by Torchwood » Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:58 pm
Cricket is the most subtle bat and ball game on the planet, because of all the complex variations possible in batting, bowling and field placing . If you think that the offside rule in football(soccer) is complicated, then try to understand leg before wicket..
The three day or five day game is slow for the modern world. Cricket mad India has jazzed it up into a three hours only 20 overs a side format called 20/20, played in the Indian Premier League - very Indian in that it is exciting, entrepreneurial and deeply corrupt. I was in India earlier this year and got tickets to see the semifinal of the IPL: Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore. Great atmosphere, although the heat was overpowering, even in an evening game.
Noddy, we all expect England to get slaughtered down under. Steve Finn might bowl well in Aussie conditions, and Grahame Swann is now the best spinner in the game, but the batting is crap (mostly the South African B team, but then you have a Pom Prime Minister, don't you?)
Pessimism is the soft option.