Today, I became infected, don't worry, I'm not ill. I became perhaps the newest victim of a phenomenon, which I, as well as many, call Cricket fever. It began last Sunday when I was watching the Pakistan vs India game, which they played in Sri Lanka for the World T20 Tournament. As an American, I grew up watching and playing Baseball, it was the first sport I was into until I reached my teens, when I got into Basketball, and then later on American Football. When I was younger I had come to Pakistan to visit family, and the one constant throughout the years, which I saw during all my visits here was the sight of children playing Cricket on the streets. I even played a couple of times, not knowing the rules, I just knew that I had to hit the ball. I remember the first time I played, I must've been 8 years old, and the bowler sent a ball my way, and I thought to myself, how do I hit this ball, its bouncing off the ground! Then, without thinking, I hit the ball, in a way that came naturally, given the position of the ball, which was to swing the ball upward in a vertical motion, as opposed to a horizontal strike, as you would in baseball.
I would venture to guess that most Americans don't know anything about cricket, except that its not a national sport in the United States. The British refer to cricket as "a gentleman's sport." The rules of cricket, without going into too much detail, as I understand them are as follows:
You have two wickets, one behind where the batsman stands, and one where the bowler (the equivalent to what would be a pitcher in baseball) bowls (pitches) from. The objective of the game is to gain runs, so the batsman, after hitting the ball will run from wicket to wicket, and each time he touches a wicket, the team gains a run. In baseball, if a team gets 3 outs, the other team gets to bat - in cricket, its about the same, except, there are 10 outs. In baseball you can get out by striking out, a fielder on the opposing team catching a ball knocked into the air, or if the ball reaches the in-fielder at a base before the runner reaches it. In Cricket, a batsman can get out if the bowler bowls the ball and hits the wicket behind the batsman, if a hit ball is caught, or if, while the batsman is running between wickets, a fielder or bowler from the opposing team hits the wicket the batsman is running to with the ball. Another different between Cricket and Baseball, is that in Baseball there are 9 innings (when the teams switch positions from batting to fielding), and in Cricket, there are only two. Team A will start batting to set the target number of runs, and after all the overs are complete, or if the team loses all of their wickets before the overs are complete, Team B takes over to bat, while Team A fields. When Team B goes to bat, they must reach the target set by Team A in order to win the game. I may have left a few things out, but this is the general idea. I won't go into "overs" because that varies from tournament to tournament, and quite honestly, I'm a little lacking when it comes to knowing those specifics.
In Pakistan, everyone's crazy about cricket. This is for two reasons:
1. Unlike the United States, where you have Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, and American Football, Pakistan only has one national sport- Cricket.
2. With all the adverse things happening in the country - terrorism, extortion, robberies, target killings, etc., Cricket is seen as a welcome distraction to take peoples' minds off these unfortunate realities which exist in everyday life for the average Pakistani.
At the Ad Agency where I work, there are a couple of Hindus working there, and today, I saw one of them cheering for Pakistan's Cricket team in their match against Australia. It doesn't matter if you're Sindhi, Balochi, Pathan, Punjabi, Muhajir, Parsi, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, extremist, moderate, or liberal, Cricket is a unifying force in Pakistan, and everyone's eyes are glued to the screen when Team Pakistan is playing.
So today, Pakistan defeated Australia (technically yesterday, since it's now passed midnight, Pakistan time), on Thursday, Pakistan will play Sri Lanka. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about this. Let's see what happens.
Stay tuned... to be continued
I would venture to guess that most Americans don't know anything about cricket, except that its not a national sport in the United States. The British refer to cricket as "a gentleman's sport." The rules of cricket, without going into too much detail, as I understand them are as follows:
You have two wickets, one behind where the batsman stands, and one where the bowler (the equivalent to what would be a pitcher in baseball) bowls (pitches) from. The objective of the game is to gain runs, so the batsman, after hitting the ball will run from wicket to wicket, and each time he touches a wicket, the team gains a run. In baseball, if a team gets 3 outs, the other team gets to bat - in cricket, its about the same, except, there are 10 outs. In baseball you can get out by striking out, a fielder on the opposing team catching a ball knocked into the air, or if the ball reaches the in-fielder at a base before the runner reaches it. In Cricket, a batsman can get out if the bowler bowls the ball and hits the wicket behind the batsman, if a hit ball is caught, or if, while the batsman is running between wickets, a fielder or bowler from the opposing team hits the wicket the batsman is running to with the ball. Another different between Cricket and Baseball, is that in Baseball there are 9 innings (when the teams switch positions from batting to fielding), and in Cricket, there are only two. Team A will start batting to set the target number of runs, and after all the overs are complete, or if the team loses all of their wickets before the overs are complete, Team B takes over to bat, while Team A fields. When Team B goes to bat, they must reach the target set by Team A in order to win the game. I may have left a few things out, but this is the general idea. I won't go into "overs" because that varies from tournament to tournament, and quite honestly, I'm a little lacking when it comes to knowing those specifics.
In Pakistan, everyone's crazy about cricket. This is for two reasons:
1. Unlike the United States, where you have Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, and American Football, Pakistan only has one national sport- Cricket.
2. With all the adverse things happening in the country - terrorism, extortion, robberies, target killings, etc., Cricket is seen as a welcome distraction to take peoples' minds off these unfortunate realities which exist in everyday life for the average Pakistani.
At the Ad Agency where I work, there are a couple of Hindus working there, and today, I saw one of them cheering for Pakistan's Cricket team in their match against Australia. It doesn't matter if you're Sindhi, Balochi, Pathan, Punjabi, Muhajir, Parsi, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, extremist, moderate, or liberal, Cricket is a unifying force in Pakistan, and everyone's eyes are glued to the screen when Team Pakistan is playing.
So today, Pakistan defeated Australia (technically yesterday, since it's now passed midnight, Pakistan time), on Thursday, Pakistan will play Sri Lanka. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about this. Let's see what happens.
Stay tuned... to be continued
