Do you enjoy watching cricket as much as the day you joined CW?

[OverratedSanity]

Today is the 136th day this year.. How many days/matches in 2017 have you been very excited leading into the match or happy that you watched the majority of the match - even if you weren't expecting much?

For me there will be a couple of Big Bash matches and the India vs Australia Test series. I also really enjoyed Lakmal spell vs South Africa and I'll say the last session of day 5 in the Pak vs WI series was exciting (although I was watching NBA at the same time and woke up early to watch that).

Pakistan almost chasing that big total in Australia, Bravo and WI falling just short in uae in the 4th innings, Brathwaite winning the 3rd test, Bangladesh winning their 100th test... All these were thoroughly great. I enjoyed NZ vs SA too, but rain kinda ruined it. It'd be easier to point out tests I didn't enjoy this year tbh

Edit: West indies in uae was last year. Stand by the rest.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Also the "lack of context" complaint has never made much sense to me. I've always felt that the points system somewhat takes away from the importance of a test series. For me, I love that all test series are generally considered separate events on the calendar leading into one another instead of a series of games played for 'points'. Its all about the history of the two teams involved, both recent and long term : How long has it been since Australia won in India? What happened the last time they toured? What are the expectations leading into the series? NUFAN mentioned that Australia losing to SA at home would be forgotten if they won the ashes... That may be true but the fact that they went into the India tour after : having been spanked in SL, having lost at home to a flawed and pretty inexperienced SA team added immense context to the India tour that followed. No one expected them to do anywhere near as well as they did and it was because of that SA loss that they culled half their team and brought in Renshaw and Handscomb, who showed very good promise in India. The way one series leads into the next is fascinating to watch unfold to me.

The problem with countries like West indies and Pakistan is that they simply haven't played each other enough to it be a meaningful rivalry. Pakistan hadn't toured there in ages which I'd why their win didn't quite feel as huge as it should have. I don't really think it's a lack of context necessarily, just poor scheduling.

 

[Pratters]

Nice posts OS. Bharani, I remember watching those four balls of Pollock live too. In recent times, with sponsors concentrating on Indian cricket and IPL, we aren't getting even international cricket from abroad much which was a given till a few years back. We are getting lots of domestic cricket though. I am not sure how much English domestic cricket will be broadcast this season. No advertisements so far. It's annoying the tri series in Ireland or the Indian women's ODIs aren't being broadcast on TV. We will get all of the Caribbean Premier League and Big Bash and even the Bangladesh Premier League though. Darn.

 

[morgieb]

If anything more so. I didn't care much about non-Australian cricket when I first signed up.

 

[NUFAN]

I should have included Bangladesh's 100th Test win, that was epic as I've had a soft spot for Bangladesh and the flagless Afghanistani team for a while now. BTW I don't want random Tests for points, I want series for points - a big difference.

I also have to thank Teuton and his draft fantasy comp for watching as much cricket as I have. I've switched a fair few games off as soon as one of my bats have gotten out or one of my bowlers stopped bowling.

 

[Howe_zat]

No, but only because interest ebbs and flows. You'd expect the moment at which someone joins a website just to talk cricket to be a particularly high ebb, so it's hard to match.

Right now I'm more into rugby which definitely wasn't true when I joined but that tends to be even more up and down.

 

[Red]

Love cricket as much as I always have. A lot.

 

[Spark]

There are certainly periods when I just don't care at all what happens in matches the Aus team are playing in (mostly random ODI series), which wasn't the case before. Like I just couldn't care less what happened in the Pakistan ODIs last summer, for example. No change, or perhaps even a positive change, to how I feel wrt Tests though.

 

[fredfertang]

Love the history of the game, always have and always will

My interest in current cricket waxes and wanes, but have really enjoyed this winter's Test series, so all is good

 

[Mike5181]

I think the passion is still there, otherwise I wouldn't have watched NZ A vs. Ireland the other night. Other interests have gradually taken up more and more of my time, though. I'm more content with listening to a game on the radio or just following it on Cricinfo than I would've been back in 2010-11. I also think my interest in having discussions about cricket on here have waned almost completely at this point. Most of it just seems to be the same old stuff with [insert new player].

 

[Furball]

I still tend to enjoy the cricket I do watch, I just don't have the time to enjoy it the way I used to.

 

[AndrewB]

Here is a story for our FC cricket enthusiast S Kennedy: I remember the first ever live county game I ever watched. It was Warwickshire Vs Northamptonshire (? not sure) but Shaun Pollock got 4 wickets in 4 balls in an early over of the match and it was a LO game being broadcast live to us in India. Me and my cousins were so very excited. Those games used to start by 3 PM IST and we had our own cricket games starting by 4 back then, and it was the summer holidays at school. Boy those were good times.

1996 Benson & Hedges Cup, Warwickshire v Leicestershire, Pollock's first game for Warwickshire (as described here).

 

[Pothas]

I still tend to enjoy the cricket I do watch, I just don't have the time to enjoy it the way I used to.

Yeah like most people I just don't have the time to watch as much, especially non-English cricket, as I used to. Don't enjoy it any less, in fact I probably enjoy what I do watch more. Still try and get time off to watch at least one full Test a summer and also go to watch more, it works out better in many ways.

 

[StephenZA]

I still tend to enjoy the cricket I do watch, I just don't have the time to enjoy it the way I used to.

Yeah like most people I just don't have the time to watch as much, especially non-English cricket, as I used to. Don't enjoy it any less, in fact I probably enjoy what I do watch more. Still try and get time off to watch at least one full Test a summer and also go to watch more, it works out better in many ways.

This pretty much sums it up... but I would probably go out of my way to watch any SA test series I could, at times even going without proper sleep.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Simple enough question

Much more now. My love for the sport has never changed. Have loved the sport from childhood and will love it with as much intensity till I die. I do take interest in other sports like Football and Tennis but they don't even come close to Cricket.

But what has changed is my activity level.

I joined CW around 06 and while I was younger then and should have had more time, there were some difficult moments in my life during that time and I wasn't able to participate and 'enjoy' the game as much. I would still be geeky about the sport and follow all the scorecards, if not watch all the games.

Between that time and I guess 2014, I only became more and more busy. I would make time for the odd series here and there but there were a couple of problems I faced
Broadcasting - most of the cricket matches around the world weren't shown
Time difference

So I got to watch very little cricket in that time.

I guess it was around 2014 where I was feeling quite burn out with my full time work and I made a conscious decision to make time for something I love and that happened to be cricket.

I started with Asia Cup 2014, South Africa-Australia 2014 series and watched most of the cricket in that year, continuing through to 2015. By then I had figured out reliable ********* sites, and got myself a Chromecast just before the Sri Lanka-Pakistan series of 2014. Since then I have tried to watch as much as I can.

So now, it's not about which series I watched, but the rare ones I missed and I guess New Zealand-South Africa recently is the only one I missed in recent times and not because I wasn't interested, but after watching cricket non stop from July 2016 given Pakistan's schedule, I just had to make time for some other activities in my life before April when the West Indies series would start.

It's not that difficult, I plan my life around cricket schedules because I realized cricket is my life.

Now of course I am not able to watch every ball, but significant proportions of each game, or the extended highlights at the very minimum.


Regarding lack of a context, again, I have had no real issues with that at least with regard to Test Cricket. I think the Test rankings (although not exactly the most fair system given the haphazard scheduling) are a great context and I am constantly playing with ICC Test Rankings Predictor which is why I had predicted India would be number 1 by the end of their home season this year. I thought the Australia-South Africa series last year was absolutely incredible. I posted a thread about it last June 2016 about the upcoming Test season being one of the most exciting in years and it did not disappoint. From the beginning of 2016 I was licking my lips at the prospect of the second half of 2016 and we had ourselves 4 of the most riveting series in recent times
Pakistan - England
South Africa - Australia
England - Bangladesh
India - Australia

If you call yourself a cricket and did not feel any excitement or passion during the above series, you missed out big time.

ODIs - yes I agree it can get a tad irrelevant such as the India-Australia ODI series last year but I am super pumped about the Champions Trophy now.

T20 - Only World T20s


This is not easy. It's a constant struggle to sacrifice other activities, make conscious decisions to prioritize your time for cricket over other things and it meant less socialising, less parties and going out. But there are moments I experience in life thanks to cricket that is unmatched by anything else. I remember the morning after the Lords Test last year, or yesterday after Gabriel's shot, or the sleepless night before it. The excitement can intensity with which I feel it is unmatched still. That's when I know it's worth it.

I can't wait for the England-South Africa series. I cannot wait for South Africa's home season later this year which is going to be absolutely fascinating. And then I hear there's some insignificant series taking place in some insignificant country at the end of the year...that might turn out okay too

 

[OverratedSanity]

If you call yourself a cricket and did not feel any excitement or passion during the above series, you missed out big time.

Poor stuff. It's pretty unfair to expect one to enjoy 5 day test matches when every single day there's a real possibility of a frog eating you.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Badum-tish?

 

[Black_Warrior]

If you didn't enjoy those series, it's better if the frog eats you

 

[Top_Cat]

Care far less about whether Oz wins, just want great plays in general. That said my second team, Pakistan, will always have my heart (love u Waqar).

 

[cnerd123]

Much more now. My love for the sport has never changed. Have loved the sport from childhood and will love it with as much intensity till I die. I do take interest in other sports like Football and Tennis but they don't even come close to Cricket.

But what has changed is my activity level.

I joined CW around 06 and while I was younger then and should have had more time, there were some difficult moments in my life during that time and I wasn't able to participate and 'enjoy' the game as much. I would still be geeky about the sport and follow all the scorecards, if not watch all the games.

Between that time and I guess 2014, I only became more and more busy. I would make time for the odd series here and there but there were a couple of problems I faced
Broadcasting - most of the cricket matches around the world weren't shown
Time difference

So I got to watch very little cricket in that time.

I guess it was around 2014 where I was feeling quite burn out with my full time work and I made a conscious decision to make time for something I love and that happened to be cricket.

I started with Asia Cup 2014, South Africa-Australia 2014 series and watched most of the cricket in that year, continuing through to 2015. By then I had figured out reliable ********* sites, and got myself a Chromecast just before the Sri Lanka-Pakistan series of 2014. Since then I have tried to watch as much as I can.

So now, it's not about which series I watched, but the rare ones I missed and I guess New Zealand-South Africa recently is the only one I missed in recent times and not because I wasn't interested, but after watching cricket non stop from July 2016 given Pakistan's schedule, I just had to make time for some other activities in my life before April when the West Indies series would start.

It's not that difficult, I plan my life around cricket schedules because I realized cricket is my life.

Now of course I am not able to watch every ball, but significant proportions of each game, or the extended highlights at the very minimum.


Regarding lack of a context, again, I have had no real issues with that at least with regard to Test Cricket. I think the Test rankings (although not exactly the most fair system given the haphazard scheduling) are a great context and I am constantly playing with ICC Test Rankings Predictor which is why I had predicted India would be number 1 by the end of their home season this year. I thought the Australia-South Africa series last year was absolutely incredible. I posted a thread about it last June 2016 about the upcoming Test season being one of the most exciting in years and it did not disappoint. From the beginning of 2016 I was licking my lips at the prospect of the second half of 2016 and we had ourselves 4 of the most riveting series in recent times
Pakistan - England
South Africa - Australia
England - Bangladesh
India - Australia

If you call yourself a cricket and did not feel any excitement or passion during the above series, you missed out big time.

ODIs - yes I agree it can get a tad irrelevant such as the India-Australia ODI series last year but I am super pumped about the Champions Trophy now.

T20 - Only World T20s


This is not easy. It's a constant struggle to sacrifice other activities, make conscious decisions to prioritize your time for cricket over other things and it meant less socialising, less parties and going out. But there are moments I experience in life thanks to cricket that is unmatched by anything else. I remember the morning after the Lords Test last year, or yesterday after Gabriel's shot, or the sleepless night before it. The excitement can intensity with which I feel it is unmatched still. That's when I know it's worth it.

I can't wait for the England-South Africa series. I cannot wait for South Africa's home season later this year which is going to be absolutely fascinating. And then I hear there's some insignificant series taking place in some insignificant country at the end of the year...that might turn out okay too

Ok