Cricket....

Justin,

It can be a very exciting game especially the one dayers as there has to be a result one way or the other. The 5 day tests on the other hand can be just as enthralling and exciting with lots of different scenarios for how each team plays the game and whatever tactics are used, but every now and then the 5 day Test match will grind down into a very slow draw, and then it is like watching grass grow. :)

Cheers
John

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Originally Posted by johnmw1

Justin,

It can be a very exciting game especially the one dayers as there has to be a result one way or the other. The 5 day tests on the other hand can be just as enthralling and exciting with lots of different scenarios for how each team plays the game and whatever tactics are used, but every now and then the 5 day Test match will grind down into a very slow draw, and then it is like watching grass grow. :)

Cheers
John

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I'm sure once you know the game in depth --- it becomes exciting on many different levels. That's the mark of a good sport --- many levels of appreciation. I was a fairly serious baseball player when I was younger ---wish I could of played this sport as well. The videos helped out a lot on the explanation I like how the batters run with their "bats" --- that's not done in baseball. I like the ability to throw "curve balls" and bounce them off the ground ---- very neat. With the amount of protection the batters wear, it must have a dangerous side to it.

Justin

Going back 20 odd years or so was when we started to see a lot more protective wear like helmets, and arm guards, and chest guards etc.

In times before that for the batsmen it was just leg pads and padded gloves to stop those fingers from being broken and of course the cricketers box to protect the goolies. They have all gone a bit soft these days, and going back to some great rivalry between England and Australia before WW2 there was a test series between the two known as the bodyline series.

Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman. A Bodyline bowler deliberately aimed the cricket ball at the body of the opposing batsman, in the hope of creating legside deflections that could be caught by one of several fielders in the quadrant of the field behind square leg.

Although several batsmen were hit during the series, as would be expected, no one was hit while a leg-theory field was set, but still it led to ill feeling between the two national teams, with the controversy eventually spilling into the diplomatic arena. Over the next two decades, several of the Laws of Cricket were changed to prevent this tactic being repeated. It should be noted, however, that short pitched balls aimed at the batsmen are not and have never been illegal and are in widespread use today as a tactic.

More can be read here.........http://www.atmitchell.com/journeys/s...e/bodyline.cfm


Cheers
John

Thanks John ----but

whats: "cricketers box to protect the goolies" ?

Justin

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Originally Posted by jaegerhund

I'm sure once you know the game in depth --- it becomes exciting on many different levels. That's the mark of a good sport --- many levels of appreciation. I was a fairly serious baseball player when I was younger ---wish I could of played this sport as well. The videos helped out a lot on the explanation I like how the batters run with their "bats" --- that's not done in baseball. I like the ability to throw "curve balls" and bounce them off the ground ---- very neat. With the amount of protection the batters wear, it must have a dangerous side to it.

Justin

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Some of these bowlers are approaching 100 mph - I think Brett Lee (Australian fast bowler) was clocked around there a year or two ago. No mean feat considering the action these guys are forced to use (no elbow straightening during the rotation).

I've played both baseball and cricket. IMHO batting is more fun in cricket (unless you get out for a duck), and fielding and pitching is more fun in baseball. I wouldn't like to draw too many comparisons, but I think the throwing arms of pro. baseballers are in general superior to those of pro. cricketers (with exceptions, I'm sure). In fact, the Australian cricket team's throwing coach is an ex US baseballer, or so I'm told.

James.

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Originally Posted by jaegerhund

Thanks John ----but

whats: "cricketers box to protect the goolies" ?

Justin

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Believe me if you got hit in the goolies you would know what they were. :D

John

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaegerhund

Thanks John ----but

whats: "cricketers box to protect the goolies" ?

Justin

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A plastic "cup" you put down your undies to hold the "boys" - like backstops wear (or should wear).

James.

Thanks James and John:

It's pretty amazing that they can't bend their elbows -- I guess that's why they have a running approach --that seems kind of intimidating.

It does look like (what do I know) that fielding and offense is a little bit more dynamic and varied in baseball than cricket: double plays, catchers throwing runners out, tagging plays at the bases, relay plays hitting cutoff men, butttt

I would be willing to say that the cricket batter has to deal with more ----and maybe more skilled ---but again what do I know --anything that resembles baseball (or the other way around) is a good sport to me.

Justin

My moneys on a Sri Lanka vs Australia final....

or can SA pull off a miracle?

Come on Sri Lanka!:D

Woooooo hoooooo!!!!:y :tu

James.