Where did you learn about cricket?

[Matt79]

As in, what has taught you the most about cricket - a family member, playing yourself, watching others play, reading, or maybe even posting here on CW.

People in my family take a casual interest, but aren't mad fans, and I've never played at any serious level, so for me, watching, reading, and indeed conversation with some of the knowledgable guys around here have taught me most of what I know.

 

[chaminda_00]

Playing

 

[Bees]

When I was a kid, I learned a lot about the format of the game from my brother. A lot of things took a lot of time for me to understand, but I'm glad I know them now.

I would thank the commentators for their discussions about line and length for bowlers, which in turn informed my knowledge about what batsmen should do in different situations.

Knowing very little about cricket, the various instructional books I've got my hands on will no doubt be huge resources.

I've played very little cricket in my lifetime. That will change!

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

or maybe even posting here on CW.

God, I'd hate to have "learned" about cricket on here. You'd have a pretty skewed, ****ed up view of the world - let alone cricket.

I cannot recall where I developed a love for the game. I remember getting my first bat before I could really hold it, but to say the love of the game came from my dad would be a lie - his love was always for a game with a larger ball - even though he liked cricket. I remember my uncle bowling at me with a cricket ball (bloody fast) when I was about 9 and my dad doing his pieces at his brother. And I remember West Indian fast bowlers obliterating team after team. I used to love watching the West Indies play.

My worst cricketing memory from my younger days is when finally we had the West Indies a 4 or 5 wickets down for very few runs... It was a bad memory as I saw the score on the TV in an electrical goods shop window on the way to the shoe shop that my mum was dragging me to. To be fair to her, she understood the strop that I threw shortly thereafter and apologised for taking me away from the one opportunity that I'd have to see us on top of the Great Enemy.

All a long, long time ago now, sadly.

 

[Matt79]

That's true to a degree, but there are some regulars here who do know their stuff, IMO. That said, I felt I was a pretty knowledgeable fan by the time I got here, so it wasn't the basics I was learning here.

Also, research for arguments with various posters and Dicko has prompted me to think about and read up on lots of topics I otherwise wouldn't have.

Finally, I'd never have even heard of Heath Davis if it wasn't for CW...

 

[G.I.Joe]

Learnt everything exclusively by following it on the telly. I'm a late bloomer as a cricket fan by Indian standards, the 96 World Cup was the talk of the town since it was being held here, and that was when I first watched a whole game and started taking interest. Family has no interest in the game, and my friends back then were more interested in Ten10 games with the rubber ball. Took me 2 more years until I finally figured out the follow on rule during Australia's tour here in 98

 

[BoyBrumby]

From Top Trumps, bizarrely.

As a kid I used to collect the packs of cards from which one reads out a particular stat in the hope that your card is higher than the other players & I managed to procure (or my mum bought, to be more accurate) several cricket-based packs, including, memorably one pack called Mike Brearley's Batting Aces into which he modestly included himself!

It all sprang from there.

 

[sanga1337]

My dad put me in the: have a go milo cricket clinic when I was around 6. That was where it all started. I then developed most of my cricket knowledge from cricinfo just from browsing old scorecards and looking at players stats and whatnot. Also gained a lot of early knowledge from my dad, uncle and grandpa who all played cricket and knew a decent amount about the game. Started watching cricket at around 11 which was a lot later than when I started playing.

 

[Uppercut]

Interest in watching cricket was a very gradual thing. As every ten-year-old knows, cricket is that mind-numbingly boring thing that clogs up channel 4 when you're off for summer and feel like watching a few Friends re-runs. At twelve it's something you flick on when you can't get to sleep. At fourteen it's a passing interest that you watch for twenty minutes before getting bored and returning to Champ Manager. At fifteen it becomes something you choose to watch, but don't go out of you way for, and get to know some players. At sixteen you've finally discovered something to do when the football season's off and appreciate a lot of the little nuances. At seventeen you have full-scale opinions on players, follow every series and even watch cricket when there's football on the other channel.

Now at 18 i find myself debating whether to stay awake between 2.00 and 2.40am in order to watch the afternoon session of a match on the other side of the world and wondering whether i actually have a problem .

 

[adharcric]

My experience is probably unique in the sense that I fell in love with cricket in an environment that didn't foster that at all. Even though I immigrated from India at the age of 5, I hardly knew or cared about cricket until I was 10 or so (crazy about basketball before then). Just a few glimpses of the game and I gradually grew fond of it; a trip to India did some magic, then I struggled my way through establishing a high school team and then one at college (in both cases, I was the only "local" product that hadn't either grown up in a cricket-playing nation or been encouraged by cricket-loving parents). Of course, there's much more to the story. The passion for cricket almost sprung out of nowhere, feels like it was destined. It's been so much more than just another game or competition.

 

[_Ed_]

Basically, asking my dad stupid questions while we watched on TV.

 

[andyc]

As in, what has taught you the most about cricket - a family member, playing yourself, watching others play, reading, or maybe even posting here on CW.

People in my family take a casual interest, but aren't mad fans, and I've never played at any serious level, so for me, watching, reading, and indeed conversation with some of the knowledgable guys around here have taught me most of what I know.

My dad's a Kiwi and never really played it himself, but for some reason he was pretty keen for my older brother and I to take it up; my brother likes it but not that much, and Dad's happy to watch a game but doesn't really know all that much about it. I was always into it, but I think it was moving to Shanghai and playing in the club there, where everyone else was an adult, that really helped me fall in love with the game, and it was cool that I got to play in the same team as Dad (though he did once drop a catch off my bowling at first slip just after I'd bowled someone, would've been on a hattrick FFS).

But, despite what HDS just said, finding and posting on CW has dramatically increased my more in-depth knowledge of the game; if I'm reading CC I really only read stuff from those posters who I know are quality and make good insights, and just that has really helped me get a better grasp on it.

 

[honestbharani]

Interest in watching cricket was a very gradual thing. As every ten-year-old knows, cricket is that mind-numbingly boring thing that clogs up channel 4 when you're off for summer and feel like watching a few Friends re-runs. At twelve it's something you flick on when you can't get to sleep. At fourteen it's a passing interest that you watch for twenty minutes before getting bored and returning to Champ Manager. At fifteen it becomes something you choose to watch, but don't go out of you way for, and get to know some players. At sixteen you've finally discovered something to do when the football season's off and appreciate a lot of the little nuances. At seventeen you have full-scale opinions on players, follow every series and even watch cricket when there's football on the other channel.

Now at 18 i find myself debating whether to stay awake between 2.00 and 2.40am in order to watch the afternoon session of a match on the other side of the world and wondering whether i actually have a problem .

lol..



Anyways, as an Indian, you play the game before you even learn how to spell it.. And my whole family, esp. on Mum's side, were absolutely crazy about the game and as a result I was there during the tied test at Chennai (Madras, back then) in 1987 as a 3 and a half year old who had no clue.. From my dad's side, I had two cousins who fought regularly over their favourite players and having spent a 3 month holiday season in their house as a 2 and a half year old, I ended up telling that Kapil Dev had more talent in his little finger than Ravi Shastri or that Ravi Shastri was the greatest allrounder since Gary Sobers even before I knew who they were...



At 5, I knew all the umpire signals and at , I knew almost 80% of the LBW law and I was writing essays on the 1983 World Cup when I was 9...


I am a prodigy of an arm-chair fan, I guess..



Such a shame I could never make it beyond school cricket as a wicketkeeper..

 

[pup11]

I am an avid cricket follower and in India its almost impossible to escape cricket hysteria, though my parents really don't follow the game much, but my cousins and my friends are cricket mad, i used to love playing cricket and i was playing for a local cricket club here, but my indisciplined lifestyle and laziness led to me suffering with injuries like stress fractures, so can't really push myself to play cricket anymore at present, but still i love watching cricket, reading about it and of course posting about it here on CW!

 

[Chubb]

I learned most from my grandfather, a fine bowler who played for Hutton CC in Essex until he was 72, at every level from 1st to 6th XI. Some of my earliest memories are watching him play or playing in the nets with him when his side were batting. My dad doesn't like sport at all but my mother's family have a very long cricketing history stretching back to the 19th Century. I am by far the worst player out of all of them, partly because they all lived in Essex and I in Devon and partly because I have all the wrong genes.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Jack McNamara's posts.

 

[silentstriker]

I came to the US when I was 11, and before then I used to play cricket literally every day (tennis ball cricket). We used to have matches all the time in an area right near our house. After coming here, I really fell away from cricket until I was about 18-19, and then slowly got into it again after the 2001 India-Australia series.

My one claim to fame is that we used to play matches against Irfan and Yousuf Pathan in Baroda when we were 8-10.

 

[pup11]

I came to the US when I was 11, and before then I used to play cricket literally every day (tennis ball cricket). We used to have matches all the time in an area right near our house. After coming here, I really fell away from cricket until I was about 18-19, and then slowly got into it again after the 2001 India-Australia series.

My one claim to fame is that we used to play matches against Irfan and Yousuf Pathan in Baroda when we were 8-10.

Were you able to spot their talent at that age....

 

[silentstriker]

I was eight, so no. Yousuf was better as I remember though.

 

[nightprowler10]

Never knew what cricket was until the '92 WC. After that it was all about cricket. Just one day cricket though. Anyway, I learned cricket by playing and somewhat by watching Wasim and Waqar. Didn't really care for Test cricket until much much later, around 2004 I believe. Then got hooked on it after Mohali 2005. Of course as I've said before, I went off cricket completely between 1999 to mid 2004 due to the BS in Pakistani cricket.