Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Wicked cricket

There is no interest whatsoever to follow the news coming from the world of sports.

No interest to know who is playing in tennis tournaments and what are the results and who is the winner.
Not even when it is Flushing Meadow, Wimbledon or Rolland Garros.

No interest at all in baseball, basketball or ice hockey.
Unable even to name a team or a star.

Soccer used to be interesting but since teams of cities consist now of players from all around the world, also interest in this sport has evaporated.

Even the recent Olympic Games in Beijing, China have not been followed at all.

Hence, it is a life without absorbing information about sports and guess what: this is not a problem.
It just doesn’t matter for the better or for the worst.

Nevertheless, the news on radio and TV contains frequently items about sport events.
That is unavoidable.
At those moments the openings of the consciousness are closed and thinking is allowed to go wherever it wants until it is back to the economic or political news.

For which closure of the doors of perception is less effective is when the BBC reports on cricket.
In fact, when they give results of cricket matches the level of irritation goes way up.
Because cricket is the most stupid sport in the world.

The uncle of this blogwriter was a cricket player.
Uncle John even had a cricket field on the family estate.
As a child he was seen dressed up all in white with long pants throwing balls with friends at some sticks planted in the grass and a guy covered in leather and canvas trying to hit that ball with an enormous bat.




A cricket match is coming from English tradition.
In the past, cricket spread to certain countries due to colonialism.
There is no cricket in Africa or Latin America because the British never had colonies there.
We only find it in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia that once suffered under the British hegemony.
Therefore cricket is played in a very few countries and is popular only there.



What is most irritating is that a news supplier like the BBC Worldservice pretends that cricket is a worldwide sport popular everywhere.
They extensively report on cricket matches and the embarrassing thing is that it is each time the same small amount of countries.

In cricket they have a certain vocabulary like the team from another country visiting are called “the tourists”.
A game is called a “test match”.
A “test match” can take two days to play interrupted frequently by “tea”.
Most of the time nothing happens.
Just a guy running and then throwing the ball.
Sometimes a player catches the ball coming from the bat and then they celebrate like they won the Nobel price for sports.
It is even today totally unclear what exactly is the purpose of this game and how the counting is done.




Today was the news that the cricket players have started to complain.
The reason is that they have to play too often.
There are only about 5 countries having a professional cricket team.
They play each other constantly.
There is no other competition like teams from cities playing each other.
If there are only about 5 countries having a team it is a Pinocchio competition.
They need to play each other every few weeks.

Nevertheless, the BBC announcers report on cricket as if it is the most major sports event in the world and of the highest level of excitement.
Stupid cricket.




.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

yes, cricket is largely played by the poor countries of the sub-continent: india, pakistan, sri lanka and bangladesh. this translates to a viewership of over two billion people. it makes a lot of marketing sense. imagine a coke ad watched by two billion people!!!

sometimes these countries win and the poor have the chance to associate with victory. when their entire life is in darkness, cricket gives them life.

also, test matches drag on for five days. people in the subcontinent have the time. there is large scale unemployment and underemployment. barring religion, politics and cricket there is nothing else in their lives.

every indian locality has more people than some european countries. so its all about marketing. no use marketing a sport in wales or scotland or austria. they already have the consumer goodies. a locality in bombay has more people than these countries put together, and the people are tyring to better themselves economically!!

so advertising makes sense. advertising pushes sport.

the cricket board of india is the richest cricket body in the world for these reasons.

rajendar menen from bombay