Finesse vs. Strength
I was on vacation, spending the day with my favorite past time ... television ... when I happened to stumble across a Cricket match on television. Rather than scream and run off in horror … I stayed a bit and took in part of the game. Something I’d never have done as a teen.
Cricket, for those of you wholly All-American and therefore unaware of the existence of sports that aren't dominated by fellow Americans, is a game much like Baseball only slower, less dramatic and much more highbrow.
Even though it has a World Series like Baseball, divides it's game into innings, has umpires, fielders and fastballs ... the two sports are literally worlds apart and it might be shocking to most Americans to find out that Baseball is in fact the lesser known sport.
Despite boasting a 'World Series' Baseball is pretty much still an American sport, albeit that it's played in other countries like China, Canada, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Cricket on the other hand is played internationally and has a much larger following worldwide. Almost as large as Football … Soccer that is ... not American Football, which like Baseball, is the bastard stepchild of another more popular international sport ... Rugby.
I grew up watching Cricket and hearing about Baseball ... well seeing it in sports movies anyway. And honestly ... I hated Cricket. It was all over television, interrupting my regular serials and it was too damn long. All fricking day. So I guess it makes sense that I would love Baseball. It's faster, shorter and more exciting than Cricket, which has a tendency to be long and mostly boring. Cricket is about staying power. Two batters, whose main aim is to remain at bat for as long as they can vs. baseball, where you have a hitter whose goal is to slam one out of the park as quickly as possible. Watching Baseball in other words, is like having sex with a 17yr old guy, short and to the point ... while Cricket is more like tantric sex. No offense to Sting, but eight hours? That's a lot of missed television.
Still, in spite of all my reasons for hating Cricket. When I watched that match recently, while I didn't become overwhelmed with a great new fascination for the game, I did come to appreciate the subtle differences between it and Baseball and liked how it also managed to represent the historical and cultural differences between England (and Europe) and its rebellious former child American. (and Canada)
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