Bush tries to play cricket, sucks.

[Terra Nullius]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
The problem is the length of time of the game

Crap. They hardly ever play six-day tests any more, some tests don't even go for the full five days.

Honestly, long matches make great spectator sport. Nobody sits down to watch every single ball unless they're getting paid for it. You just switch on the tv, watch a coupla overs and go about your business - wash the car, mow the lawn, whatever. Every now and then, you come back and check in on the match. Beats the crap out of any other kind of daytime tv.

You see, what most foreigners forget is that cricket and barbecues are marvellously symbiotic. Have a beer, turn the steaks on the barbie, wander over to check the score,.. rinse and repeat.

Just think how much easier it would be to get through Christmas with the in-laws if you had one long hockey match going on in the background, six hours a day, all day, right through the holidays.

Of course, americans sometimes forget that wars aren't won in a single day.

[Terra Nullius]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
the idea that cricket is somehow a soft game is simply wrong

Yeah, well. You gotta look at the source.

Gridiron, ice hockey,...
Being called soft by guys who need to wrap themselves in cotton wool to take the field doesn't carry much weight.

But it's certainly a much less simplistic game than baseball. How many balls do you have in bb? Curve straight, fast, slow. That's it. You can't bounce or spin the ball, and you can only hit within a 90 degree range.

Of course simplifying things has some advantages. Can't think of any, but they do probably exist.

[Terra Nullius]

Hereby, filing the obligatory

Go Inzy!!!

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Kalius
Here you go troll: A highlight reel

And AH will appreciate it too

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...9052&q=cricket

I Jones for more

I troll a lot but this time I am serious

Cricket does look more mental and physical than baseball

I need to do more research of course but looks awesome

Thanks AH and thanks Kalius

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Terra Nullius

Crap. They hardly ever play six-day tests any more, some tests don't even go for the full five days.

true today but the longest test match only ended when it was called off because the English team had to catch their boat.

Longest Cricket Test Match

The total playing time of the Test match between England and South Africa at Durban, played between March 3 and 14, 1939, was 43 hr 16 min A record Test match aggregate of 1,981 runs was scored.

That's hilarious The game was never finished.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse

http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/cricket/

clips of some of the greats - including Inzamam

Check out Geoff Thomson - smell the fear

or Wes Hall - "deadly aggression"

or Michael Holding - "whispering death"

Awesome

I do have a question though?

I studied Martial Arts for years, Played Hockey and learned to increase power and stamina by decreasing wasted movement and unnecessary energy expended.

I watched about 25-30 clips here and noticed at least half of the Bowlers? (Pitchers?) take this long and seemingly wasteful run to throw the ball

Does this somehow give better speed? or a way to keep the batter from concentrating on how the ball will be delivered?

It looks great and I thought the excellent strategy of hitting what would be a foul ball in baseball is a good hit in Cricket

Thanks for the clips AH

[Sandman]

Dear god, those pics in the OP must be photoshopped.

[Terra Nullius]

Yeah. It's basically about speed and direction.

Fast and medium pace bowlers rely on pace, swing and seam movement. So they take longish run-ups. Spin bowlers tend to rely on flight , deception and turn off the pitch, so they don't take much of a run-up.

Pitching the ball (or chucking), which involves flexion (bending the elbow) is not allowed. That's why you can't just stand in one spot like baseball pitchers.

Terms:
Swing - getting the ball to change direction in mid-air (Like a curve ball i think) *fast/medium bowlers
Seaming - getting the ball to land upright on the seam and hence produce unpredictable bounce *fast/medium
Flight - Getting the ball to 'loop' or hang in mid-air *spin bowlers
Turn - making the ball turn off the pitch by spinning it *spin bowlers

Attachment:
Imran to Inzy on Shoaib (sorry it's elegibly small)

[Alexander's Horse]

Have a look at the Larwood clip - he nearly kills the batsman and that was 1930's bodyline series - he comes off a shortish run - the run up doesn't determine speed

Tyson, also featured, reputedly one of the fastest ever, bowled off only 8 steps - with a clumsy looking action and devastating speed.

Big Bird Garner, 7 feet tall, always bowled off a short run.

2 factors - bowlers in the old days bowled more overs so they had to conserve energy and secondly having someone steaming in like a train is intimidating. For sheer brute intimidation have a look at Merv Hughes sling one in.

[Terra Nullius]

the run up doesn't determine speed

Yeah. Sure thing, Dad.

You try and bowl like that from a standing start. It's not French cricket, you know.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Terra Nullius

Yeah. Sure thing, Dad.

You try and bowl like that from a standing start

AH is your Dad?

Nice to meet you, I think a lot of Sir AH and I am sure we wont have any more backtalk in this forum, ok?

Now, back to a gentlemans club discussion

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Terra Nullius

Yeah. Sure thing, Dad.

You try and bowl like that from a standing start. It's not French cricket, you know.

Go and look at the clips - the older fast bowlers came off short runs. Tyson, regarded as possibly the fastest ever, bowled off 8 steps.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Terra Nullius
Gridiron, ice hockey,...
Being called soft by guys who need to wrap themselves in cotton wool to take the field doesn't carry much weight.

Like to see you try it . The padding is there so they don't literally kill themselves (that's when padding was first introduced, after President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to ban the game after a series of deaths on the football field).

But it's certainly a much less simplistic game than baseball. How many balls do you have in bb? Curve straight, fast, slow. That's it. You can't bounce or spin the ball, and you can only hit within a 90 degree range.

You have a wierd look on baseball. Though I guess from someone not familiar, it would look that way. You only have to see the volumes of statistics on baseball to realize it isn't that simple at all.

As for the pitches, you can break them down, if you want, into curve, straight, fast, slow, but then, of course you miss all the subcatagories, like 2-seam fastballs and 4-seam fastballs, split fingered fastballs, sliders, screwballs, changeups, knuckleballs, etc, etc.

I guess an outsider can say similar about cricket in that there are two pitches: fast and slow.

[Alexander's Horse]

and they'd be wrong - I should be able to pick up some knowledge of baseball here in Korea, they have major league.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
and they'd be wrong - I should be able to pick up some knowledge of baseball here in Korea, they have major league.

Which was my point... an outsider looking in can symplify anything if they want. In the US, at least, baseball is known for being a far more complex sport than basketball or hockey and tied with American football.