Test cricket
It was only last summer that I “got into” cricket, in time for watching the Ashes. The real reason I wanted to follow it was to fill the void of the football close-season, where nothing really happens between May and August. And there was always a lot of hype about the Ashes after 2005, so I thought, “Right, I’m going to follow this all the way through, for better or for worse”. Turns out it was a great decision.
My first encounter with cricket was actually watching the $20 million Twenty20 match, between England and the “Stanford All-Stars”, essentially the West Indies. My parents and I decided to watch it, pretty much just because it was on, and my mum remembered most of the rules from when she was younger. The game was pretty boring and left me with little enthusiasm for the sport.
But I decided to give it another bash in the summer of 2009, this time the “full” form of the game, Test Match Cricket — no limited overs, no one-day format; this was the full, 5-day game not dictated by the number of balls bowled but by the nerve of the batsmen and the skill of the bowlers.
There is something much more fulfilling about watching a Test match. It feels more pure; most likely arising from the fact that it was how the game was originally conceived. The fact that all the players wear white shirts, they use a traditional red ball; it all adds to the feeling of grandiose that this form of the game emanates.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense really. There aren’t as many exciting shots as there are in T20 — you’d be lucky to see one 6 in an entire test match, rather than seemingly one 6 per over in T20. But maybe that makes it more exciting when one does come along. I suppose the lack of batting action is made up for by the increase in bowling action; to win a test match you must take 20 wickets over the two fielded innings. You can’t get away with just running down the overs like in the limited-overs formats, so it requires more skill from the bowlers. All the talk of ‘swing’ and so on leaves me rather confused, but I like nothing more in cricket than a clean bowled out; the noise and sight of middle stump flying out of the ground and flipping in the air, the crowd’s roar, and the commentator’s scream of “BOWLED HIM!”. It’s brilliant, and a fitting way to end any match.
So my love affair with cricket got off to a fantastic start with England’s 2-1 victory over Australia in the 2009 Ashes, (Scotland don’t have a test team and probably never will so I feel no guilt whatsoever in supporting England!) and long may it continue! Cricket is a fantastic, relaxing summer sport, and one I’m pleased to a have persevered with.
