April 24, 2007: Batter batter batter batter swing!
Er, sort of. So here I am in the West Indies and it's the International Cricket World Cup. Our ship has been chartered for a month and a half to take South African cricket fans island hopping to the various matches. I was a little worried that these guys were going to be all cricket, all the time. I mean, who but a serious cricket fan would spend thousands of dollars - and with the South African rand being what it is, most of these guys have been saving up for this trip for the last four years — and nearly four days of roundtrip airport/flight time to get to islands thousands of miles away just to watch a cricket match? I mean, cricket, honestly. If it was soccer or rugby or even baseball, I could understand, but cricket? These matches can last days, and for most of the time there's nothing happening. You've got to be a hardcore fan to spend all that money to come and watch cricket.
Boy was I wrong. These guys are definitely cricket fans, but they're even bigger boozers. We're talking record bar sales here — they'd even give my Irish Uncle Ken a run for his money. And there's no lame-ass pretentions about being civilized waiting until noon for their first drop: these guys drink from the moment they wake up to the moment they stumble back to their beds at night. And boy can they stumble.
Anyway, the point is, these guys are down here for three things: the Caribbean itself, the experience of sailing on a tall ship, and catching some world-class cricket. For many of them, the cricket definitely comes last. So much so that many of them were giving away their $100-plus tickets to the crew whenever they didn't feel like getting up at OhMyGodIt'sEarly hours to catch the transfers to the stadium. Which is where I come in. For the West Indies v. Australia match, there were eight crew tickets, and Thaddeus and I were among the lucky ones to win the lottery. Sweet. Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks, I'm there.
The West Indies team takes the field at the beginning of the match:
For those of you who aren't in the know about cricket, which is probably most of you since I can't remember the last time I ever saw a cricket match back home, live or televised. C'mon, be honest, how many of you knew that Canada was even in this world cup? (We're not anymore, we were sent home after loosing three games straight, though I'm told we played well.) In fact my only connection to cricket before this was through my Australian roommate in second year of university. He used to go out on Saturday mornings in his whites with his cricket bat over his shoulder and come back some 8-10 hours later. He also used to have a cat scan taped to his bedroom door with the caption "For those of you in doubt, I do have a brain." Nuff said. But anyway, I digress. The point is, cricket is a looooong game. The eight-to-nine hours these world cup matches are lasting are apparently abridged versions of the up-to-two-day long test matches they have outside the world cup. Man, and I thought baseball was long.
Briefly, here's how it works: if you compare it to baseball, there are essentially only two innings, since each team only comes up to bat once. Within each inning, there are 50 "overs." Overs consist of six pitches (or "bowls") pitched to one of the two batters who's up. There are two batters on the field at the same time protecting little sticks (wickets) at opposite ends of the pitch. Unlike baseball, the batter's job isn't necessarily to hit the ball; his job is to protect the wickets, which the pitcher (bowler) is trying to knock over with the ball. If the bowler knocks over the wickets, the batter is out (and, just to confuse things, batters out are also called wickets, so when there are three batters out you would say "three wickets"). So, if the bowler bowls wide and the wickets aren't in danger of being knocked over, the batter doesn't have to do anything, and he just stands there. If hitting the ball is the best way to defend the wickets, that's what the batter does. However, like in baseball, if a fielder catches the ball before it hits the ground, the batter is also out. Otherwise, if the ball is hit far enough that the batters have time to run from one set of wickets to the other before before the ball can be thrown at the wickets and knock them over, that's what they do, and as many times as they can run from one wicket to the other is how many runs they score. Unlike in baseball, the batters have a choice about whether or not to run; if the ball hasn't been hit far enough and there's a chance it'll be fielded before they get back to the wickets, they just stand there waiting for it to be fielded. (There are also "home runs" but they're called fours and sixes depending on how far the ball is hit, cause that's how many runs they score, and again, the batters don't have to actually run, the points are just added automatically.) Since the winning team is the one that has the most runs, the batters obviously have an interest in scoring runs, but it's a little more strategic than in baseball. Anyway, the first team bats through 50 overs or until all their wickets are down (they get 10 outs). Whatever their score is at the end of their at-bat is what the second team has to surpass in 50 overs or less without losing all of their wickets. Simple, right? The whole game plan, though, means that there's a lot of standing around - waaaay more than in baseball. It also means that the second half of the game is a little more exciting that the first half since there's actually an objective to meet. Did I mention that each half takes about four hours, not including rain-delays? Rah-rah, siss-boom-bah.
Anyway, here we are at the beginning of the match, still fresh and full of enthusiasm, root-root-rooting for the home team in our duly-purchased Windies t-shirts.
And finally, as promised, here's a pic of me and Thaddeus, my new squeeze. Take a good look cause Guyanese passports don't travel very well. Still, I hope you'll all get to meet him eventually.
Boy was I wrong. These guys are definitely cricket fans, but they're even bigger boozers. We're talking record bar sales here — they'd even give my Irish Uncle Ken a run for his money. And there's no lame-ass pretentions about being civilized waiting until noon for their first drop: these guys drink from the moment they wake up to the moment they stumble back to their beds at night. And boy can they stumble.
Anyway, the point is, these guys are down here for three things: the Caribbean itself, the experience of sailing on a tall ship, and catching some world-class cricket. For many of them, the cricket definitely comes last. So much so that many of them were giving away their $100-plus tickets to the crew whenever they didn't feel like getting up at OhMyGodIt'sEarly hours to catch the transfers to the stadium. Which is where I come in. For the West Indies v. Australia match, there were eight crew tickets, and Thaddeus and I were among the lucky ones to win the lottery. Sweet. Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks, I'm there.
The West Indies team takes the field at the beginning of the match:
For those of you who aren't in the know about cricket, which is probably most of you since I can't remember the last time I ever saw a cricket match back home, live or televised. C'mon, be honest, how many of you knew that Canada was even in this world cup? (We're not anymore, we were sent home after loosing three games straight, though I'm told we played well.) In fact my only connection to cricket before this was through my Australian roommate in second year of university. He used to go out on Saturday mornings in his whites with his cricket bat over his shoulder and come back some 8-10 hours later. He also used to have a cat scan taped to his bedroom door with the caption "For those of you in doubt, I do have a brain." Nuff said. But anyway, I digress. The point is, cricket is a looooong game. The eight-to-nine hours these world cup matches are lasting are apparently abridged versions of the up-to-two-day long test matches they have outside the world cup. Man, and I thought baseball was long.
Briefly, here's how it works: if you compare it to baseball, there are essentially only two innings, since each team only comes up to bat once. Within each inning, there are 50 "overs." Overs consist of six pitches (or "bowls") pitched to one of the two batters who's up. There are two batters on the field at the same time protecting little sticks (wickets) at opposite ends of the pitch. Unlike baseball, the batter's job isn't necessarily to hit the ball; his job is to protect the wickets, which the pitcher (bowler) is trying to knock over with the ball. If the bowler knocks over the wickets, the batter is out (and, just to confuse things, batters out are also called wickets, so when there are three batters out you would say "three wickets"). So, if the bowler bowls wide and the wickets aren't in danger of being knocked over, the batter doesn't have to do anything, and he just stands there. If hitting the ball is the best way to defend the wickets, that's what the batter does. However, like in baseball, if a fielder catches the ball before it hits the ground, the batter is also out. Otherwise, if the ball is hit far enough that the batters have time to run from one set of wickets to the other before before the ball can be thrown at the wickets and knock them over, that's what they do, and as many times as they can run from one wicket to the other is how many runs they score. Unlike in baseball, the batters have a choice about whether or not to run; if the ball hasn't been hit far enough and there's a chance it'll be fielded before they get back to the wickets, they just stand there waiting for it to be fielded. (There are also "home runs" but they're called fours and sixes depending on how far the ball is hit, cause that's how many runs they score, and again, the batters don't have to actually run, the points are just added automatically.) Since the winning team is the one that has the most runs, the batters obviously have an interest in scoring runs, but it's a little more strategic than in baseball. Anyway, the first team bats through 50 overs or until all their wickets are down (they get 10 outs). Whatever their score is at the end of their at-bat is what the second team has to surpass in 50 overs or less without losing all of their wickets. Simple, right? The whole game plan, though, means that there's a lot of standing around - waaaay more than in baseball. It also means that the second half of the game is a little more exciting that the first half since there's actually an objective to meet. Did I mention that each half takes about four hours, not including rain-delays? Rah-rah, siss-boom-bah.
Anyway, here we are at the beginning of the match, still fresh and full of enthusiasm, root-root-rooting for the home team in our duly-purchased Windies t-shirts.
And finally, as promised, here's a pic of me and Thaddeus, my new squeeze. Take a good look cause Guyanese passports don't travel very well. Still, I hope you'll all get to meet him eventually.
posted by Unknown at
10:54 a.m.
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