You have to read this tongue in cheek! Here are the 5 reasons why I do not consider cricket true sport!
Photo Credit- Oleksii Sidorov at Shutterstock
5. David Boon, Inzamam-ul Haq, ever expanding Virender Sehwag, and I can’t remember a similar Sri Lankan player’s name. Now look at the king of games, soccer and name a similar player who is that well healty!
4. You switch on the TV to watch a test series and where are all the players? They have gone to have lunch! Or tea (but I wonder if the tradition still alive?). Now in which other game this happens that players have gone for lunch? It is more effective in Hindi, as a friend used to say “Arre ye players kahan gaye? Chai peene gaye hain!”
3. Have you seen any other game where players wear sweaters on the field? Now if you want to compare cricket with golf or carom, go ahead I have no problems. Look again at soccer and see, rain or snow players run around the field without their sweaters!
2. Now I have not seen too many other sports where players wear black goggles and play or even keep black goggles on their caps and play! Why are black goggles so essential for cricket?
1. Which other sports gathers 12 to 15 teams and calls the event world cup? (das barah logon ko bator kar khel lete hain aur kahte hain world cup!) And which other country goes in a tizzy over it like we do?
You can also see the fun I am having at Indiamike about cricket!
More reasons why I ranted like this? Have a look at this post. Mahendra Singh Dhoni gets lakhs and lakhs in prize money for 100 odd runs and Kuldeep (bus driver of the Delhi blast scene) gets 2 lakhs for risking his life. What are our priorities?
Hey Mridula, Right now, you are at the top of my site 🙂
That is mighty nice of you, you do seem to enjoy the game.
wish u a very very happy & prosperous diwali….have fun…take care..
It like asking 5 good reasons why you dont like your religion? There is no answer to that.This is one sport that brings our country together, not soccer not football…Though I agree with point 5….
5. Arjuna Ranatunga 4. Tea – I have never understood why that stupid break is needed. Let’s face it. It’s a toilet break3. That’s additional protection against the ball hitting their body on a cold day 🙂 Armour, not sweater.2. To make sure that the white ball appears dark (so they still think its a cherry and not a kookaboora) and in case of the red – so that cricketers see black and not RED1. The USA. Only 1 country plays “football” and they call it world series. Ditto with ice hockey. Yes, nowhere do people go in a tizzy coz we are the only ones with a billion people and still time for watching sports (while the chinese are slogging it out – learning english and staying oppressed without any rights of their own but lots of responsibilities)Hey Mridula: Loved your assessment!! My mom, a cricket hater, would approve of your thoughts soo much. I love the game but couldn’t help adding a point or two to your analysis. Cheers.
I don’t know much about cricket, but it seems like people either love it or think it’s ridiculous, much like golf in the US.To clarify point 1 in the above comment, more countries than the USA play (American) football, they just don’t have the huge amount of funding and fans the NFL does. Also, the playoffs are called bowl games, e.g. Super Bowl, Cotton Bowl, etc.Baseball, which also is played in more countries than just the US, has the World Series. It’s called that because there are Canadian teams who compete in it. Admittedly, Canada and the US don’t make the world, but there you have it.Canada is the craziest country I know of over ice hockey and the US also competes with them for the Stanley Cup.
US sports with fat players:GolfBaseballFootballAnd we (well, not me, the country collectively) considers AUTO RACING a sport. Since when is sitting on one’s butt and driving a car like a maniac a sport? Entertaining, maybe, but not a sport.
LMAO!!but hey the americans play their state teams and call it the world league as well, we at least manage to get in those 12 nations, hehe. 🙂
Mridula, answers to your arguments:5. Is adipose a measure of skill?4. What’s wrong in taking breaks? I doubt if soccer players would be able to play for 8 hours and not take a couple of breaks…3. Soccer players might wear sweaters/thermals inside…so that argument does not count.2. Well, I have seen players with coloured goggles…plus ostrich syndrome: you cant see the ball so ball wont come towards you (Indian team logic)1. Let me guess, soccer has only one player per team and their world cup comprises only of teams from local neighborhoods. (Gali mein football khelne wale!)
some top international soccer players do wear glares on the field … while playing :-)The one who made this popular is Eric Daavids of The Netherlands.
reason 6 – The results are decided by bookies rather than the play on the field. Its like professional wrestling where everything is pre-decided.and teri the base ball and football players are muscular not fat, there is a difference between muscle and fat and you are just parading your ignorance by your comments on autoracing.
Hapy Diwalli.. Criket or no criket!
Just a note about the The World Series in Baseball. It is called The World series because there used to be a newspaper/magazine called “The World” that sponsored it. Not because teams outside America participate in it. As for the rest, they don’t make a dent on a Cricket freak like me. I could com eup with 6 reasons why Cricket is the only true sport, but that would mean taking off my shades and sweater, and sacrificing my tea break. :-p
TTG: Nope – just an urban legend – never was a newspaper sponsor to the event. It has been called the world series simply because in 1903 only the USA played baseball. Sort of like the Miss Universe contest – its not like they actually sent out invitations to other galaxies.
For #1, USA – Baseball
True for the first 4 (from 5 to 4). But for the 1st point ‘world cup’ wala – do you know here in USA domestic teams play baseball (teams divided into 2 groups) and at the end when top team of first group play with top team of second group they say – ‘World Series’. hain na interesting.In cricket there is atleast 10-12 nations involved.-Tarun
All I know about Cricket, is that it’s a British & former-British-colonies thang ;-)!
Bernard ShawCricket is played by twenty two flanneled fools and watched by a thousand others. But all said and done, is’nt it delightfully genteel
Mridula you should rephrase the title – “5 Reasons India considers Criket to be a true sport”
Hi there!G B Shaw had said “Cricket is a game played by 11 fools and watched by 11 thousand (Billion now!) fools. Though I am a cricket enthusiast, I still don’t approve the mass hysteria it generates. Most of all, this lovely game is being managed in India by the most corrupt and spineless governing body, the BCCI.If we just let the boys be, cricket won’t be such a bad game after all! Same thing’s happening with Sania (Mania) too! Why can’t the press leave the poor girl alone?
Hi Mridula, So, that’s your take on cricket! One of my cousins hates cricket too; she would love to hear these facts!Hmm, I now know why you carried my post’s link on your blog and even forwarded it to Desipundit!:-))By the way, I have one more post on cricket! Would you nominate that to Desipundit as well?;-)
oh i heard abt that tea time during game. thats sounds soo British and cool!!(*^o^*) this post was pretty funny, miranda!!
cricket’s length too is a factor..
They say why do we play a game with so much hysteria when there are only a dozen or so countries in the world who play Cricket. But then, by that logic, Americans should stop playing Baseball since no other country (apart from Canada..that too I am not sure) plays it at an official level?And about taking breaks. Traditionally the game is supposed to be played in 6 days, of which one day is used as a “Rest day” but this is no longer in practice. Playing for 8 hours everyday for 5 consecutive days does not mean that players should skip lunch. Apart from one very good reasoning like #5 and about Dhoni getting lakhs for his batting while people affected during the Delhi Blasts continue to suffer, emotionally and financially the rest are only irrational and naive reasons you have pointed out to criticise the game. But apart from those reasons, I should not and will not take away the credit from you to write this wonderful blog. It’s a very good read :)My first visit, keep writing.
all said and done its the basic mindset of the people that ape the west which has got into the game cricket .its a lazy mans game that we religiously follow .we have not been mentally liberated…
Ha ha so rightly said.
The reasons hold true even today.
I have no love lost for the game myself… but all I can say it is one thing that unites the country and that’s an amazing thing 🙂
Couldn’t agree more. This sport is all about making money no sportsmanship.
I don’t agree to all of it, but definitely a different point of view.
Never see a diffrent view like this before. You have courage to stand against the waves.
Cricket is a stupid ass game. @ players running for score and one bowler throwing ball. Other players standing on the field waiting on the ball to be caught the whole day. And finally when ball arrive they miss it.