Anyone for Cricket? (Cricket in General)

Member Name: eyedo6789

Product:	Cricket in General
Date:	23/03/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The excitement of a six or middle stump cartwheeling out of the ground.

Disadvantages: It can be a bit slow sometimes.

Cricket was first played in England in the 16th century and is now the country's summer national sport. Despite this you'll find that access to playing cricket is very poor in most schools. This is because of the costs associated with equipment, practice nets and coaching.

This is a shame really because cricket in my opinion is a very noble game with a high degree of skill involved and with superior sporting ethics compared to many other sports.

As well as being played in The British Isles the other power bases of cricket from a mass participation point of view are (in no particular order) Australia, South Africa, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, The West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

All of these countries play International Test Cricket against each other which is the longest form of the game played over a maximum duration of five days. Zimbabwe are temporarily excluded from participation due to the political situation there.

I really love cricket because it's played outdoors, hopefully in nice weather and it remains a gentlemen's (or ladies') game yet still retains a sometimes fierce competitive edge. The umpires and officials are respected and in most instances all of the crowd respect and admire great performances even if it is not from their own team or player.

Some interesting and unusual facts about cricket:

There are 10 different ways a batsman can be dismissed. Deliberate hand ball. Obstructing the field, Hitting the ball twice and Being timed out are the rarest.
I've watched thousands of hours of cricket and I've only ever seen one of these.

I saw Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan both be given out "Hand Ball" after they deliberately knocked the ball away with their glove because it was about to drop on to the stumps and get them out. They both knew it was wrong to do this but it was an instinctive reaction.

In March of 1939 in Durban, South Africa and England played out a draw in what was a "timeless test". This meant that as much time as was needed would be taken to achieve a result. However after 10 partly weather interrupted days of cricket there was still no result and although England only needed another 42 runs to win with 5 wickets left at the close of play on day 10 the match was declared a draw as England had to get on their boat home the following morning. In those days if you missed the boat you really did miss it as the next one could be months away.

Charles Burgess "C.B." Fry (born 1872) captained England and Sussex at cricket, was joint world record holder at the long jump, played for Southampton in the F.A. Cup Final and played for the England football team. He also played Rugby Union for Oxford University, Blackheath and The Barbarians. The comedian, actor and writer Stephen Fry is related to C.B. Fry.

The nearest more recent player to come anywhere near these feats is Denis Compton (born 1918) who played cricket for Middlesex and England and football for Arsenal, winning the League and the F.A.Cup. He also represented England during the second world war although these didn't count as official caps because they were essentially exhibition matches.

Don Bradman (born News South Wales, Australia) is recognised as the finest batsman of all time averaging a mind boggling 99.94 over a test match career spanning 52 matches and 80 innings, ten of which he was not dismissed in.

When he stepped to the crease in what turned out to be his last ever test match innings his test average stood at 101.39. He needed just 4 runs in that innings to have 7000 total test match runs and to guarantee a career average of 100 but was dismissed second ball for 0. Legend has it that he was so overcome with emotion that his eyes were full of tears and that is the reason why he missed the ball and got bowled.

To put 99.94 into perspective, two of the world's greatest ever batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara average 54 and 53 respectively (rounded up/down).

Bradman's highest test innings score was 334 and was 452 not out in all first class cricket. Indeed in first class cricket he averaged 95.14 over the course of 234 matches proving that his test match record was no fluke or statistical blip.

(Sir) Ian Botham who is my favourite ever player holds the world record in tests for the fastest man (in terms of matches played) to reach the simultaneous "doubles" of 100 wickets and 1000 runs, 200 wickets and 2000 runs and 300 wickets and 3000 runs. He wasn't always brilliant in every match but when he was he could dominate the opposition both physically and mentally. In my opinion he is one of the top 20 sportsmen of all time.

Summary: What A Game.