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The Problems With Cricket
KO
The United Kingdom gave up on cricket a long time ago, but sadly this so called sport still persists in the Empire's former colonies. Its a terribly elitist and clubby sport. For the British army officers posted to the middle of just about every forever back during the days of the Empire, cricket served a vital purpose. They could form their little cliques and clubs and spend whole days weeks just passing the time away. It can be argued that there is nothing like a mind numbingly boring and totally pointless activity to while away the times, and cricket fitted the bill so well that someone would have had to invent it during the days of the Empire if it hadn't already existed.
Every now and then one of them would trundle up to the pitch to chuck a ball, and a guy from the other team would try to hit it. This was all secondary; they could have been throwing bats and trying to hit them with a ball, it would have made no difference. The main idea was not going bonkers and having something to talk about, and cricket did that brilliantly. When the natives came to stare and whispered amongst themselves about the mad englishmen, the Englishmen could scoff at them for not understanding the game of cricket.
Cricket involved a set of rules and morals which were to be followed at all costs - else one could be cast out from the clique. (ed: sounds similar to those teenage gangs one hears about these days). There were quite a lot of them, along with a ton of silly names for just about everything else. Half the fielding positions start of with 'Silly' something or the other - evidently even back then someone realized how absurd the whole thing was.
In today's day and age, where no one has the time to read a book or do even half of the things they have to do any particular week, cricket is a throwback to an age and time long dead and buried.
Some of the Major Problems with Cricket:
- There are twenty two men playing. At any given point only two of them are actually engaged in the proceedings. The rest are just standing around. That hardly qualifies it as a sport.
- It's excruciatingly slow and takes way too much time.
- There's not much physical exercise in cricket. See the first point. Despite cricket being Pakistan's most popular sport (its a lazy sport for a lazier nation) the Pakistan Armed forces have banned cricket. Standing around on a field all day doesn't make one fit. The dictionary definition of 'sport' includes the words 'physical exertion' for a reason. People who play actual sports gain from it. You can tell a soccer player - he's bound to be fit. Cricket players no matter how much they play never get fit. Just look at the Pakistan team. The only reason the Australian team is fit because they play other sports to get fit.
- It's not a spectator sport. Watching a normal game of cricket is as exciting as watching paint dry. The 2004 Pakistan India Cricket Series was exciting, but that excitement had nothing to do with cricket.
- It is the same damn thing over and over again. That's true of many sports, but with cricket even more so. The slowness of the proceedings makes it that much more agonizing.
- Cricket is not democratic. The better players enjoy themselves a lot more - as they bat longer without getting out, and also bowl more overs. The other players are shit out of luck. Other sports like basketball and soccer are a lot more democratic - even the worst player on the team is involved in the game. In street cricket at least half the team is just the support cast, and basically does nothing at all the entire match.
- The rules are mind numbingly complex. Even professional cricket players after a lifetime of playing don't fully understand them. See the Pakistan cricket team once again for many shining examples of this.
- There's a whole bunch of other reasons which I'll post later.
not even cricket fans can justify cricket. Ask one about the virtues of cricket and they'll be clean bowled.
The Problems With Cricket
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Matthew T.
URL
January 25, 2006
09:47 PM
"There are twenty two men playing. At any given point only two of them are actually engaged in the proceedings. The rest are just standing around. That hardly qualifies it as a sport."
That's OK. In baseball there's eight people standing around. Same in professional basketball. Hay-ooh!
I always wanted to this sport to get a bit popular in the US and see how it develops. Or maybe there's just not enough room for bat-related athetics.
...Bat-hletics?
Aaman
URL
January 26, 2006
01:00 AM
Cricket is better than golf, anyway, right, it's a 'good afternoon spoiled', not a good walk spoiled.
KO
URL
January 26, 2006
01:03 AM
Baseball sucks too.. basketball doesn't - take a look at any game - everyone on the court is running up and down the entire game.
Golf... I don't even want to think about it...
reformist muslim
URL
January 26, 2006
04:39 AM
not even cricket fans can justify cricket. Ask one about the virtues of cricket and they'll be clean bowled.
Aah, where to begin? Strategy, concentration, nuance, unpredictability, talent, variety of talent, combat, patience, power, politics, luck, genius......
Chaitanya
URL
January 26, 2006
07:30 AM
not even cricket fans can justify cricket. Ask one about the virtues of cricket and they'll be clean bowled.
Aah, where to begin? Strategy, concentration, nuance, unpredictability, talent, variety of talent, combat, patience, power, politics, luck, genius......
I'll add just one - FUN. The purpose of playing cricket(or most sports, for that matter), is not physical fitness, its fun. You play it if you enjoy it. Most of the subcontinent plays cricket because it enjoys the game, and its a very nice timepass (atleast for us wele engineering students). So what if cricket players are not as fit as those of other sports, I don't care...as long as they win matches.
solemn
January 26, 2006
08:48 AM
KO, you like it or not, but golf is a very relaxing game... tried playing it? To make you feel bad, I have to say: It's often called the rich man's sport ;) And hey come on, it's just fair that the not-so-fit get a sport to play, and not just the athletic ones. Cricket is also a lot of fun...I enjoy playing as well as watching. If you don't have a good hand-eye coordination, you can only dream of touching the ball by hand or bat.
Like the others pointed out, practically every game is just a one-on-one affair. If you say no, then even in cricket - the run-out process.. doesn't it involve more than two people?
The bottomline is to have fun, I'm sorry you don't find this wonderful sport interesting, but not to worry, there many other equally wonderful games. Soccer for example.
Suyog
URL
January 27, 2006
10:00 AM
"not even cricket fans can justify cricket. Ask one about the virtues of cricket and they'll be clean bowled."
Saying that, neither do your points come across as very convincing either. So what do you call Chess? A mind boggling useless game for two? Or perhaps its not a sport at all, because the only exertion there is that of the mind and not the body :).
As you asked for a reason to justify cricket - here's one - In cricket, your individual contribution to the game matters as much as your team contribution; its the kind of sport where an individual performance of a player and team performance can be completely exclusive of each other and not related to the outcome of the game.
There are a lot of justification for any sport, but as someone said above - its all about having "Fun".
Interesting post to see a different take on cricket.
Suyog
KO
URL
January 27, 2006
11:39 AM
It's all about having fun, so yes, just about any activity can qualify as sport. I should have been more specific in my article - it was actually geared towards a few people I know who think cricket is great excercise.
Far as physical fitness goes, cricket, chess and other games like billiards don't quite cut it.
Poster #6: Even the handicapped can play physically intensive sports like basketball. I think that one of the reasons to play sports is to get fit, and hence my dislike for cricket. Too many Pakistani's play a already lazy game, cricket, in the laziest way possible, and kid themselves that they're getting fit.
Nanda Kishore
URL
January 29, 2006
12:51 AM
KO, sorry buddy, but your knowledge of cricket is abysmal. Try bowling at 90mph day in, day out ten months a year. No one's comparing cricket to basketball or hockey in terms of fitness or athelticism required. But look closer and you'll find some great athletes in cricket. And, the skills and subleties involved in cricket are just unmatched, except may be in tennis and football (soccer). You think fielding is just standing around, eh? Try fielding 15 yards from the bat and catching blinders (if you know what that means). Or catching skiers in the outfield. Those things take skill and agility. You don't have to like cricket, but may be you should review of some of your comments.
Btw, the objective of ALL sport is to have fun!
Nanda Kishore
URL
January 29, 2006
12:53 AM
Cricket is an elitist sport? Are you really from the subcontinent :-)
Amit
URL
February 1, 2006
07:54 AM
Cricket is an elitist sport? Are you really from the subcontinent :-)
I don't doubt it(his being from the sub-continent), since he points at Pakistan team while referring to players who even after playing for a lifetime don't understand the rules of the game!! ;) Really, that's one of the best jokes I've read in a while!! :)
Pratyush
URL
February 19, 2006
10:47 AM
Sorry but you do not understand cricket properly. I will have to explain that cricket is a quality game and counter you in a series of posts. Will start at it at around the next weekend as the weekdays which will ensue promise to be threateningly hectic.
I do watch most other sports and there are several aspects I relish about each. As cricket has been attempted to be taken to the gallows here, with weak points I might add, with no disrespect to the author.
Pratyush
URL
February 19, 2006
10:52 AM
The United Kingdom gave up on cricket a long time ago
Actually interest in cricket in the UK has been on an unprecedented high.
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