Cricket alert!
This week, I found out that one of the two semifinal matches of the 2011 Cricket World Cup is taking place this coming Wednesday.
It will be between India, my country of origin, and Pakistan…
… in India! …
and starting at the unearthly (for the U.S.) hour of 5 am EST.
(That’s me peering through the gates to the hallowed grounds of Lord’s, by the way, when I was in London about a year ago.)
So naturally, I will be taking the day off, so that I can watch it live on www.crictime.com.
I imagine I will be tethered to the laptop, with a mug of hot tea warming my little hands (they are actually quite little), watching intensely, and alternately moaning and shrieking with delight.
My dog, Suzy Q., will probably be shaking her head at “silly Mommy” and my husband will have shut the bedroom door so that he doesn’t get woken up by my yelling.
There will be absolutely no point in my pretending to work.
Because for me, as for many other people in and of cricketing countries, cricket is more than a game.
It’s even more than a passion.
It’s practically a religion.
I sheepishly admit to having gotten religion at the age of 15 or so, when Imran Khan (yes, a Pakistani) was one of the world’s most famous cricketers, albeit as much for his total hawtness as his cricketing ability.
I mean, the dude was sizzlin’!
And then he got religion, which is a whole other story, and has become a bit baggy since his heyday, but he’s the reason I fell in love with the game.
I also sheepishly admit to having fallen off the wagon for a while, since it’s not as easily viewable here in the U.S., but now that the matches are being livestreamed over the Interwebz, I can get back into it, at least for a bit.
For those of you who still don’t get the game
(you understand baseball, what’s so difficult about cricket?!), here’s a funny explanation of it.
Image: pkailasa’s Multiply site
Apparently this originated on a tea towel some decades ago, and it’s become known as the “tea towel explanation of cricket.”
I remember seeing it on a poster when I was growing up, and thought it was hilarious.
It probably hasn’t left you any wiser, if you have no idea how cricket is played, but you’ve got to admit it’s funny.
(By the way, my husband, who lived in England for some years while with the USAF also couldn’t understand the game until he watched the Hindi film Lagaan.
So you might want to try that.)
Why am I telling you all this?
1. If I’m going to be as authentic online as off, I can’t get any more authentic than this.
2. How cool is technology? A few years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to even dream of watching a match taking place halfway around the world, that too, live.
And you know who told me about Crictime? The owner of my local gas station, who is Indian.
Talk about building community!
3. Watching the game in real time will make me happy.
And when I’m happy, I work better, which is all the better for my clients… and for you, because then I don’t have to worry about WUL going through death throes by getting into a blogging impasse.
In other words, it’s me being heretically productive.
That said… howzat!
[…] We Go Again April 2nd, 2011 TweetRemember how I told you I’d be watching the cricket World Cup semi-final match between India and Pakistan on […]
hi shonali
@barryrsilver Oh, there’s so much singing, but I don’t know the specific anthems. Even though I was very young when Kerry Packer started World Series Cricket, one of the most memorable cricketing songs is “C’mon, Aussie, C’mon” – really catchy and I still remember some of the visuals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C'mon_Aussie_C'mon
@GautamGhosh Very true! So the best hashtag to follow is #cwc2011, or…?
Shonali, for me the best part of the Cricket World Cup this time has been to share the real time updates on my Twitter stream! It’s the most hilarious part of the game, listening to what others feel about the game at that moment :-) The commentary on the commentary has been really ROFLMAO-worthy !
@Shonali jonnew
Shonali,
Don’t be concerned about going on. You should hear football postgame on at least 3 different radio stations here after a Bears game. I’m a fan but often it feels like the 5 day cricket match you describe. Oh and in the World Cup, is their any singing “it’s a shame to be under on overs” during tea? If not perhaps you could start something. Think of the royalties and perhaps the revenue from Royal T-shirts. As for going on…
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Testing… shashib can you see this in your Twitter stream?
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@bdorman264 Ha, true – and better than 2 am as well! Thanks, Bill. :)
If ever the day comes that cricket becomes really big in the US, I will be in HEAVEN.
@barryrsilver I am really excited about it because I so rarely do this. And it really helps me to feel connected to a part of my life that I don’t very often feel connected to any more.
NOW – to your question! LOL – jonnew said something similar to me on Twitter last week. Here’s the deal: a World Cup one-day match (which is what this is) usually takes about 7-8 hours; bear in mind that’s with a lunch & tea break, and assuming each team lasts its 50 overs (baseball equivalent: innings). If a team gets “outed” before its full number of overs, then it could be much shorter. But half the fun is when two really strong teams face each other – the tension is unbelievable, even I feel it through the laptop!
When you’re watching Test cricket, though, those are typically 5-day matches, with a day off in between. So those are the really long matches… but for those of us who are crazy about the game, also amazing, because it’s a real test of both the batsman as well as bowler’s ability and endurance.
And then you also have the more recently-introduced 20-over matches (an over is 6 balls), so those would be even shorter.
I know you don’t want me to go on…
Shonali,
Enjoy yourself. I know of what you speak, setting aside time to watch a favorite team engage in your favorite sport in route to a potential championship. Being a lifelong Cub fan I am rather unfamiliar with the championship part of the equation. I do have 1 question. Doesn’t a cricket match have the potential to go on for a bit (like a weekend)?
Wow, that’s kinda cool. I really like the international flavor of my twitter friends. In the US we tend to think the world revolves around us, but it is so much bigger than that.
When I was in London and saw it on the ‘telly’ I could tell there was a lot of passion involved from the people who followed it. It’s good to have things you are passionate about, right?
Hey, much better than 3 am, huh? Have fun with that.
Bill