I am not in general a sports fan. I used to follow sports quite avidly but over time have got very disenchanted with professional sports in particular because they have long become just a big business with greedy owners and corrupt officials exploiting fans. I have disengaged from each sport I used to follow one by one and now I really don’t care what happens with them. In the case of American football, I have moved even beyond indifference to outright hostility because of the brain injury issue.
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With the advent of the shorter forms of cricket such as the 50-over One Day Internationals and the even shorter 20 over Twenty20 format that almost certainly produce a definite outcome, there has been concern that the traditional five-day Test matches may not be able to match them for excitement. These fears were allayed by the two Test matches just completed between England and Sri Lanka. In both those matches, games that seemed to be drifting to foregone conclusions suddenly experienced dramatic reversals of fortune that led to nail-biting finishes where the outcomes were in doubt right up to the very end. These are the kinds of games that cricket aficionados remember for decades and to have them back-to-back was highly unusual.
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The test match between Sri Lanka and England ended, as predicted, in a draw. But rather than drifting towards this predicted close, Sri Lanka escaped defeat by just the skin of their teeth. Having been set a target of 390 to win, they ended up with a score of just 201 but in the process lost nine wickets. If they had lost one more wicket they would have lost the game but their last batsman gritted his teeth and held on, denying England a victory. In fact, in the last ball but one the umpire gave him out, leading to wild jubilation among the England players, but the instant review reversed the on-field call.
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The test match between Sri Lanka and England begins the final day today with England in an undefeatable position. At the end of the fourth day they had a lead of 389 runs with two wickets remaining. It is all but certain that the England captain will declare their innings closed at the overnight score, leaving Sri Lanka with the target of 390 to win in just one day, which will consist of about 90 overs. (Each over consists of six deliveries so we are talking about 540 deliveries.)
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So I pretty much wasted the entire Saturday morning watching the third day of the Test match between England and Sri Lanka. These Test matches are the classic international form of the game, lasting five days, with each side getting two innings. It is more leisurely than the more recent innovations in which each side bats just once for a limited number of overs (50 for a one-day game and 20 for the three-hour version) and where a decision is guaranteed. (For those who have no idea what cricket is about, please see the primer that I wrote back in 2006.)
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As part of my ongoing quest to convert readers of this blog into becoming cricket fans, I thought I would share a short clip from 1975 in which West Indian Alvin Kallicharan gives a gorgeous batting display. What makes this even more remarkable is that he scored these runs not off some journeyman bowler but against Dennis Lillee of Australia, a magnificent fast bowler who, along with Michael Holding of the West Indies, had the smoothest and best bowling actions that I have ever seen.
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It’s been awhile since I wrote about cricket. The Sri Lankan cricket team is touring England right now and on June 3, 2014, during the deciding game in the five-match series of one-day games that Sri Lanka won 3-2), there occurred something that has caused a huge controversy. Americans will be mystified as to why there was even a fuss about this when I explain what happened using an analogy from baseball.
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In the tournament being played in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka beat West Indies in the first semi-final and India beat South Africa in the second to set up the final on Sunday between the two sub-continent nations. (Update: For those who don’t understand cricket, I wrote a post back in 2006 that explains the game as briefly as I could.)
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This tournament is currently taking place in Bangladesh and there have been some surprising outcomes. The tournament is structured with eight teams (Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates) playing in a preliminary tournament in which the top two teams would join the eight top-ranked teams (South Africa, India, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, West Indies, England, and Sri Lanka).
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It was great to hear that Afghanistan beat Bangladesh in a one-day international game at the Asia Cup tournament currently being played. It marks the first time Afghanistan had beaten a Test playing nation since the national team was formed in 2001. For a weary war-torn country, achievements in seemingly frivolous pastimes can be quite a morale booster.
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