Daily Archives: 26 August 2011

Most people would file a report on a cricket match under sport. I file it under random. I’m not a sports fan… yesterday, I attended Hove cricket ground to watch Sussex play India. Really, I wanted to see the legendary Sachin Tendulka get caught out… did I mention that I had the gift of prophecy?

It was lots of fun. However the various features added to the one day game to make it fun did not work for me. The players appeared on the pitch wearing their brightly coloured pyjamas, instead of normal cricket whites. Call me old fashioned but I thought that was stupid. The ball wasn’t red but white. What is the point of that? It definitely made it harder to see against the cloudy sky. Whenever something happened and sometimes (so it seemed to me) when nothing happened, music was pumped through the public address system. It detracted from the crowd’s own emotional input to the proceedings. Perhaps that is something that works for young children, to get them interested in the game but I couldn’t help noticing the vast numbers of children who spent the match leaning over the perimeter fence, hoping for a signature from Tendulka himself.

One of my fears would be that I would bore my companions with questions about the sport’s rules. In fact, they were happy to educate me and were delightful company. It seemed that they all understood the Duckworth-Lewis rule, though were all unable to explain it. That’s what spreadsheets are for, I thought.

Much merriment was caused by an English fellow turning up wearing a Pakistan shirt. Unfortunately, neither he nor his friends appeared able to sing-song reply to a particulary vocal group of Indian supporters. They spent the afternoon mocking him in various tunes.

All in all, I really enjoyed myself and although I won’t be going to another cricket match, I’d recommend it for a great day out. Confusing, eh?