriol and bad sportsmanship inherent in football rather unsettling.
I don’t play the game like that, there is no need to play the game like that. I find it all rather sad and roll on the FA’s attempt to stamp it out. Though I don’t hold out much hope.
So yes, Bring on the cricket. Where we can have our heroes and villains and yet shake hands and have a beer at the end of it all with little prospect of a gang raping or celebrity “roasting”
I can point my children to people like Sachin Tendulkar, Andrew Strauss, Ponting, Warne etc. etc. etc. and say “There are some sporting icons for you”
One of the finest moments in recent sport was Freddy commiserating Brett Lee at the end of the second test in 2005
And as for the draw? All we need to do is point to the very next game in that series. How can people say that draws are boring.
And an entertaining if one sided ODI series against Bangladesh.
I was fortunate enough to watch Watsons innings in the 2 nd game (I set the ironing board up in front of the TV- I was working I tell you!). Even allowing for a smallish ground that was an amazing innings.
A lazy innings, he barely ran at all! 
To score 186 out of 230- and he didn’t get the full benefit of 50 overs. Still, he was pretty tired and probably would have gone out. He was dropped twice just after 100.
CHEAHH! Never thought I’d find Cricketers here too! 
Cricket is the best!
I think we can safely assume that cricket is indeed the finest sport in the world.
Not least of the reasons being that it has such a diverse global identity. When I think of cricket I do think of classic English churches and oak trees, but equally in my mind’s eye I see the high, bare Yorkshire moors, palm trees, Table Mountain, bananas, minarets, mosques and kangaroos.
So many spiritual homes and so comfortable with it’s mixed cultural heritage. I think it must one of the greatest sports in terms of racial harmony. Who ever thinks of Lara, Sobers or Ambrose as being “black” or Tendulkar as being “brown”? They are cricketers, and that’s that.
I taught my Thai friend (former tennis champion) how to play cricket - ie. how to bat and bowl, basically. He became a fine bowler (could swing a tennis ball!), but his batting never really moved past “swat it as if it’s a tennis racquet in your hands”.
Cricket on a village green, there ain’t no finer game. Dozing in the sun quaffing a few jars, the sound of leather on willow eeeeee lad tek’s me back. I can hear the ladies mekin’ the tea reet now…hold up, we need a fast bowler, best go to pit 'ead and call one up.
The one time I sort-of played a scaled-down version of cricket, I was dismayed to find there was no “force out” aspect, i.e. I had the ball (or whatever it’s called) in hand, and my foot was touching the wicket (or whatever the base is called) and the runner (or whatever he’s called) then touched the base/wicket/whatever and I thought this meant he was out (or whatever it’s called) but our British host said he wasn’t.
My memories, admittedly, are hazy.
If you’d knocked the bails (the two small pieces of wood balanced on top of the three stumps) off with the ball, or with any part of the arm holding the ball, he would have been out.* Simply touching the wicket doesn’t count, nor does using the foot while holding the ball. Ideally, this would have been explained to you first, because it sounds like you had the perfect opportunity to run him out.
*Further technicality - he doesn’t have to be touching the wicket to be safe - he has to have his foot or his bat touching the ground inside the crease - the white line 3 ft in front of the wicket.