Cricket Match

So I went to a cricket match this weekend. Now, before I left the States, I really had no idea what cricket was except it was REALLY boring, similar to baseball, and the ball can be hit in any direction. After going to a match and now knowing ALL the rules, I can tell you that cricket is definitely still REALLY boring. To give a quick run down, cricket matches run for 5 days and are 8 hours a day. There are several breaks in the day for the players/fans to grab lunch and refreshment drinks. Most of the cricket match is talking to people around you, drinking beers, and shouting down to the players. The match I saw was Australia vs. India which are the 2 best teams in the world. So I actually saw the 2 best cricket players in the world and actually the one for India, Sachin Tendulkar, hit ALL day long and never got out. Basically, to get a batter out, which is called a 'wicket', you need to catch the ball off the bat on the fly. There are lots of strategies to position catchers behind the batter and throwing wicked spins on the pitch to get the batter to nick the ball. You can also get him out by pitching and hitting the 3 stakes behind him which I have never seen. Most of the time the batter will simply block the ball down to the ground and wait for the next pitch. Some pitchers do a running start of up to 40 yards before pitching it (all pitches have to bounce once) and can go up to 95 mph.

There was HUGE drama because the game was so close for 4 days going to the last day when India's 2nd best player Singh called Australia's best player, Andrew Sydmonds (pictured here) "a monkey".

There are strict rules against anything like this. Cricket is considered a gentleman's game and fans actually cheer for the other side when there is a good play or a milestone number is hit, so this made front page news on all the papers. What amazes me is that it is quite possible for the game to end in a draw after 5 days of this all day playing. I was like "WHAT??". Australia did end up winning on the last day and Singh got a 3-game ban for future matches.

Again, the stands was more fun. Beer snakes are the big crowd pleasers and this guy won for sure. I happened to catch a picture of him losing the snake which got him booted out of the stadium.


People here are complaining about the humidity, and I just laugh b/c they have NO IDEA what humidity is never being in D.C. in August. If you're curious about the Symonds white lips above, a lot of the players wear sunscreen and Zinc in stylish ways. Symonds is quite famous for this application and has sponsors and what not. I didn't know lips can get sunburnt but I guess so....several players do this.