Its Cricket, Mate

When we were in London this past summer, we had the opportunity to watch some British TV. One of the first things that I saw was a televised cricket match between England and Bangladesh.

Not having ever seen the game before, I was totally perplexed. The game kind of resembles baseball, where one team throws a small ball at the batter, who tries to whack the ball with his big wooden paddle. That’s where the similarity ends. There are a lot of men in the outfield, but they don’t get to do much. All the players wear nicely pressed white polo shirts and slacks. There’s an audience in the stands, but they don’t do much. Most of the time, everybody remains really quiet.

The strangest thing about the game was that it seemed to never end. England was up to bat, and Bangladesh was pitching. The pitcher would hurl the ball at batter, the batter would hit the ball, and the outfielders would chase after it. England was somehow hundreds of points ahead, and Bangladesh couldn’t do anything about it. This is what happened the entire afternoon. Nothing else happened. That was it. They stopped the game eventually because the sun was going down. The next day, they started the game again, with England continuing to whack Bangladesh’s pitches all over the field. I guess there’s no “mercy” rule in cricket.

I know I’m just being the ugly American about this. I can only image how someone feels watching American football for the first time. I’ve been watching football my whole life, and I still don’t understand how the “tuck” rule works.


Cricket is so popular in England, they even have their own video games. Unfortunately, I don’t think that these games will be coming to your local Walmart anytime soon.