CRICKET~NOT THE DOG.

The USA has a Cricket team. And they have done pretty well on the world Cricket tour. The match against Ireland on June 14, was abandoned without a ball bowled. I don't know what that means, they don't call balls and strikes and they don't play in a bowling alley. It's a confusing game. There are Eleven players on each side, most of whom have nothing to do. There is a 22yd pitch in the center of the field, which is a couple feet longer than the distance between home plate and the pitchers mound in baseball, I think it serves the same function. I don't know what that is in meters. None of the eleven players is the Catcher, or British equivolent, to catch the bowlers pitches, or the pitchers bowls, or whatever they call throwing at the wickett in Crickett, which could be sticky. Should the batsman hit the ball, one of the eleven players will try to catch the bowl-or ball-or whetever. 
Cricket doesn't seem to have innings, or other designated ways to define when the eleven here-to-for idle fielders become the batters or bowlers, or whatever. But the games can go on for a long time and the scores can easily be in the range of basketball scores. Cricket also can have events which would tax the concentration span of a teetotler, and i'm pretty sure there are people watching Cricket matches who savor the frothy product of the local brewers.The longest match on record lasted 9 days and 680 overs. The eighth day was called due to rain, the final day was foreshortened due to the ship carrying the English team leaving. This was 1939, which meant that the ship carrying the English team probably had to run some kind of gauntlet around German Wolfpacks. At least the beleaguered contestans had the civilized option to end each day after eight hours of play, though that seems like work to me. This brings up the question of when the match is allowed to end. 9 days is a long time to remain interested in a game, or match or whatever. It's an even longer time to savor the product of the local brewer.

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