…but carry a big stick

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Evil Abhi: Oh no. Not another f*cking cricket post. Just kill me now.

Abhi: Come on, don’t be so mean. Some SM readers actually like cricket.

Evil Abhi: Why? Unless you trying to save your rainless Indian village from the British Empire, cricket sucks.

Abhi: Dude, you need to chill. You are insulting a game loved by millions as well as its fans.

Evil Abhi: All these cricket posts are ruining our prrrecioussss blog.

Abhi: Ok fine. I’ll just post an interesting picture then. I know you’re cool with pretty pictures.

Evil Abhi: Oohhh, look at the hobbittses.

Abhi: Dude, Sri Lanka just whooped new Zealand.

Evil Abhi: Hit it brown. Hit it.

85 thoughts on “…but carry a big stick”

  1. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can comment – I heard that at some point in the past (long before one-dayers) the 5-day limit was actually introduced to SHORTEN the game. Before that, both teams just played till everyone was out twice!!

    Tangent – the day after an India – West Indies tied one-day match (just 126 runs each side), the Hindu article in the sports page started with “Although the mathematical probability of getting a tie is one-third, in practice it’s extremely rare….” Ha! Win/loss/tie right? One-in-three. Beautiful! Blame math now.

  2. I heard that at some point in the past (long before one-dayers) the 5-day limit was actually introduced to SHORTEN the game. Before that, both teams just played till everyone was out twice!!

    From the wikipedia entry on ‘timeless’ test matches (link):

    Although the format guarantees a result, it was ultimately abandoned as it was impossible to predict with any certainty when a match would be finished, making scheduling and commercial aspects difficult…The last ever timeless Test was the 5th Test between England and South Africa at Durban in 1939, which was abandoned as a draw after 9 days of play spread over 11 days because otherwise the England team would have missed the boat for home.
  3. With the humiliating loss to bottom-ranked Ireland, Bangladesh has squandered the bragging rights it earned with its victory against top-ranked South Africa.

    It was unbelievable and mainly Bashar’s fault. His mediocre captaincy cost us that game. goes off and burns Bashar effigies

    Nevertheless, they still have some bragging rights for getting into the super 8s.

  4. How were these things (5 day matches!) funded in the era before big business got involved? And even nowadays, are non-desi cricketers very famous in their respective countries? Would the best England players be household names in England? Do they get huge endorsements, as the Indian guys get in India?

    Before the big business got involved, Test matches were mainly privately funded. From what I remember when the Ashes trophy came to Adelaide (South Australia), was that in the days of old, matches were funded by rich Lords and Dukes of England. It was more of a “joy ride”, with matches being a sidebar.

    AFAIK, atleast here in Australia, non-desi cricketers are very famous. Ofcourse that is what you get if the team is the current World Champion in both forms of the game. And from what I read in 2005, the Ashes victory turned guys like Flintoff, Pietersen, Simon Jones into household names as well. Compared to cricketers in India, they do lead a relatively private life. For example, Ricky Ponting, could walk down the streets of Tasmania without being hassled too much.

  5. AFAIK, atleast here in Australia, non-desi cricketers are very famous.

    Same goes for New Zealand, cricket is commonly referred to as “the summer game” our winter game, rugby is virtually a national religion and the Black Caps (cricket) certainly aren’t worshipped like the All Blacks (rugby).

    NZ cricketer also have individual endorsements etc. Stephen Fleming, for example, endorses … er … air conditioners and heat pumps; Martin Crowe – hair implants.

  6. Speaking of the financial affairs of cricket, it might be apt to mention that (for much of its history) the first-class county system was populated by amateur and professional players. However, the labels used were “gentlemen” for the amateurs and “players” for the professionals (both terms that were heavily laden with class significance; some of the hypocrisies of this system are best highlighted by the celebrated “gentleman” Dr WG Grace, who championed the Corinthian spirit and playing without reward whilst collecting massive appearance fees himself). However, county cricket in England and Wales is now largely populated by professional cricketers. Some of these are well-known to the British public; for a while in the early 80s, Ian Botham was the most recognised sportsman in the UK. However, once you go beyond that top tier (the realm occupied by Freddie Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and Monty Panesar), name recognition, financial reward and ground attendence levels cannot match the popularity of soccer. There is, however, a strong participatory aspect to cricket in the UK. Most counties have a large membership and, below the first-class system, you get many people involved in semi-professional and amateur clubs. Cricket also has a strong literary history around it (perhaps equivalent to baseball in the US) with writers such as Neville Cardus and CLR James having written seminal works about the sport. This has helped, perhaps, to create a very defined cognoscenti around cricket; basically, it attracts highly-devoted nerds.

  7. CLR James having written seminal works about the sport.

    Wow! I was aware of his other interests but oblivious to the cricket connection. Thanks Taj.

  8. Same goes for New Zealand, cricket is commonly referred to as “the summer game” our winter game, rugby is virtually a national religion and the Black Caps (cricket) certainly aren’t worshipped like the All Blacks (rugby). NZ cricketer also have individual endorsements etc. Stephen Fleming, for example, endorses … er … air conditioners and heat pumps; Martin Crowe – hair implants.

    Ditto for Australia. Here, AFL (Australian Football League) is the winter game, and the summer game is cricket. However, things have been changing, with the presence of cricket spreading to the winter season as well. Last year’s tour of South Africa, and the Ashes tour being cases in point.

    Coming to individual endorsements Ricky Ponting endorses Kookaburra, Gilly endorses Puma. Non-sporting endorsements include, but aren’t limited to Warnie endorsing Hair Removal/Regrowth, Steve Waugh endorsing Health Insurance

  9. wiki on CLR James:

    CLR James is most widely known as a writer on cricket, especially for his autobiographical 1963 book, Beyond a Boundary. This is considered a seminal work of cricket writing, and is often named as the best single book on cricket (or even the best book on any sport) ever written. The book’s key question, which is frequently quoted by modern journalists and essayists, is inspired by Rudyard Kipling and asks: What do they know of cricket who only cricket know? James uses this challenge as the basis for describing cricket in an historical and social context, the strong influence cricket had on his life, and how it meshed with his role in politics and his understanding of issues of class and race. The literary quality of the writing attracts cricketers of all political views.

    Has anybody read Beyond a Boundary?

  11. No Murali and no Vaas

    malinga isnt playing either. I think thats a good strategy, to rest them and unleash them in the finals

  12. I can’t believe some of you guys didnt know about CLR James and his writings on cricket. He is the gold standard of cricket writing.

  13. hmm. interesting ploy by sri lanka, “resting” vaas and murali, against australia no less. great partnership between silva and jayawardene – oops, partnership over.

  14. i’ve been reading reports re the death of bob woolmer recently, and am astounded at the number of cricketers who’ve received lifetime bans for “tanking” (accepting bribes) since 2000. as mentioned previously i know next to nothing about the game* but – if the articles i’ve been reading are correct – it sounds more of a crisis than mere scandal.

    is it overblown – why no discussion here?

    (*the exception being vague awareness of ian botham due to product endorsements in london, c. 1984 – 88)

  15. Before the big business got involved, Test matches were mainly privately funded. From what I remember when the Ashes trophy came to Adelaide (South Australia), was that in the days of old, matches were funded by rich Lords and Dukes of England. It was more of a “joy ride”, with matches being a sidebar.

    I think there is evidence that before it became a gentleman’s game, cricket matches in England were funded by gambling and betting rackets. This is really way back, during the 17th and 18th century. One might say that cricket is returning to its roots 😉 .

  16.  I think match-fixing had been dragged into the light a little following the banning of significant players such as Azharuddin, Malik and Cronje. The Woolmer affair (even if it's about something else entirely) has brought it back to the forefront of people's attention. However, most authorities reckon that it is nearly impossible to police given the explosion of internet gambling and the "underground" nature of most betting on the sub-continent.
 You could argue that the relatively smaller wage-packets of cricketers compared to other sports stars make them more vulnerable to the temptations of match-fixing; it's hard to imagine David Beckham playing poorly just for the sake of a few thousand pounds. Others would disagree, and argue that greater financial reward in the game has resulted in greater great; a point that has some validity if you consider the avaricious way the ICC has run the World Cup (but it also falls down when you realise that betting scandals have existed in cricket since the 19th century).
 What makes cricket so interesting - the wealth of statistical data it involves - also makes it highly attractive to gambling; there are so many aspects of the game that you can bet on.

  17. legalized gambling may be a cultural/political non-starter in pakistan, and certainly the gangsters who run illicit betting would not give up the franchise easily, but the lack of open betting parlors seems to me the nut of the problem…

  18. Ok! The Sri Lanka-New Zealand semifinal is underway and Sri Lanka are off to a flying start. According to one of the Set Max commentators, however, New Zealand’s James Anderson “is a bowler who can swing his balls, if the conditions are right…”

    Turn on your sets, folks, this should be interesting!

  20. jayasuria gone. i hope sri lanka doesn’t fold under pressure. this is nerve wracking!

  21. Great batting by Sri Lanka (especially Jayawardene – 115 runs from 109 balls for his first World Cup century, YOWZA!); now we get to see Malinga for the first time in a few matches. Come on Malinga, shake off that rust and shake loose that ankle!

    GOOOOOOOOOOO SRI LANKA!!!

  23. Creditable performance by the Lone Brown Hope. Jawardene tore it up the last ten overs. On to Malinga, Murali and Co.

  25. Malinga’s got EVERYONE in a tizzy – even poor Sangakkara doesn’t know what’s going on… watch out, New Zealand!

  27. Whoa, Taylor actually got bat to ball without an edge on Malinga’s last delivery!

    To be fair, Vaas is looking great from his end too, but it’s easy to be overshadowed by is-there-a-hole-in-my-bat Malinga…

  28. looks like some hope for you, Sonal, now that Malinga’s out and Fernando’s gotten himself into all kinds of trouble in his first over…

  29. hmm, the umpires seem to be equal opportunity in their bad decisions – two awful lbw calls against Sri Lanka and a questionable one there against Taylor…

  31. YOWZA! I’m glad I stayed up for a few more overs… what a turn! Do you think Murali took that first catch? I couldn’t tell at all from the replay, but if he did, what a fantastic way to get his 50th World Cup wicket!

    g’night

  33. sri lanka steamroll new zealand and are into the world cup final! on current form, it should be a re-run of the 96 final (with hopefully sri lanka coming out on top). but south africa may yet pull off a surprise.

  34. Brilliant news! Well done Sri Lanka — I want Malinga to blow the Aussies away (because let’s face it, they will get there)