Is it just me or is there anyone else who has absolutely no interest in the game at all, not a jot, zero. I can't name a single professional cricketer let alone a member of the England team! Am I missing out or is my apathy widespread? It is headline news on the Beep and I can't comprehend why.
Cheers
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I'm with you Baz, anything that involves chasing a ball around is a waste of time.
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Like watching paint dry without the good bits.
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Pretty to watch but incomprehensible. Why, for example, does the players move around every six goes? It must be very fatiguing.
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>> I'm with you Baz, anything that involves chasing a ball around is a waste of
>> time.
>>
So that is 2 people who should fail the United Kingdom Official Citizenship Test :)
next thing is they will deport residents who fail!
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Am I missing out
Yes hugely :-) I can't get enough of the stuff, pity it's not on normal tele. I'd have it on all day for the ashes.
or is my apathy widespread?
Well I'm not sure, it's popular in many parts of the world, second only to football.
It is headline news on the Beep and I can't comprehend why.
Because it's the ashes !
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"Am I missing out or is my apathy widespread? "
Well since watching cricket gives a lot of people pleasure you are by definition missing out. There are lots of things that require effort to understand and appreciate. Cricket is one of them. There are lots of things in live that I don't really understand or appreciate, classical music for example but that is really my failing and my loss.
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>>Well since watching cricket gives a lot of people pleasure you are by definition missing out.
Weak logic - cigarettes, getting tattoos, and watching X-Factor appear to give a lot of people pleasure and I'm pretty sure I ain't missing out.
Cricket is like many sports: exposure to it, and a degree of engagement at an early age usually engender a lifelong appreciation.
I suppose religion, and affiliation to political parties fall into the same boat...
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I love it but I've not been as fanatical for a few years as I was when you could get it all day, ball by ball, on Radio 3.
I could, and did, listen all day to Arlott, Johnners, Laker, etc talking about the game ( and eating listener's cakes ) I was, with me ole stepdad, a member at Old Trafford in the great days of the John Player Sunday games with Jackie Bond captaining the team of players like Lever and Shuttleworth, Engineer, the two Lloyds, Pilling, Hughes, 'Flat Jack' Simmons, at al. Ah, heady days !
Cricket is like chess...there are so many twists and turns involved . My late German friend always told me he was totally baffled . Attempts by me to teach him just the basic basics were impossible.
I just wish they'd put it back on the BBC !
Ted
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Sorry, Lygonos, but isn't your own reasoning weak? How can you be sure without trying?
I dislike cigarettes but gave them a 30-year trial before deciding.
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I guess, in that case, I am also missing out on paedophilia, shooting foreigners, and standing on the Moon in a spacesuit.
Where do I sign up?
**EDIT** - found it
tinyurl.com/nzbkvkl
Last edited by: Lygonos on Sat 13 Jul 13 at 15:17
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I was put off cricket at an early age (8) by having to face a demon 12-year-old bowler while wearing pads and holding a bat all too big for me, having never played the game before and being uncertain of the rules. In any case I wasn't good at any ball game, couldn't take them really seriously so my heart wasn't in it.
A Jamaican friend later told me that the way to learn was to start young using a tennis ball and 'learn some strokes' before moving on to the real thing. I'm sure he was right.
Later in life I have come to accept cricket as a slow and boring game that has to be watched carefully. It's all right in the background when you are lying in the sun with a hat over your eyes. I know only too well that some are fanatical enthusiasts, and that I have always been missing something. But so what? You can't have everything.
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It's very rare you can learn to like a particular sport. The appeal is nearly all visual, something you see grabs your attention early on and you become either interested or a firm fan. For me it was football, cycling, snooker and motor road racing. I can watch cars or bikes racing round a circuit or cycles in a road race but moto X or cyclo X leave me cold. Rugby is similar to football in many ways but the game could never appeal to me in the slightest, it doesn't flow like football and would never grab my attention.
Cricket I just find tedious, though I can still appreciate the skill, mental and physical toughness and dedication required to reach the top in any sport from darts to water polo. I just couldn't watch them.
Last edited by: Robin Regal on Sat 13 Jul 13 at 16:58
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Watching cricket or football or drinking themselves stupid seems to be the three main leisure pastimes of many. I don't really get the fun in any of those I'm afraid.
But it does seem to be me in the minority so fair enough. Happy in my little corner though as I'm sure others are in theirs so let them get on with it. We all only get a few decades here on the planet to play so I guess we should all do what we want within reason.
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Rugby Union, Test Match cricket and club saloon car racing are the only sporty pastimes in which I have any interest whatsoever.
Soccer I find tedious in the extreme, tennis is athletic and no doubt skilful and although doubles is OK, singles fail to stir me.
Road cycling is watching paint dry and track athletics is mind-numbingly boring, I find. but probably the nadir of spectator sport is golf.
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"the nadir of spectator sport is golf"
Best on the radio, its natural medium.
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"cigarettes, getting tattoos, and watching X-Factor appear to give a lot of people pleasure and I'm pretty sure I ain't missing out."
Ah Doc but you are. You just don't know what you are missing. Any one of those three would change your life.
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I love village cricket. I can spend hours at a game.
Much more fun than the professional stuff.
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But one stimulates interest in the other, NoFM. 'Grassroots' cricket, including my club, gets pots of Sky money through the ECB for plastic cones and wobbly stumps with which to train 7-17 year-olds, but because there's no longer any live cricket anywhere on free-to-air TV, it's only those whose parents can afford to pay Rupert, or who get cricket at school, that want to come along.
(Incidentally, can anyone explain why the phrase 'colts section' gets 9,000 cricket-related Google hits, while the website-obligatory 'thriving colts section' gets 33,000?)
At adult level it's worse. Even the non-enthusiasts at work used to watch it in the free-to-air days and know enough to talk about the good bits the following day. Now I have to walk much further in search of a cricket conversation, and weekend teams everywhere are struggling for players, partly because fewer of us have a mate who's seen a bit on the telly and would like to have a go. The ECB is in real danger of strangling the next generation of players by taking Sky's money today.
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I guess my sporting interests were set at school. In Winter we played Rugby Union, in Spring, Hockey and in Summer, Cricket.
This was, latterly at a grammar school, of course and in those far off days, soccer was completely ignored.
Hockey never stuck, perhaps as I was always picked as the goalkeeper!
I did make the school 1st XV, though and later played for a, mostly social, RFU club in Nottingham. I tell you packing down in the scrum after a pre-match lunch of cheese & raw onion rolls and draught Bass, was an "interesting" experience.
Last edited by: Roger on Sat 13 Jul 13 at 21:15
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>>I tell you packing down in the scrum after a pre-match lunch of cheese & raw onion rolls and draught Bass, was an "interesting" experience.
Once played in a darts tournament when there was a Guiness promotion on, and the landlord had a jar of pickled eggs on the counter he brought in from the chippy next door which he also ran.
Bad idea.
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Aforesaid disgusting ingestion took place here:-
tinyurl.com/ouq9ayc
In my day it was The Spread Eagle.
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A day at Lords, watching day 4 of a test match that we have half a chance of winning, supping beer....bliss.
That's about the only thing I miss about leaving London.
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>> A day at Lords, watching day 4 of a test match that we have half
>> a chance of winning, supping beer....bliss.
>>
>> That's about the only thing I miss about leaving London.
A walk along the south bank on a summer evening, the view of St Pauls and Tower Bridge? When the sun goes down and it gets dark, a walk up through Gerard Street, across Shaftesbury avenue and through Soho, with a pizza and jazz at the end of it.
Anyway, back to cricket lest it upset some of our miserable moaning old members who prefer their threads tightly on topic. Generally I leave it alone, but the Ashes? oh no, you cant miss this, there is no sporting rivalry like it anywhere on the planet. Life and death is trivial compared to this.
However, find a village green, on english summer with a pub, and two local teams having a go. Perfection with a capital P.
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Never really got cricket myself. Prefer baseball.
Some will no doubt scoff and say it's rounders for blokes but I doubt any of the pro-cricket folk would relish a cricket ball thrown at them with venom rather than the contrived over arm action we see in cricket.
I don't doubt a cricket ball can move in contact with the ground but that's friction slowing it down on a non-grass surface, compared with a full on pitch at you.
I'm not a fan of many 'mukin sports but I do do like the World Series (dons helmet waiting for the inevitable, how can they call it the World Series when only Americans play it).
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>> I doubt any of the pro-cricket folk would relish a cricket ball thrown at them with venom rather than the contrived over arm action we see in cricket.
Have you ever played cricket, or tried to, gmac? It may look gentle from a distance, but it can be utterly lethal if a fast bowler feels mean (or pushed) and the batsman isn't up to it.
It doesn't have to be like that. But it certainly can be.
Baseball is a despicable but thuggish version of rounders for grown-ups. Its rules are incomprehensible to anyone but an American. How adults can watch such a dreary childish spectacle is completely beyond me.
But what do I know after all? They are both ball games, essentially for children.
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>> Have you ever played cricket, or tried to, gmac? It may look gentle from a
>> distance, but it can be utterly lethal if a fast bowler feels mean (or pushed)
>> and the batsman isn't up to it.
>>
Yes, though many, many moons ago. After a year of football, rugby, cross-country and athletics we used to dread the summer term at school. 6 weeks of hell taking ages getting kitted up taking half our "PE" time.
We were young, we were full of enthusiasm and cricket did its best to kill that. No doubt there is a new version which has no risk and fits in the curriculum but in my day it was a non-starter for the active.
Suited the Johnny "forgot my kit" down to the ground as there was very little action time.
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 14 Jul 13 at 00:33
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Forgot to add, we tried playing outside school with a bat, ball, wickets drawn on the side of a bolder placed to keep cars off the links where we played football - I grew up on the Northumberland coastline.
15 & 16 year olds flinging a corker at you on what could best be described as the rough of a golf course, that ball could come at you from any angle and that, for me, is where cricket loses out to football.
Football, you need two jumpers and a ball. Baseball/softball/rounders you need a ball, a bat and four jumpers. Cricket you need a bat, a ball and somewhere reasonably flat where the ball is not going to bounce off at some obtuse angle which puts the ball anywhere within 20m of where it's supposed to be.
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 14 Jul 13 at 00:44
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>> somewhere reasonably flat where the ball is not going to bounce off at some obtuse angle which puts the ball anywhere within 20m of where it's supposed to be.
Heh heh... and that's before the bowler has polished one side of the ball, scraped the other side rough and picked at the seam with his devil's claws before bowling some sort of weird chinaman...
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Surely they don't keep beer bottle tops in their whites ;-) That's just not cricket !!!
I used to live in Yorkshire and have a lot of mates who reckon "it were a Grand day oot".
Just not for me I'm afraid, I can sit in the garden watching the grass grow and get lagered if I were so inclined.
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 14 Jul 13 at 00:58
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>> I don't doubt a cricket ball can move in contact with the ground but that's
>> friction slowing it down on a non-grass surface,
Errrr, no its not. on a green wicket it can speed up off the pitch.,
compared with a full on pitch at
>> you.
A baseball pitch moves, very little, at a speed of 95 to 100 mph over a distance of 60 feet from mound to plate.
A fast bowl at 95-100mph can deviate a lot at a distance of less than 4 feet in front of you.
I am also a baseball fan, bit I am afraid good pace bowlers and batsmen make pitchers and hitters look like neolithic donkeys. A good spin bowler would make the best pinch hitter cry with frustration.
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...on a green wicket it can speed up off the pitch.
Sorry, Z, but that's just not physics - unless you know something that Newton didn't. The pitch would have to supply energy to the ball. What does happen is that a rough or green pitch subverts our instinctive judgement of how the ball will behave. A green pitch is effectively two surfaces in one: a soft, grassy upper layer and a hard substrate. The seam of the new ball is sharp enough to penetrate the top layer, so a skilful bowler can exploit this by landing it at an angle where part of the ball bounces off the substrate and part off the grass, causing it to deviate.
A hard, true, 'fast' pitch, on the other hand, steals far less energy from the ball, so - counterintuitively, perhaps - is easier to bat on because the ball conforms more to expectations.
Don't knock baseball, though. Fascinating game, worth taking the trouble to get to know - although it pays to have some help from a tame American.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Sun 14 Jul 13 at 16:49
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>> ...on a green wicket it can speed up off the pitch.
A spin bowler can make that appear to happen by putting a lot of top spin on the ball: it will bounce lower and travel faster than a ball sent at the same speed without spin. Backspin has the opposite effect, with the ball bouncing higher and actually slowing down. A bowler can sometimes fool a batsman by ringing the changes.
Not that I know anything about cricket of course.
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>> ...on a green wicket it can speed up off the pitch.
>>
>> Sorry, Z, but that's just not physics - unless you know something that Newton didn't.
You have energy stored within the ball becuase its spinning
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...spin that a green pitch would brake. Spinners like it dry, dusty and hard; it's seamers that prosper on a green-top, and the only spin they (we) apply is backspin to stabilize the seam.
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Spinners like it dry, dusty and hard;
>>
Ooo er, missus.
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I went to watch cricket at the Oval once in about 1963 ... once was enough!
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As mentioned elsewhere, I never feel quite comfortable "watching" anything much. I prefer instead to be "doing" something myself. Life is way too short to stand or sit around living it vicariously through other's activities. In my admittedly minority and probably misguided view anyway.
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>> Life is way too short to stand or sit around living it vicariously through other's activities. In my admittedly minority and probably misguided view anyway.
You are (or rather were) in good company Humph. The late despot Muammar Gaddafi held the same view and attempted to impose it on his subjects.
I don't think Gaddafi's views on spectating had any specific connection with his sticky end. But just in case they did, it might be a good idea to keep your head down on this one...
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>> As mentioned elsewhere, I never feel quite comfortable "watching" anything much. I prefer instead to
>> be "doing" something myself. Life is way too short to stand or sit around living
>> it vicariously through other's activities. In my admittedly minority and probably misguided view anyway.
Quite right Humph. I could have sold thousands of tickets to watch you go A over T.
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Don't worry Baz, I'm a far worse case than you.
I was born with a defective sport gene. I have never had the slightest interest in any sport or any kind of competition. I have never voluntarily played any sport, nor seen any point in watching other people playing.
On the Norman Tebbit test I am stateless - I don't identify with any national team in any sport from any country. It all seems equally pointless and irrelevant.
I couldn't name a single player in any sport - except Andy Murray, who I think is a tennis player and has just won something.
I recently learned that the Lions are a Welsh team. I didn't know that. The lion is an English heraldic symbol.
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I can watch American Football without drifting off. Why call it football, when the only contact the ball has with a foot is when the specialist punter is called onto the field for a field goal attempt, or to add the extra points to a touchdown?
I used to quite enjoy Australian Rules Football in the days when it was shown on UK TV.
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Well, you get value for money watching cricket.
Australia were leading at half time, The English won at full time by a margin of just over 1%
(14 runs out of a total of 1166) in a match lasting 5 days.
you cant ask for more in sport.
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Separated at birth, Cliff. I feel exactly the same way.
Mind you, I bet I'm less competitive than you are.
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Don't quite see the point of taking pride in ignorance of any sphere of human activity. Not a huge sports fan myself but I enjoy the major events and like to keep up with what's going on around me.
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>> Don't quite see the point of taking pride in ignorance of any sphere of human activity. Not a huge sports fan myself
Rational, cool and correct as usual CGN.
Nevertheless I can't help feeling a somewhat discreditable pride in my total ignorance (fuelled by visceral dislike) of golf at every level, and those who like it.
I know from experience that some of the latter are wholly innocent and well-meaning. Nevertheless I can't help loathing them for their prevailing hideous home counties-style snobbery and self-satisfaction. Weird, no? Almost makes me feel like a bigot.
But not quite. (I might make an exception for Jocks, but only if they use a handmade ball wound out of a mile or so of catgut and a proper club made out of some farm animal's thighbone).
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I think it's the clothes AC. For some reason I always find the glove hanging out out of the rear trouser pocket intensely irritating.
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>> Don't quite see the point of taking pride in ignorance of any sphere of human
>> activity.
>>
Oh, it's just another way of feeling smug. A chacun ... :)
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No not smug - I would admit to a wide ranging ignorance on many things. I just think its a good idea to at least attempt to have some knowledge of what's going on even if I don't find it particularly interesting.
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Gmac says he grew up in Northumberland as did I and it is quite possible that we went to the same school ....
.... I do remember Trevor Bailey giving a talk at the school in the 60's and watching test matches on black and white television.
I was never any real good at them however I got involved as the social life in the area revolved around the rugby and cricket clubs .
In 1983 I managed to wangle my way into the press box at Lords on World Cup Final day and stood very quietly in the commentary box watching the TMS team in action as the West Indies collapsed to defeat by Pakistan....very dramatic as the West Indians were thought to be invincible... In those days the West Indies fans used to bring bells and whistles , drums and banners and it was a very different Lords to today . ISTR that some supporters were allowed to sit on the grass around the boundaries...
I only watch village green cricket live these days but my friend who is retired spent last week watching for free international cricket teams from Spain, Germany , Sweden , Denmark, Gib, Jersey and various other European countries in 20/20 competition at our local club in Horsham and thoroughly enjoyed himself , a few pints , a sunny day and who cares who wins.....
I shall soon be retired also and I shall probably join him next year if they repeat the competition....
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Not in the slightest bit interested in cricket. like the OP the only cricketer I could probably name is Botham.
Its very much not a Scottish game as such, but yet I have many Scottish friends who do enjoy it but it just seems to be so slow and tedious for me.
When In USA last week, I went to a baseball game - a completely different experience to a football match - creches, soft plays in the stadium concourse, plenty of beer and food stalls, there is a swimming pool at the side that you can buy a ticket to watch the game from.
But.. the game itself was boring- was there I think for 3 hours, only 6 runs were scored and out of all the throws , only 27 actually were hit by the baseball bat.
In football terms, think of a procession of players taking foul throws that are retaken until the other side get a chance but they do the same!
Yes, everyone goes on about the "experience" but much of this is down to the crowd going for walks to the bars, food and just general wandering about. Presumably because the on field action does not capture their attention.
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...the West Indies collapsed to defeat by Pakistan.
India. But it was still a big surprise, being long before India achieved its present dominant position in world cricket. Must have been exciting to be there.
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You are correct Will , it was India and it was very exciting ....take a look at the scorecard ....and the names of those legends of cricket.
www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/65090.html
The ground was invaded by excited Indians....it was the biggest upset in years....
I can also tell you truthfully that on that day I actually held the Prudential world cup trophy in my hands not very long after Kapil Dev , went to the reception afterwards and I have at home a medal presented to the players.....
And no I did not play in the match or nick them......
Last edited by: helicopter on Mon 15 Jul 13 at 12:10
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Cricket- my lack of interest - Old Navy
