Dangerous.
A guy about 6'6" tall and quite fit gets to run about fifty yards to
hurl a small, hard ball at you. He can achieve close to 100mph. He IS
allowed to hit you, although aiming for the head is considered
'intimidatory' and he's only allowed to do it once per over (every
six balls). The rest of your lightly and partially padded body is
fair game. You are expected to be skillful enough to defend yourself.
He bounces the ball off the pitch so that you don't quite know what
it's going to do - it could 'break' either way or not at all. A ball
that doesn't bounce in error, a full toss, is considered easy
pickings for the batsman. It's a game of great patience and skill,
interrupted by moments of abject terror.
Differences that matter from baseball, another one of those
'episodic' games - in baseball it's difficult just to hit the ball -
in cricket what counts is how you hit the ball - strokeplay is
possible and sometimes wonderful to watch. Cricketers often play
baseball in the off season just to sharpen their reflexes. And if you
think baseball creates arcane statistics, you have no idea!
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 01/06/2006, at 5:06 AM, James McBride wrote:
> Some friends of mine spent last St. Patty's day in an Irish pub in New
> Zealand. After several pints of brew the locals were trying to
> explain the
> game of cricket to them. They concluded that the Yanks were too old
> to have
> enough remaining days to learn the game and all involved returned
> to some
> serious drinking. What is dangerous about Cricket? I know nothing
> about the
> game but it looks like I could be bored to death watching it. /jmac
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