Gents/Ladies,
I am just curious to know ur guys knowledge of the game of cricket. Most of the common wealth countries follow cricket like a relegion. The whole south asia ,Australia and England are cricket mad countries. How come north america became soo distanced from this sport which affect nearly 1/5 th of the population in this world.
And the biggest arguments from non-cricketing ppl are that the game is soo complicated. I really dont understand this complication. For me its simple as counting from 1-10. Tell me your expereinces with Cricket!
I had to play the game at school but was pretty hopeless at it. I understand the rules and occasionally watch it on television, where I can appreciate the level of skill involved at the top-class level. To me it’s quintessentially one of those sports that you have on in the background while you do something else.
…and your in Sydney , NSW where most of the aussie team lives. :smack: Fortunately i managed to get out of the cricket addiction which I had in my school years. But I know ppl who are even at 30’s spend 5 days at home watching a test match from 10 am - 5 pm.
The amount of skill needed for the sport is second to none , imagine if we can get the americans lured in to this sport…!
I am a self confessed cricket devotee. My preference though is for Test cricket, which can take five days and not produce a result. I can clearly understand why this would not suit many people.
One of my aims is to watch Australia versus England at Lords. I am yet to have that opportunity.
For some reason America are reticent to join in the sports that the rest of the world play, instead they make up their own. Football is above and beyond the most popular sport in the world and the majority of Americans were completely unaware of the fact that they hosted the World Cup in 1994, I think they are starting to play a bit more now but their national team still isn’t great. I heard an interview with some American sports guru on the subject of why America hasn’t embraced football like 99% of the other countries in the world, he replied that it was most likely down to the fact that America are no good at football and the public refuse to support a team that has no chance of winning, they feel that if America competes in a sporting even it must be the best.
It is a running theme though, many countries in the world play the likes of cricket and rugby but America never comes out to play with us
On the flipside, the U.S. invented sports never catch on to nearly the same degree, Baseball, American Football, Ice Hockey and Basketball seem to be played to a high degree in just America and Canada. It’s almost as if in their strike for independence they decided they wouldn’t play any sports with the rest of the world and would invent their own.
Come on America, pick up your boots, bat and oddly shaped ball and come play with the rest of us!!! (we promise to be gentle)
Apologies, I got sort of side-tracked there and missed the actual question. I am from the U.K. and whilst I have a pretty good understanding of cricket I wouldn’t feel confident enough to umpire a game. I don’t mind watching cricket on T.V. but it can get boring after a while, I have been to watch a cricket match and had a great time. Not so much because of the sport but it was a beautiful day and me and friends got to relax in the sun drinking lager, the fact that a cricket game was going on was just the icing on the cake
I think you are exaggerating wildly. Canada follows cricket ‘like a religion’? Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are ‘cricket mad’?
No.
Cricket is played at international level between a small number of countries. It’s true it’s massively popular in India + Pakistan. Also the Australians, who are very keen on all sports, play it superbly.
But it is not very popular in England. County matches don’t attract crowds. There is probably more snooker on English TV than cricket.
The game is very long-winded (international matches last 5 days and can easily be drawn). It requires a huge playing field, yet only 13 of the 22 players are ever in action. It is possible for nothing to happen for an hour, or even for one side to deliberately play badly to tempt the other side into avoiding a draw.
Although the basic concept of the game is simple, I would like you to explain two key points as easily as ‘counting to 10’:
the LBW law
a legal bowling action (do include Murilithian in your answer)
Part of the appeal of cricket is the stats - you’ll often see kids at matches with special notepads, recording every ball bowled and run scored.
The US does the same for baseball - it’s all about batting averages, no-hit percentages etc etc. The general public only tend to get involed in cricket on the big occaisions, like the Ashes series.
Personally I find baseball much more impenetrable than cricket, but that’s because I’m a Brit not a Yank.
Having said that, cricket’s one of the few sports I’ve never really played - footie, tennis, rugby, squash, snooker… reasonably proficient in all of them, but am woeful with a cricket bat (I tend to attempt top-spin backhands, which isn’t a particularly successful tactic for cricket).
As with a lot of sports watching it will help you pick it up far faster than reading the rules. I imagine even the rules of a relatively “simple” sport like golf will be mind-boggling to read.
As for the Duckworth-Lewis rule, I had never heard of it so decided to look it up. It doesn’t seem very complicated to me, certainly more complicated than counting to 10 but anyone who passed high-school maths shouldn’t have any problems with it
They’re for people who already know about the game - I don’t wonder you’d find it hard to pick up from a standing start. I’d be delighted to trot out an explanation, if you like, or answer questions (but not on the Duckworth-Lewis formula).
LBW law counting from one to ten, sort of:
You’re out LBW if you use either your leg or any other part of your body to prevent the ball from hitting your wicket, provided that:
a) the ball would otherwise have hit it (duh)
b) you didn’t touch the ball with your bat first
c) the ball didn’t pitch outside leg stump
d) the ball didn’t hit you outside the line of off stump: except that if you were making no attempt to hit the ball, this escape clause is inapplicable.
All matters of fact are to be interpreted by the umpire.
Your hand does not count as part of your body for this purpose. If it’s holding the bat it is counted as part of it; otherwise, there is a separate mode of dismissal for handling the ball under any circumstances. It’s rarely applied, but comes up now and then.
Well, you will almost certainly qualify for the World Cup in Germany, more to do with how weak your group is than anything else though Afterall you did get beaten by the only decent team in your group (Mexico), the rest of your group is (at the risk of sounding rude) making up numbers.
See you in Germany when we sort the men from the boys!!
P.S. it is good that America are starting to take football more seriously, I just feel you have quite a way to go before the American public really gets behind the team and feels they can achieve something.
Afterall you did get beaten by the only decent team in your group (Mexico), the rest of your group is (at the risk of sounding rude) making up numbers.