Americans Review the Pak/Ind WC Semi Match & Cricket in General

[Manee]

Bloody excellent article, really enjoyed that!

 

[vcs]

We are told that the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium — the pride of Mohali, India and the site of this semifinal match — is "one of the great venues" in all of cricket. The shots of the stadium grounds make this statement seem like the rantings of a lunatic. The field is cracked and patchy and threadbare. It makes the Oakland Coliseum look like Roland Garros. This makes us sad for cricket. Whether we end up liking cricket or not, we are sure the sport deserves to have greater venues.

I've always wondered why Indian outfields look dry and dull on TV compared to Aus, Eng or NZ (love the dual colour scheme inside and outside the 30-yard circle) ones. Don't think it's as bad as TV makes it look.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Only 14 teams make the World Cup tournament, out of more than a hundred in contention. Only 20 teams, however, have ever played in a Cricket World Cup. This means that most of those hundred teams out there in the world are the equivalent of you and your buddies living in, say, Benin, saying "We know a bunch of dudes, let's learn how to play cricket and then see if we get a free trip to the World Cup even though we suck," a.k.a. The Jamaican Bobsled Gambit. Basically, for the most part, no one plays cricket. But the people who do, really, really care.

I assume that was only put in for irony points.

 

[vcs]

Just read the whole thing. Loved the rooting decision-tree part.

 

[Uppercut]

That made me really, really want to be discovering cricket for the first time again.

 

[Fusion]

I sent a link of that article to Cricinfo last night, and they have now linked it on their site. I take full credit for people's enjoyment in reading that piece. The authors obviously deserve some credit, but mostly me.

 

[Howe_zat]

Nicely done

i actually discovered it on Twitter last night, but didn't think it'd go that well over here.

 

[juro]

An excellent blog. They were humourous yet honest.

You can't really expect someone to fall in love with cricket just like that. If they had someone sit down and point out the finer details to them, rather than try to discover it all by themselves as they go along, thanks to what they see and wikipedia, they would have had a better chance of truly appreciating what they saw. But then, I don't think that was the purpose of their exercise...

 

[Furball]

When Tendulkar plays in the field, he wears a large, khaki-colored, floppy hat. Like, that a lady would wear while gardening. This is apparently legal.

Made me lol.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Thanks for the link fusion, excellent read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[slugger]

yeah most people dont learn cricket like that... there is always someone who knows more who passes on all the subtle parts of the game, like how to understand a players stats etc.