A black day for cricket

**danfda** · 08-21-2006, 23:22

Originally Posted by Red Peasant

Ditto baseball: ineffably abstruse and dull.

Ahh, agreed (for the most part

)

Football (ya know, the one without much foot to ball action), OTH...

The rest of the world needs to pick that one up...

**Pannonian** · 08-21-2006, 23:49

Originally Posted by danfda

Ahh, agreed (for the most part

)

Football (ya know, the one without much foot to ball action), OTH...

The rest of the world needs to pick that one up...

Rugby football is already popular in many countries.

**Incongruous** · 08-22-2006, 05:51

Yeah an you wont catch this prop wearing silly girly girl armour.
But I have to admit after the League is over and i'm still in the mood I love to watch a bit of AF.

**English assassin** · 08-22-2006, 09:56

Back to the cricket, on Today this morning the Pakistani sports minister was very critical of Inzamam for not taking the field, saying, quite rightly, that if you have a protest to make you make it on the field in front of the cameras and not holed up in your changing room. Which I agree with and which is the sort of comment that takes some heat out of the situation (unlike charging Inzamam with bringing the game into disrepute which is just going to inflame things. Forfeiting the match is punishment enough surely)

I do think Hair could have handled it better. Dickie Bird would have been in the Pakistani dressing room for a firm word with Inzamam and I bet they would have been back on the pitch five minutes later....

Actually I'm surprised more Americans don't like cricket, given the truly stupendous opportunities it offers to quote sporting statistics. Oh, and sit in the sun all day drinking beer. What's not to like?

**Duke of Gloucester** · 08-22-2006, 10:24

It was inevitable that Inzimam be charged on both counts after the debacle on Sunday. The ICC had no choice because it had to back the umpires. Probably he won't have the book thrown at him though. Certainly other umpires would have handled the situation differently, and DH needs to take some of the blame, but Inzi did bring the game in to disrepute by not going out on to the field of play after tea. He was upset at the time, but he should have risen above it.

**Banquo's Ghost** · 08-22-2006, 10:30

Originally Posted by English assassin

Back to the cricket, on Today this morning the Pakistani sports minister was very critical of Inzamam for not taking the field, saying, quite rightly, that if you have a protest to make you make it on the field in front of the cameras and not holed up in your changing room. Which I agree with and which is the sort of comment that takes some heat out of the situation (unlike charging Inzamam with bringing the game into disrepute which is just going to inflame things. Forfeiting the match is punishment enough surely)

I don't think they have a choice, since the captain is responsible for the conduct of his team, and the protest did bring the game into disrepute. You have to apply the law, otherwise this sort of thing will become established.

However, I hope they just issue a reprimand and leave it at that. I also hope that Bob Woollmer stops issuing veiled threats about the one-day series, which I suspect will make the ICC get even harder, just to show they're not going to be pushed around.

Originally Posted by English assassin

I do think Hair could have handled it better. Dickie Bird would have been in the Pakistani dressing room for a firm word with Inzamam and I bet they would have been back on the pitch five minutes later....

I agree. Though it wouldn't have been five minutes, Dickie would have had them onto that pitch so fast they still have the second day to play.

Originally Posted by English assassin

Actually I'm surprised more Americans don't like cricket, given the truly stupendous opportunities it offers to quote sporting statistics. Oh, and sit in the sun all day drinking beer. What's not to like?

Americans like to invent a sport and then continue to be World Champions at it forever. This usually means ensuring no-one else is interested in playing it apart from Japan and Cuba.

The British invent sports that everyone (aside from the Americans, see above) loves to play, and then spend centuries losing to Vanuatu fifth XI/XV and being bewildered.

Drinking beer is, of course, necessary to survive both these rituals.

**Pannonian** · 08-22-2006, 10:55

Originally Posted by Banquo's Ghost

Americans like to invent a sport and then continue to be World Champions at it forever. This usually means ensuring no-one else is interested in playing it apart from Japan and Cuba.

The British invent sports that everyone (aside from the Americans, see above) loves to play, and then spend centuries losing to Vanuatu fifth XI/XV and being bewildered.

Our most cherished cricketing trophy celebrates one of our most famous defeats. The Ashes urn must be, on looks alone, the most pathetic trophy in sport.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes

Drinking beer is, of course, necessary to survive both these rituals.

The ritual of playing those sports, or the ritual of being British? AFAIK beer is necessary for both, and so playing sport while British requires double the amount. Proper beer with flavour, not the bland stuff across the (and mixed with) water. Lager is only drinkable if it comes from Germany or the Czech Republic, whose brewers are superb.

**English assassin** · 08-22-2006, 12:12

Slightly OT, but my for college second XI games fielders were allowed to take beer onto the pitch. We made a special rule that any fielding activity that was so energetic as to involve any beer spilling (eg running to take a catch without carefully putting your glass down first) was unsporting, and, by analogy with a no ball, the batsman could not be out.

I feel the acme of British civilisation will have been reached when these rules are adopted for first class internationals. (Although I must admit the team that batted second was generally at a serious handicap)