12/21/24
September 04, 2016
Tha Art of Coarse Cricket: For some of you, reading this might be akin to deciphering Linear B. But the article and the comments section are some of the funniest things I've ever read about sport.
Knowing just about enough of cricket to understand half of what I read, I found there were some parts of it that applied to some of my experiences in baseball. The comments about umpiring were particularly interesting. One tries his best to be absolutely impartial, but you know that every game will bring some share of controversy. I guess judging LBW or wides is akin to trying to judge the low, outside corner off of a pitcher's glove side. I guarantee that even the best at the MLB level has some occasional difficulty with this. When you make an obviously bad call, just smile, admit, and move on. I guess this is not so easy when you are involved in the game as well. Anyway, thanks for a few minutes of chuckles, owlhouse.
posted by Howard_T at 04:09 PM on September 05, 2016
The best part of coarse cricket, Howard, is that the lower order batsmen get to umpire their own side. There not being enough umpires to go around the lower leagues.
So, you might be put in a position of judging whether one of your own team mates is out. But if you don't give anyone out, you don't get to bat yourself.
Our captain in the district B grade instructed all of us to never, ever give an LBW against our own side. He reckoned this was fair as the other clubs did the same. Not such good practice when your own specialty was medium pace in and out swing, searching for an LBW...
posted by owlhouse at 09:15 PM on September 05, 2016
Reading both the article and the comments section was like reading Icelandic sagas in Old Norse, but still cracked me up.