Hello there!
Me again. And as you may have noticed from my previous posts: I am a MASSIVE cricket fan.
And I mean a huge fan…. As in I can probably tell you the rough batting averages of the entire England squad and the majority of the county circuit’s top county players!
So, yeah, I am also a massive geek! And I know so far I have not done much to convince you that cricket, as is said in the title, is cooler than you think… but be patient! It will come soon 😛
Now, I know there is a popular belief that you either have to be over 65, incredibly boring, or a bit of an upperclass nerd to be into cricket, but this is by no means true!
So, without further ado, I present to you, the reasons cricket is FAR cooler than you think!!
1. Fancy Dress
Oh, hey, Uni Students! Which ones are your favourite nights out? Those in fancy dress, where you can make a complete fool of yourself I hear you say? Well, guess what, cricket is a sport MADE for fancy dress!!
I kid you not, get yourself down to a ground on any Saturday of any Test match, or T20 Finals Day in Birmingham, and you will be amazed. Everywhere you look you will be surrounded by oompah loompahs, Where’s Wallys (making them altogether not too difficult to find, and somewhat defeating the purpose I’m sure you’ll agree!), Pokemon, and Mario and Luigi.
These people come to cricket matches and sit in the hot sun all day dressed in huge costumes, consuming pints and cheering on their teams from the first ball to the last.
In fact, last year at Finals Day, I witnessed an entire stand of 4,000 people chanting angrily ‘If you hate Suarez stand up!’ and rising, as a man dressed as Luis Suarez stood up and pretended to bite his friend’s shoulder and protest his innocence.
He was shortly escorted out by more cricket fans, who were dressed as policemen. Simply brilliant.
You didn’t think cricket would be doing that today, did you? 😉
2. The Travel
Some of the main test playing nations in cricket include: the West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka. And when cricket teams go on tour, they don’t just do a University style week or so. Oh no!
They go for about three MONTHS at a time. And it just so happens that many sport related travel agents offer tour packages for the fans to follow their teams as well.
So, just think, next time you’re loyally following your football team around the country and are stuck in the rain in Hull watching the most boring 0-0 of your life: if we had only heeded David’s advice and taken up watching cricket as our sport instead, we could have used the money from this season ticket to be watching a T20 match in Barbados, in a swimming pool in the middle of the ground!
No, seriously, the Kensington Oval has a beach area for fans in the stadium
3. Deliberately Convenient Timings for T20 Matches/ Fair Weather Sport
Oh, how carefully the ECB have planned this year. T20, the form of cricket most of the skeptics admit is ‘slightly better than the usual rubbish’, is mostly being played on Friday nights this year.
So, remembering that cricket is never played in the rain, and only in the Summer, so you are reasonably likely to get some sunshine for a match, this certainly doesn’t sound like a bad start to the weekend does it?
Finish up with your lectures or at work, get yourself down to the cricket ground with your friends, soak up the sun and have a couple of beers, and watch a match that, to those of you unfamiliar to cricket, basically centres around everyone trying to smash as many sixes as they possibly can as the crowd cheer them on and desperately try to catch the balls flying at them. Class.
4. You Get Tea Provided To You Every Game You Play
You know what other sports, you can keep your Lucozade sports and oranges at half-time! Because cricket has a far more endearing and tasty tradition.
Yep, us cricketers are doing just fine being presented with sandwiches, sausage rolls, crisps, cakes, and various other snacks and drinks in between innings.
So, before this blog gets too long and boring, there are four very good reasons cricket is probably cooler than you think.
So this Summer, why not give it a go? Get a few friends or your family together, get down to your local county cricket club on a Friday night, and give a T20 match a try! Who knows, you may just like it!
Worcester Student Life 