Cricket

Just a couple of months ago, if you had asked me about cricket I would have replied base on two conceptions that I held with regards to the game. Firstly, that it was incredibly complicated, although the Americans took the ideas embedded in cricket and dumbed it down into something called baseball. Secondly, it was yet another of those quintisentailly British, and even more than that colonial things. After all I loved to quip, in what other sport do you play for up to 5 days and then call it a draw? What other sport has tea breaks for crying out loud? And this is besides the fact that most of the top cricketing nations are exclusively former colonies - Australia, NZ, India, Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies. Of course the same could be said for other sports such as Rugby perhaps, but cricket remains unique in its exclusivity. Even Canada and America and Argentina play rugby, in the latter case quite well. Cricketing seems to have defined itself within the exclusive elite club.

Let me state right from the outset that my knowledge of the game has but improved marginally. I have mastered much more of the technical terms - I understand what it means to bowl a wide, or what a no ball is, as well as mastering the basic intricacies of what constitues a lbw or leg before wicket decision, for the many of you who have not yet been introduced to the intricacies of cricket lingo. On a quick side point, I have come to the conclusion that what exactly constitutes an lbw decision is one of those rare things in which everyone feels vaguely confident in understanding generally but probably only about 5 people in the world can fully explain - in this respect it is quite similar to quantum mechanics. I now understand 'a maiden' as not referring to something feminine but to an over in which no runs are scored off a bowler, though how the etymology for this particular term has developed I would like to discover.

What has changed rather drastically for me is the fact my overriding perception of cricket as well, boring. This summer, I spent an afternoon or two in the college JCR watching some of the matches in the Natwest series. One match in particular stands out - the first one day match between England and Australia, at Edgbaston I think. England had done well to restrict Australia to around 220 runs, but struggled initially and looked to be facing and increasingly insurmountable task with something like 90 runs required off 68 balls for the victory. Then up to the crease steps Kevin Pietersen, a confident, brash batsmen, just beginning his international career. With England foundering he proceeded to begin pounding Australia all over the pitch. One Gillespie over particularly comes to mind, with three boundaries and a wide resulting in 16 runs for the over. The bowler's bemused expression said it all really - the boundaries had come off different shots each time, to different parts of the ground. It was easy to be caught up in the sheer excitement of the occasion, the pure base delight in seeing a bowler getting thumped, the rising excitement of seeing a target being reached. This was indeed heady stuff. So, as I had come to realize, a perfect summer afternoon: a cold beer in hand watching the overs go by.