it's not cricket
Sometimes I think to myself, you know, it would be interesting to learn about cricket. Figure out how it works. So I take a look at some London newspapers’ coverage of the noble sport and I come across this:
Benn was bowling to a six-three off-side field with the leg-side covered only by a short-leg, mid-on and a man on the sweep. To the off were two close fielders, at slip and silly point, and a ring set back, with men either side of point, extra-cover and mid-off.
Okay. So, it’s time to move on. In a decade or so the memory of those sentences will finally have faded from my brain, and when that happens I’ll think to myself, you know, it would be interesting to learn about cricket. Figure out how it works.
I have the same issue with American Football. Just as a side note, they used to play cricket in the colonies :
1751, New York Gazette and Weekly Post Boy (lol)
“Last Monday afternoon (May 1st) a match at cricket was played on our common for considerable wager between eleven Londoners against eleven New Yorkers. The game was played according to the London method…” – from Niall Ferguson’s, Empire, a jolly good read.
The tradegy of independence ay!?
— W.H. Auden · Feb 15, 02:58 AM · #
Alan,
More than once I’ve set out to email some family or friends with what I took to be the manifest hilarity of a passage of cricket reportage. Each time I ended up saying, nah, not quite funny/strange enough, and I hit delete. People might not get the joke, I figured. But if I had come across the passage you quote, I would have lit up some inboxes for sure.
Re. American football, Mr. Auden, I have no doubt that one could write so Finnegan’s Wakeishly about the sport, but I venture that you would ever find a technical, Am.-football-specific use of the word silly.
— Matt Feeney · Feb 15, 03:26 AM · #
Dawkins once criticized SJ Gould for all his baseball analogies, exactly along these lines (nobody but Americans could understand Gould’s points)
— Steve C · Feb 15, 05:30 AM · #
Wow, Alan, I have exactly the same experience with American baseball!
— PEG · Feb 15, 09:28 AM · #
Really cricket is not that hard to understand. Baseball and cricket really are terribly closely related. It took me all of a week to covert, and now with the ascendance of the 20/20 form, it’s getting harder and harder to get whipped up about MLB anymore.
Do yourself a favour…find out who is carrying the IPL over there, and watch a game or two.
The passage you described was only saying where the fielders were.
About that passage….
You could easily say –
Benn is facing a full count with a man on second, down by one as the left field stands far back, against the line, with center shifting left and the rover hovering mid base on the infield border.
- and to most people it would make about as much sense.
— James O'Hearn · Feb 15, 01:34 PM · #
Alan, I am a fellow Neil Finn devotee, poetry buff, and evangelical Christian. I say this not to ingratiate myself to you but rather to establish a certain affinity before telling you that this is one rare instance where you are doing yourself a disservice. Cricket is, indeed, a noble sport and one that is rich and nuanced beyond measure. Follow your initial instinct and learn more about it. You won’t be disappointed. I second James’ comment regarding the seemingly complicated descriptions that are actually just fielding positions. I will, however, state that test cricket (the original five day format) is infinitely superior to the truncated, bastardized Twenty20 version. You may also enjoy the book “Beyond a Boundary” by CLR James. It provides a interesting insight into Caribbean culture as seen through the lens of cricket.
— Tim · Feb 15, 02:08 PM · #
James O’Hearn’s comment fascinates me.
In particular: “…and the rover hovering mid base on the infield border.”
Not in a baseball game, he ain’t.
The coolest thing about baseball is infield chatter. You can say anything and it will sound entirely appropriate in the context of infield chatter. No one else knows or cares what you are talking about.
I struck out the first batter that I ever faced in college. The ball made its way around the infield, and my third baseman said something that I will never forget:
“Hey now lefty — Just like biting the head off a live lizard out there.”
No one noticed. I have a million stories like that.
Is there a lot of chatter in Cricket?
— yo la tengo · Feb 16, 12:34 AM · #
This is a wonderfully droll post.
— Tony Comstock · Feb 16, 01:16 AM · #
“Is there a lot of chatter in Cricket?”
Of course man – we stand exultant, united with our team mates and exclaim “Jolly good show old chap” as willow hits leather.
Smashing game, that cricket!
— ell · Feb 16, 05:07 AM · #
I just want to affirm that “yo la tengo” is a great handle for a baseball fan or player, for historical reasons involving the New York Mets.
— Alan Jacobs · Feb 16, 03:40 PM · #
There is plenty of chatter in cricket. It is usually referred to as “sledging” and it runs the gamut from the crude to the sublime. I would also like to point out that cricket writers are generally a cut above those that report on other sports. I would venture to say the same about cricket fans but I fear that would result in excessive self-aggrandizement. I will, however, leave you with an amusing excerpt from Cricinfo’s “All Today’s Yesterdays” column which recounts anniversaries of notable cricketing events:
1973
West Indies took the field in a Test without Garry Sobers for the first time in 18 years today. This first Test against Australia in Jamaica, which was drawn, was notable for a brutal 142 from Keith Stackpole. In particular he got stuck into quick bowler Uton Dowe, leading to some of the crowd erecting banners announcing an 11th Commandment: “Dowe Shall Not Bowl.”
— Tim · Feb 16, 04:26 PM · #
Keith Stackpole was a legend – this discussion has me remembering hours spent watching (and listening on the radio)to the formidable Denis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, the Chapell brothers, Rod Marsh, Ian Redpath demolish the “tourists” – the seventies were heady times for cricket!
Just today I heard a local chaplain in a bush fire devastated area close to my home tell that he has organised a cricket match between the local team and the fire crews to boost the spirit of the local community – the Victorian Cricket Association has donated cricket equipment to all the fire affected clubs, most who have lost everything (along with homes and loved ones…) let’s hope cricket can divert their attention for a little while at least.
— ell · Feb 17, 06:59 AM · #
mr. jacobs,
if you should feel these stirrings again, feel free to drop me a line. I was raised on baseball and am now a confirmed cricket tragic (not ‘fan.’ those follow the fair weather) so I feel fairly confident in my ability to explain without straying into pedantry.
— Nayagan · Feb 19, 12:58 AM · #
Professor Jacobs,
Tu la tengas.
— yo la tengo · Feb 19, 01:10 AM · #
Ell, my impression is that Australian cricket has a rather inglorious history, with odd, classist distinctions between gentlemen players and blokes who could actually play the game. Amateurism in sport (and elsewhere) is a strange thing to celebrate, don’t you think? You can call me Mr. Comstock.
— Tony Comstock · Feb 19, 01:37 AM · #
Mr Comstock I’ll trouble you not to sully my nostalgia.
— ell · Feb 19, 02:53 PM · #