Tim Blair

I think I have enjoyed watching the last 4 days of the 3rd Test more than seeing Saddam being pulled from his spider hole.

But, I have to say that I think Brett Lee would be more at home in a sheltered workshop than a free market Test team.

Can any helpful soul point this "non-cricketing US reader" (and baseball fan) to a good internet source for explaining the game? If some brave person wants to do it directly, I can offer American football, baseball, hockey, and US Primary Season lessons to any and all interested.

See? This site is *full* of multi-culturalism!

I once spent six months in Australia and New Zealand during the height of cricket season so I understand the basics, but I'm sure an Aussie could explain the finer points far better than I could. It's an entertaining sport if you have nowhere to be for about a week. ;)

KevinV

Try: http://members.tripod.com/adm/popup/roadmap.shtml?member_name=sccwa&path=crick.html&client_ip=195.93.32.12&ts=1072723269&ad_type=POPUP&category=sports&search_string=cricket+usa+rules+baseball&id=d1541fd4aad9488f3ede0a566529e7d5

Despite being one of the longest URLs I have ever seen it does explain Cricket in comparison to Baseball.

For some reason I have given the incorrect link in my previous post:

members.tripod.com/~sccwa/crick.html

Much more concise.

Well done Tim that was a good effort. Raised a dry smile and a nod.

Australia's biggest annual sporting event is coming up, and it will be glorious. :)

Non-cricketing US readers should get with the picture. There are more cricket fans in India than there are people in the US and Canada combined.

I admire your attempt to draw parallels between cricket and liberty.

I've read interesting theories on why authoritarian societies tend to generally do better on the soccer pitch. US critics of soccer dismiss it as a "commie game" when in actuality, it helps to have a Generallisimo sitting in the VIP box, e.g. Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Spain,etc.

Here in the US, the American Legion (a patriotic organization established after WWI) set up its American Legion baseball teams and leagues during the 1950's because, as they said at the time, "no boy who played baseball could become a communist!"

Then Castro and the Cuban National Team exposed the flaw in that argument...

One more thing...when the Cuban All-Stars beat the professional Baltimore Orioles in an exhibition game in the 1990's, David Letterman quipped that Castro was so proud, he bought the winning pitcher "a brand new 1956 Buick".

Tim
You say "And, most creepily, one-day teams compete for something called the World Cup, which to any civilised mind evokes the dreaded UN. Test teams compete unilaterally". Hmm, unilateral cricket! Sounds like a wank to me.

I went to the cricket yesterday (Day 4) and had a ball. I'm off in a hour for the first (and last?) session. The atmosphere is great and the Swami Army are giving heaps to the Yobbos. Great stuff...

Yes, and this fine and incisive analysis also explains why Australia won the last couple of World (one-day) Cups. (Ooh, which "to any civilised mind evokes the dreaded UN"!)

"Feel like putting seven men in the slips? Hey, why not?" Well, you can also do this in one-day cricket, if you're of a mind to.

Political football, political cricket. Great leap forward.

You ought to read C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary. Cricket as metaphor for life.

Ross, thanks for link. Have a much better understanding of the game. Very interesting. Guess I'd have to actually watch a couple of "games" or tests to get the clue.

David Gilles: Interesting numbers.
That said, having played baseball as a young lad at the college level, if you ever have interest in baseball and desire to see it played at the highest level, I suggest you watch during the League Championship Series/World Series to get a feel for what baseball is all about. Crafty pitchers, great hitters hitting behind the runner, moving him from first to third.

Much better than the contract incentive-building home run contests we see during the regular season.

Clog, would like to see you put seven in the slips in the last 10 overs. Think you might find it a little tough to complete an over when you keep getting no-balled for breaching fielding restrictions.

Hmm, can't find that restriction here (rules for 2003 IWWC trophy), although this is possibly due to incompetence. However, if you are correct, I think 80% right (ie 40 overs out of 50) is not a bad average.

The late, great, Australian philosopher David Stove wrote a brilliant essay on the philosophical ramifications of cricket. He felt that it was conducive to western concepts of liberty and rationality. He also thought it was pro-monarchy (monarchy good) and anti-republican (republican bad).

Americans should note that Australians already know all about base-ball - we live on American TV, movies, books the lot.

Plus there are several Australian base-ball leagues.

AND there is no sport that Australians don't play. Name a sport and some Australians somewhere are playing it. Most Aussies have a nagging feeling deep down that, if you are'nt playing some sort of sport then you are somehow dimished - a slacker, maybe a bit of a poof or something.

You can have as many in the slips as you like, both ODI's and Tests. While it's common enough in the latter, it would be "ill-advised" in the former.

Not sure what the result of the World Cup has to do with the argument though.

Robert Blair said: "...there are several Australian base-ball leagues."

Yes, and I think the Aussies will be playing in the Athens Olympics while the USA will not...we didn't qualify! So I say, "Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie, Oi! Oi! Oi!"

I'll be supporting the Vegimiters.

Update:

Australia wins by 9 wickets, Hayden gets a 50 and Ponting is the Man of the Match.

Also last appearance by Steve Waugh as Test Captain. All Hail the Great Man!!!!!

The Swami Army was strangly subdued...

Last appearance at the MCG. Still the Sydney Test to go.

That's what I meant, my bad...

Oh, jeez, Donna!! Bloody TENNIS?
zzzzzzzzzzzz.
Who gives a flying f--- which boring, petulant puerile millionaire wins this week.

Spot on, Richard!

Oh, wait -- you were talking about tennis, not cricket.

"Aussies have a nagging feeling deep down that, if you are'nt playing some sort of sport then you are somehow dimished - a slacker, maybe a bit of a poof or something."

You'd better mention that to John Ray lest people accuse him of being a homosexual slacker. I always thought that if you aren't playing some sort of sport then you're simply trying to avoid brain damage. But sportsmen are entertainers and, like most actors, would not have their careers terribly affected by brain damage.

By the way, has anyone else noticed the introduction of scripted comedic banter between Richie Benaud and Simon O'Donnell during the tea break? Who writes this stuff? Is it you Tim? And why the hell did they choose Richie Benaud, the man with the least comedic ability of all the commentators, to deliver the punchlines? He almost forgot his lines the other day. One expects scripted commentary from American sports, but this wrestlingisation of sport grates when applied to cricket.

joe: baseball? I can watch American Football. I can watch Basketball. Even Ice Hockey. But ten minutes of baseball and I can feel the onset of catatonia.

David Gillies,
Better not try watching cricket then - you'll be out like a light just watching the bowler rub the ball on his crotch !

Only the stupid think that the capture of Saddam is the end of the war. Wait, I forgot where I'm posting this. ;-)

So on behalf of the ABC - nyah, nyah, nyah nyah, nyaaah!

Hope that isn't too intellectual for you.

No, Robert, I like cricket. I am English. Cricket is not baseball. Baseball is boring. Cricket is not. Just wish I could get it where I live.

Richie Benaud has your number.

Richie Benaud has your number.

Richie Benaud has your number.

Test cricket has a long way to go to be laissez faire. The rules on chucking, the no ball rule, new rules on improving behaviour (such as the edict issued during the Melb test that players must appeal to the umpire directly), rules on intimidatory bowling, players being allowed to retire hurt and then return to the crease, use of sightscreens, ridiculously complex LBW laws that punish bowlers that pitch outside the line even if the ball will definitely hit the stumps: Test cricket (and ODIs even more) are a poorly concealed device to protect batsmen.