Not Quite Cricket

 

   When I can't think of anything to write about for my Friday post, I look up the date on Wikipedia and search for an interesting event or person born that day. The early people are mostly kings or emperors, but as we approach the present day, sports people and entertainers creep in. There are a surprisingly large number of cricket players.

   I know almost nothing about cricket so I pass over these people. I shouldn't say I know nothing about cricket. When my father was young, he had a sailboat named Cricket. And in the library of our summer cottage, there was a book titled, Tom Brown's School Days. I reread this book during rainy spells each summer, though I skipped the chapter in which Tom's boarding school plays its rival. I skipped it because I didn't know what was going on in that chapter and none of the adults in my life could tell me either. 

   One further thing. The cottage on summer nights was surrounded by millions of crickets singing their love songs, so I do have a sentimental attachment of sorts to cricket. Ennaways, as I was going down the list of birthdays for today, I saw Patsy Hendren, born in 1889, English cricketeer. And right below him, was Ernest Tyldesley, also an English cricketer and also born in 1889. 

   A coincidence like that deserved a few minutes of my time. Patsy played for the Middlesex Cricket Club near London between 1907 and 1930. He was a keen practical joker and had a talent for mimicry. He died in 1962. Meanwhile, Ernest played for Lancashire Cricket Club near Liverpool from 1910 to 1935. He was not a jokester like Patsy other than using the name Ernest when his real name was George. He died in 1962.

   Wait. Patsy also died the same year as Ernest? I quickly checked their dates of death. It would have been super if they had both died on March 31st, National Cricket Day. But sadly, Patsy died on October 4,  and Ernest died 152 days earlier on May fifth. Nevertheless I had now invested several minutes on Patsy and Ernest. It was time to learn a bit more about cricket.

   Online articles with titles like "Cricket for Americans" claim that cricket is similar to baseball. Both sports have innings. But a cricket match has only what a baseball fan would call one inning. Oddly enough, in cricket. one inning is called an innings. A cricket team has eleven players but only ten of them get to bat during their half of the innings. 

   The pitcher or bowler throws the ball at the batter's wicket which consists of three sticks stuck upright in the ground with two small pieces of wood balanced atop the three sticks. If the bowler can knock the little pieces off the wicket, the batter is out. The batter protects his wicket by batting the ball into the outfield. He can also hit the ball behind him. There are no foul balls, If a fielder catches the bail, the batter is out, otherwise the batter, actually the two batters (don't ask), run back and forth between their two wickets scoring points. 

   The fielder throws the ball back to the catcher who uses the ball to knock over the wicket, unless the batter has made it back to the batter's box in time. A home run counts six points. If the ball rolls to the outfield boundary, that's four points. Scores can escalate even beyond basketball results.

   Once ten batters are out, the fielding team has a chance to beat the score of the team that just batted. But they only have the one chance. I won't go into further details, because I don't understand them myself. Watching explanatory videos only confuses me further. I did notice that in the more laid back countries such as Australia or New Zealand, the fans would be sitting on the grass surrounding the outfield, enjoying the sun, sipping cool drinks, reading the paper, napping, or visiting with their neighbors. 

   To really understand cricket, I realize I need to visit one of these laid back countries during a five day tournament and find a local to explain the fine points of the game. "'Mate, what's this 'ere sticky wicket I keeps 'earing about?"

Something like baseball