So, I'm leaving with my son in five minutes to watch a weekend of cricket. This is just a wee bit unusual--an American cricket fan in Germany.

Our team made it to the semi-finals for the German national championship last year, till getting beat by Berlin. That's right, it took a team from BERLIN to beat our guys.

Any other cricket fans?

I'll check back in tonight to tell you how Goettingen is doing. I'm sure y'all are interested.

Is it possible to explain cricket in 200 or fewer words? I've tried reading the cricket reports in the sports from time to time, and it might was well be written in Linear B. Help!

John

It vaguely interests me, but I've never understood the rules.

Coincidentally, just yesterday I saw a story about how some schools in New York are swapping baseball for cricket:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jht......t104.xml

Seems cricket might be enjoying a little bit of a resurgence in America.

Cricket is fantastic. Imagine Roger Clemens hurling a 90 mph fast ball at you- but bounces first and you have NO IDEA which way it's going to bounce. wow. Oh... and they catch line- drives with their bare hands.

The Rules of Cricket for Foreigners

A Foreigner will possess the essential knowledge of cricket when he fully understands the following:

You have two sides: One out in the field and one in.
Each man that's in the side that's in goes out and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.
When they are all out the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.
Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When both sides have been in and out including the not outs,
That's the end of the game.

My USAF Cops worked with the RAF Police on a NATO base in Sardinia. They tried to teach us Cricket and we tried to teach them sandlot baseball. They tried to teach us Rugby and we tried to teach them American Touch Football. Both groups eventually decided to sit on the sidelines, chug beer and cheer one another in abject confusion. Then the Italians brought out the Bocce Balls. Mama Mia!

Balducci, wonderful!

John, no, cricket cannot be so simply explained. But I'll try.

Cricket is a ball and bat game in which someone throws a ball at something called a wicket, which is a stick tower with a couple of little sticks laying across the top. The person throwing the ball wants to knock those sticks over. But another guy is protecting the sticks with a bat. Meanwhile the guy with the bat wants to run to a second wicket a short distance away from the wicket is protecting. So it's a game with two objects: one team wants to knock the wicket down; the other team wants to score runs by running back and forth between the two wickets as many times as possible.

All of this is strictly regulated: how far apart the wickets are, how many throws at the wicket each player gets, what's allowed and what's not allowed. And these rules (called "laws" ) are indeed complicated to the uninitiated. But then again, try to explain the scoring system of tennis or what a "safety" is in American Football. Or better yet, try to explain the dropped third strike rule in baseball.

Here's a wicket:

Click here to view attached image.

To continue, most of the excitement comes from a basic tension: it's easy to score runs, but very difficult to knock down the wicket. (There are other ways to get the batsman out, by the way, such as catching a hit ball on the fly--but that would ruin my simple explanation). So one team is amassing runs, and the other is hoping to get the batsman out any way they can, but it's difficult. And then some fielder makes some bullet-like throw from thirty yards away to hit the wicket, and everybody screams and a good time is had by all who are supporting that team.

It's cool.

One of my favorite sports.
Nightmare to explain. The best way to learn this game is to actually play it. There is an indoor version that is also very popular.

Doulas Adams explained that cricket is actually a racial memory of a bloody inter-galactic war. That we've turned it into a rather incomprehensible game has disquited the rest of the universe!

There's a moment in "Mary Poppins" where Bert and Michael are moving along the rooftops dodging fireworks. Michael stands in the back and Bert swings his brush to bat away a fireball. For years I thought it was supposed to be baseball until I noticed the three smokestacks Michael was standing behind with sticks on them!

This description alone is enough to make me want to go watch a game.

The closest thing I have to a cricket experience is second hand. I was talking to a young woman in Winnipeg a couple of years ago. She had been to a family wedding in Pakistan, and one of the guests was Imran Khan. As she told the story, she had the most star-struck expression I have ever seen. I guess he's famous, eh?

Johh

Cricket is probably my favorite sport that I have never watched in person. Even the video I've seen is just clips. There are some guys in Columbia who get together for a pick-up game ridiculously early on Saturdays.
Guess I have to just stick to rugby.

Abc, it was an indoor tournament that I attended this weekend. A lot of fun, but missing the lawn chair picnic atmosphere that I adore. (Which is almost as good as sitting in a baseball park and singing during the seventh inning stretch. Not quite, but still good.)

It's something worth thinking about that by far the two worlds largest sports (soccer and cricket) both come from England and both have a sort of lack of balance which produces the excitement. Soccer is unfairly balanced towards the defense, cricket for the offense--but the same thing results: either the defense or the offense is continually fighting against great odds. American sports are more balanced: the defense pushes in one direction, the offense in another--and it's kind of a 50/50 struggle.

Here's a funny story: the first time I ever heard anyone explain cricket was at a booze party in graduate school. Two guys from Australia were explaining the rules and the entire group was laughing hysterically. Somehow it ended with one of the Aussies putting a lamp shade on his head and me getting so drunk that I didn't remember a single thing about cricket.

I mean, he really put a lamp shade on his head! But then again, grad students in philosophy have to get their kicks some how.

One last thing: my report on the tournament. Goettingen got to the final, but got whooped by one guy in the final. They were playing against a team from Hamburg who had a guy who scored over thirty points by himself.

So, we can be proud, but we were only runners up.

So, anyone else out there cricket fans? What about Corona and Matt and George--not interested in cricket?

I don't like cricket oh no
I love it
I don't like cricket no no
I love it.
I don't like cricket no no

Ha, I am terrible at cricket.

Big disappointment for my Dad, who drove my mother to a hospital in Yorkshire when in labour so I could play for the right county.