Before you read this blog, if you are a big cricket fan…knowledgeable of the sport….a life-long, die-hard fan….well…please, prior to reading this blog, lower your expectations and be prepared to cringe, or giggle, whatever may be your style. I am a pretty big baseball fan, so I thought “Oh! Cricket is similar to baseball”.
I could not have been more wrong.
Well, it is similar, in a way. There is a bat, there is a ball, there are men, and there is scoring. I am sure if I was here in India long enough and actually understood this fast-paced, dynamic game, I would come to enjoy and follow it as much as I do baseball. For now, however, this is the “cricket comparison”, through my naïve eyes. Truthfully, I have no idea what I am watching:
Cricket players wear A LOT of gear. And apparently they have drawn ideas for this gear from many different sports!
There are guys out there wearing lower leg full ice hockey pads.
There are guys wearing 3 different types of head gear depending on position, which can include a simple baseball cap, a wide-brimmed straw-looking hat (golf-look or a Kentucky Derby horse race sun hat, without the flowers), or one, which is a combo of a horse jockey cap and an American football helmet. This one offers the batter the ultimate protection.
The guys in the immediate hitter’s circle (area?) wear apparently very heavy gear (almost every limb has a padding attached) and they run with this, and do not remove it, which I am sure has got to be heavy and exhausting.
The pitcher versus the bowler:
In baseball there is obviously a pitcher, on a mound, that makes the pitch from a basic stance, which is unique to what they have mastered over time, personally. They stand there for a while, communicate with the catcher for signs of what kind of pitch to throw, and heck, if they are stressed (much of the game falls on the pitcher), they take a time out, or rub some chalk on their hands, etc. They take their time. A big part (not all) strategy in baseball for controlling the game is in the pitch.
The cricket pitcher is a “bowler”, and does not have the mound. He runs at a dead sprint towards the place (around where a pitcher’s mound would be located) where he “stops short”, and suddenly winds his arm in a full windmill motion and hurls the ball…where it lands in the dirt….right in front of the batsman. (This technique, when I first saw it, initially made me think of “opening day” at a baseball game, where they have a guest pitcher throw the first pitch who is a TV star, and obviously not a professional pitcher. With thousands watching, they throw and the ball drops in the dirt right before it can make it over home plate. Haha)
In baseball the pitching strategy has a lot to do with a variety of ball grips, timing of releases, speed and placement of ball inside or outside of the strike zone. In cricket, while it appears there is this fast run, and windmill throw, apparently there is also much room for strategy in the throw as well, with the timing of the release, and also the placement of where that ball hits the dirt, close or far to the hitter, and at what kind of an angle. I am sure a lot of other strategy, too.
There are obviously a lot of arm injuries in sports that require repetitive motions, and in baseball these can vary from the forearm to the elbow to the shoulder, but I would bet that in cricket, most injuries have to be mainly found in the shoulder, as surely is is harder to control a full windmill while running at the same time! The throw seems to be very intense.
The bat:
In cricket, the bat looks like a paddle, and from my naïve assessment, so far, part of the strategy in cricket is the hitting, as the field is completely different. In baseball, the field has foul lines and ends in front of the hitter and does not extend behind (though a ball hit into the air and caught behind the hitter will obviously produce an out). In cricket, the field is a circle (or elliptical?) and the batter can plan to hit that ball ANYWHERE he wants, in front or behind.
The length of the game is still confounding to me and so I won’t write much about it. A baseball game ends in 9 or 8 and a half innings (or longer if tied). A cricket game can go on for days, though some say now “this has changed” and it ends “within the day”. I am still very unclear on this.
The announcing to me is, fascinating...It is not uncommon to hear things like ‘And Patel is on his merry way!” during cricket games, on major TV channels. It is kind of a “jolly good time”, and reminds you of the international nature of the sport. This is suddenly, not, an Atlanta Braves game. haha
Many young boys in India have dreams of “being a cricket player” when they grow up, and if they are good enough, and can get discovered, they still need to pay an exorbitant amount of money along the way to joining a professional league. It is all very interesting to watch and ATTEMPT to figure out! Attached below are pictures of young boys playing cricket outside in pick-up games in Bangalore.
I could not have been more wrong.
Well, it is similar, in a way. There is a bat, there is a ball, there are men, and there is scoring. I am sure if I was here in India long enough and actually understood this fast-paced, dynamic game, I would come to enjoy and follow it as much as I do baseball. For now, however, this is the “cricket comparison”, through my naïve eyes. Truthfully, I have no idea what I am watching:
Cricket players wear A LOT of gear. And apparently they have drawn ideas for this gear from many different sports!
There are guys out there wearing lower leg full ice hockey pads.
There are guys wearing 3 different types of head gear depending on position, which can include a simple baseball cap, a wide-brimmed straw-looking hat (golf-look or a Kentucky Derby horse race sun hat, without the flowers), or one, which is a combo of a horse jockey cap and an American football helmet. This one offers the batter the ultimate protection.
The guys in the immediate hitter’s circle (area?) wear apparently very heavy gear (almost every limb has a padding attached) and they run with this, and do not remove it, which I am sure has got to be heavy and exhausting.
The pitcher versus the bowler:
In baseball there is obviously a pitcher, on a mound, that makes the pitch from a basic stance, which is unique to what they have mastered over time, personally. They stand there for a while, communicate with the catcher for signs of what kind of pitch to throw, and heck, if they are stressed (much of the game falls on the pitcher), they take a time out, or rub some chalk on their hands, etc. They take their time. A big part (not all) strategy in baseball for controlling the game is in the pitch.
The cricket pitcher is a “bowler”, and does not have the mound. He runs at a dead sprint towards the place (around where a pitcher’s mound would be located) where he “stops short”, and suddenly winds his arm in a full windmill motion and hurls the ball…where it lands in the dirt….right in front of the batsman. (This technique, when I first saw it, initially made me think of “opening day” at a baseball game, where they have a guest pitcher throw the first pitch who is a TV star, and obviously not a professional pitcher. With thousands watching, they throw and the ball drops in the dirt right before it can make it over home plate. Haha)
In baseball the pitching strategy has a lot to do with a variety of ball grips, timing of releases, speed and placement of ball inside or outside of the strike zone. In cricket, while it appears there is this fast run, and windmill throw, apparently there is also much room for strategy in the throw as well, with the timing of the release, and also the placement of where that ball hits the dirt, close or far to the hitter, and at what kind of an angle. I am sure a lot of other strategy, too.
There are obviously a lot of arm injuries in sports that require repetitive motions, and in baseball these can vary from the forearm to the elbow to the shoulder, but I would bet that in cricket, most injuries have to be mainly found in the shoulder, as surely is is harder to control a full windmill while running at the same time! The throw seems to be very intense.
The bat:
In cricket, the bat looks like a paddle, and from my naïve assessment, so far, part of the strategy in cricket is the hitting, as the field is completely different. In baseball, the field has foul lines and ends in front of the hitter and does not extend behind (though a ball hit into the air and caught behind the hitter will obviously produce an out). In cricket, the field is a circle (or elliptical?) and the batter can plan to hit that ball ANYWHERE he wants, in front or behind.
The length of the game is still confounding to me and so I won’t write much about it. A baseball game ends in 9 or 8 and a half innings (or longer if tied). A cricket game can go on for days, though some say now “this has changed” and it ends “within the day”. I am still very unclear on this.
The announcing to me is, fascinating...It is not uncommon to hear things like ‘And Patel is on his merry way!” during cricket games, on major TV channels. It is kind of a “jolly good time”, and reminds you of the international nature of the sport. This is suddenly, not, an Atlanta Braves game. haha
Many young boys in India have dreams of “being a cricket player” when they grow up, and if they are good enough, and can get discovered, they still need to pay an exorbitant amount of money along the way to joining a professional league. It is all very interesting to watch and ATTEMPT to figure out! Attached below are pictures of young boys playing cricket outside in pick-up games in Bangalore.
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