Cricket: thrilling or boring?

Lord's: the spritual home of cricket on a gloomy day

Cricket has a hard time selling itself to non-believers. In its original form (test match cricket) a game can last for five days, with each day lasting for around seven hours including breaks. And at the end of those five days? More than 1 in 3 finish as a draw.

The game stops when it’s raining, and also when the light is poor. So you might pay £40 for a ticket to one day of a five day game and spend an hour or two staring at an empty field while the players sit indoors waiting for the clouds to lift enough to satisfy the umpires that play can resume. See what I mean?

Yet if you’ve never been to a game and you happen to be passing through a major cricket country (India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, England or the Caribbean) I would recommend a day at the cricket to see one of the world’s oldest sports and learn what is it about the game that so many of the local people find so fascinating.

Cricket: a statistician's dream

Cricket attracts a passionate following in its heartlands. In India and Australia crowds approaching 100,000 can squeeze into the huge stadiums to watch their national side. In England, trying to secure a ticket for an Ashes game against Australia (more on that later) is very difficult, and usually involves entering an over-subscribed lottery and hoping for the best.

People are willing to pay large sums of money to come to a game which is weather dependent (in England!) with the risk that they may see little play if the sun decides to take a day off. What is is about this strange game that captures the imagination?

England's batsmen emerge after a lunch break

Cricket on one level is a statistician’s dream. Batting and bowling averages, countless records, fifties, hundreds: there’s some milestone passed pretty much every hour of play. “These two batsmen have just passed the highest fourth wicket partnership for England against Bangladesh at Edgbaston” might be heard over the loudspeakers on a typical day.

Then there’s the intrigue of a five day game. A classic test match will change from one side being in the ascendancy to the other and back again several times before the end. Small incidents in an otherwise quiet period of play can influence the outcome of a match. A captain’s decision over where to place a fielder or who should bowl at a crucial time can swing the balance of a game decisively. I wonder if there are more subtleties and complex strategies in a Grandmaster chess match.

Haute cuisine is part of a day at the cricket

Spending a day at the cricket has developed into a peculiar ritual in recent years. Ask many supporters and they will list three main components of a good day’s cricket: beer, fast food and fancy dress. The beer starts to flow from early morning, and as the day wears on you’ll notice the singing levels increase, the inevitable Mexican wave circling the ground and some drunken idiot deciding that a 20ft high snake of empty beer glasses (plastic) is a good idea. The banter between opposing fans does however remain friendly and unthreatening.

There are always plenty of over-priced concession stands selling fish and chips, burgers, kebabs, and when the opposition are India or Pakistan, large vats of curry. And the fancy dress? It’s not uncommon to find troops of scantily-clad nuns, policewomen, Supermen or English knights among the crowd. I don’t know why; it’s just become part of the game in recent years.

T20: the sexed up version of cricket

Cricket has attempted to capture a wider audience by introducing a shorter three hour version of the game, aimed at TV audiences and part of a ridiculous attempt at wooing the American market (often denied). This T20 format of the game is particularly popular in India, where billions have been pumped into cricket’s equivalent of football’s Premier League.

Yet arguably the biggest occasion in the sport is known as the Ashes, when England take on Australia. Traditionally fierce rivals, the England team and the English media talk of little else for the four years between the times that the two sides play their contests. In recent years Australia has been dominant although their world domination appears to be over, and England will head to Australia later this year armed with their usual misplaced confidence. The atmosphere, the banter and beer-swilling always steps up a notch during an Ashes summer.

For me the five day game still emboddies what is best about cricket. There is something about watching even a day of a five day game, where no-one is in a hurry yet the game can take a dramatic turn at any point, that makes this a sport like no other. The happy acceptance of an unclear outcome, of weather delays or curtailment, and even moments where the crowd prays for rain to stop the game and prevent an impending defeat; cricket is certainly an acquired taste.

So if you are unfamiliar with the game and find yourself travelling through a cricket playing nation, why not take the chance to see a game for yourself? I would suggest that you tag along with a local who can explain what’s going on and guide you through the many rules of this historic sport. Oh, and don’t forget your umbrella.

It often ends up like this. Washed out and deserted