Cricket

[Herlock Sholmes]

Prefer baseball out of all the American sports, its like jazzed up "rounders"
a group of us took an American Doctor to The Scarborough festival once..never seen a bloke so bored and confused, he couldn't understand a "Defensive" shot, or why it was applauded....pity it was post Geoff Boycott, he'de have strung himself up on the pier!!

He’d have loved watching Sir Geoffrey scoring 77 in 7 hours and 20 minutes against New Zealand to help England to a draw. The NZ fans threw pillows onto the field saying that he was sending everyone to sleep. Was Geoffrey concerned or put off? Was he ****

[GBinOz]

I have a friend from the USA who is a big baseball fan and his hero is Willie Mays. I always said to him that if could watch baseball regularly and get to know the rules and the tactics, I’m sure that I’d like the game. I’m sure that the same would be true if you watched the shorter, quicker form of the game (T20) Abby. It’s brought a lot of new fans to the game. Test cricket isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I much prefer it but cricket has been my game since I was small so I never needed ‘converting.’

The shorter versions of the game have done much to acquaint the average punter with cricket. Regrettably, in Australia the short versions of the game are now being accompanied by American hoopla. Raucous music and dancers that pause only for the actual bowling of a delivery, and cheerleaders on the side-lines.

I started my love of Test cricket with the 1960/61 tour of the West indies in Australia. This was a series of firsts. Frank Worrell was the first non-white captain of the WI team. This was the first series televised by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It introduced both Gary Sobers and Lance Gibbs, as well as Wes Hall, and calypso cricket. The first Test in Brisbane was the first ever tied test. Sobers made a century that Bradman described as the finest innings he had seen in Australia. O'Neill responded with a century to make it a contest. In the final over Wes Hall dropped a catch that would have provided the WI with a victory. The last ball of the day the scores were tied. The final ball was nudged for a single that resulted in a run-out, and the first tied test in history.

My father took me to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the Third Test. Wes Hall started his run-up from a few metres inside the boundary fence, but Bobby Simpson proved to be up to the task. The Windies won that series, and it was a pre-cursor to the domination of world cricket by the WI from around 1980 until the mid 1990's. Haynes and Greenidge opening, followed by Viv Richards and the master strategist captain, Clive Lloyd. When it came time to bowl, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, and Malcolm Marshall were relentless in their attack.

I feel privileged to have witnessed the golden age of cricket.

Cheers, George