As an American student, I had only a faint idea of the game of cricket. I had never seen a match live and had no understanding of the rules. However, after living here for a month and being caught up in the hysteria of the World Cup, I decided to sit down and watch while trying to decipher this unfamiliar game.
In the beginning, I really had no concept of what I was watching but slowly the game began to make sense. There are 50 overs each consisting of six bowls. The fielding team attempts to hit the wickets while the batting team tries to defend the wickets by hitting the ball and scoring runs. I was captivated by cricket’s parallels to American baseball. Both games involve pitching, batting and fielding but the field and positions are very different. The circular field seems much harder to defend and much more advantageous to the batting team than in baseball (This is probably why teams can score more than 300 runs in a game).
(Google Images)
Another thing that I found interesting was the length of time it takes to play a cricket match. In American professional sports, we do not have anything that is comparable in terms of the length of time a game takes to complete. Professional football, ice hockey and basketball all play hour games, and a baseball game lasts around three hours. This is in stark contrast to cricket matches which seem to be all day affairs.
One last comparison I drew between American professional sports and cricket was the loyal following of the fans. Just like in baseball and basketball, cricket teams have very passionate fans. They follow the teams every move and cheer loudly when their team is triumphant.
Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the cricket World Cup and plan to follow Australia’s progress in the tournament. While I probably won’t be joining the local cricket club at school anytime soon, I am glad that I was exposed to the entertaining and highly-skilled game.
No comments:
Post a Comment