@Ticomaya,
Quote:You didn't expect us to believe that, did you?
Or were you speaking of the fans of Test match cricket? Yes, I can imagine that lot must be the toughest there is to be able to watch that crap for hours and hours.
From what I've seen of Test Match Cricket -- and trust me, it isn't that much -- there's a bit of sauntering, some loping after the ball that's been hit, casual tossing of the ball back to the infield, and a general, utter lack of urgency.
I did expect you to believe it Tico. I'm known for my integrity. And all the rest of you jolly sportsmen and sportsladies who are happy to see Jespah win this week and, incidentally, her choice coinciding with mine, maintaining my No1 spot in the standings which are, after all, the main event, just as the Superbowl is the main event in that type of football which has had a fairly extreme form of the division of labour principle applied to it in the service of currency transaction acceleration which is, as you might know, foot-on-the-gas style, like in NASCAR, or at least until one of the pistons starts clanking.
The whole point is that it's "crap". If you are going to pay to watch crap it is posher to watch the real thing. Many a Secretary of State has decamped to Lord's to "clear his head". It's only a short ride from the ministry building. It is deemed uncouth to get excited.
And all that "sauntering" and "loping" gives people time to get their bets on about what happens next ball subdivided into no-ball, number of runs, dot ball, wicket, subdivided into bowled, caught, run-out, hit-wicket, stumped, leg before, same for next over, next anything you can think of and it creates a crescendo of energy for when the action flashes past. At the point where the 90 mph ball hits the dirt all eleven fielders are at their peak. If their concentration is momentarily wandering and their heels are on the ground they might be a split-second late on a chance to catch a batsman who goes on to make a double-hundred and causes them to be in the field all day in the heat and humidity or the cold east winds waiting for the next one which probably never comes. And after nearly two days in the field then having to go in to bat the last hour of the 2nd day out in fading light against two fast bowlers who have had their feet up all the while their colleagues have been amassing 680 for 4 declared and the crowd are roaring on and if the first ball hits them on the face mask in cold blood and spins them round the crowd sense the blood and after the application of the smelling salts and helmet repairs or replacements they have to get up and there's 58 more minutes left and getting out on top of the dropped catch and your place in the side is being questioned in all the papers. It's no place for sauntering and loping. And if you last the hour it's into an ice bath and off to bed because the two fast bowlers were only limbering up the previous evening. And the ball is still pretty hard.
It's your lack of appreciation of cricket Tico just as it was mine of the NFL. Not that I ever underestimated the NFL. I know that if there are $$$$$$$$ on the line the guys who play whatever game it is are ****-hot. Sportsmen play whatever game suits them best of the choices available. Somebody else designed the game. Evolution designed cricket and just as we tinker with plants and animals we tinker with that. It was something to do with unmarried women to begin with.
And cricket commentaries are streets ahead of everything in the field.
What a scientifically minded anthropologist makes of it Lord only knows. And an evolutionist must be completely dumbfounded. A sociologist would count the takings and a psychologist would draw attention to the combination of in form brute force and swift darting sting.
