New to the Game of Cricket

[whatscricket]

Hi. I'm an American who has recently been introduced to the game of cricket by friends and am curious about it.

In a relatively short amount of time I've learned the rules (most of them), the major terminology of the game (ie overs, innings, pace bowler, batting average, maiden over, etc.), and the differences between Test, ODI, and T20. All with the help of Wikipedia and the free 2 day trial of Cricket Captain 2008 (which is not a very fun video game, imo).

However, I've yet to actually see a professional game of cricket played on television.

My problem as an American trying to follow the sport and get interested in it are two-fold:
1) Cricket is not televised. I don't think I've ever even heard the word "cricket" mentioned on television unless they were talking about a bug.
2) I don't even know what to follow. For example, in America if you want to watch the best football players in the world you watch the NFL. Best basketball players in the world, the NBA. Baseball - MLB and Hockey - NHL. Americans who are interested in soccer keep up with the English Premier League or La Liga and adopt Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, etc. as their favorite team. And they do this because these teams have the best players in the world on them.

However, I can't find something that is truly equivocal to these major leagues (or I guess they're called premier leagues in the rest of the world) for cricket. Or maybe that's just my ignorance about cricket.

I've heard of County Cricket (thanks to Wiki), however, it does not seem to be a true "major league." Is it. Also, heard of the Indian Premier League, however, that can't be a major league because of all the roster restrictions (4 players have to be locals, 4 have to be under-22 nationals, no more than 4 foreign players in the playing XI).

So it seems that most of the focus in the cricketing world does not seem to be on a major league as is the case with most sports that I'm used to, but rather international play. However, this makes it rather difficult for me to cheer on and get excited about a team unless I'm willing to adopt another country than my own lol.

So, basically, I'm just surprised that a sport as popular as cricket does not have it's own major league where all of the worlds players, regardless of nationality, hope to one day play. And that this sort of makes it very hard to get into cricket.

Sorry for writing such a long post. Thanks if you read it all and can post helpful suggestions on how a beginner should follow cricket and be able to find a team to root for and the type of stuff I mentioned lol.

 

[whatscricket]

Also, was just searching youtube for USA cricket and found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzlANG1-j0Q&feature=related

I think it's a pretty cool story. I never knew that there was a cricket stadium here. Although FL is like a 12 hour drive from where I live, so I don't really benefit from it...

 

[Top_Cat]

Well, I'm certain you'll get plenty of responses but the long and short of it is that cricket is pretty nationalistic (a flaw and not a virtue, in my opinion). People usually get connected to the game through the country they were born in. Makes it tough for you, I know and you've hit upon one of the reasons why cricket doesn't have a wider audience other than the masses of people who follow it in Australia, England, Asia (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) and bits of Africa.

There are internatonal tournaments of the limited overs games. The World Cup every 4 years obviously and the ICC Champions Trophy every two. An even shorter version of the game (same type as that in IPL) is played as a world cup too, the first one being last year. IPL is as close as you'll get to a yearly championship tournament of any sort in cricket; although the team are domestic Indian teams, as you said, each team has several international players.

But yeah, the traditional version of the game, Tests, has no world championship or tournament of any sort. Part of it is the length of the game; there's 5 days available to each match which makes a meaningful tournament difficult.

In terms of who to follow, well, I don't know what to tell you other than to watch. As I said, it's usually nationalist loyalties which determine this one because the highest forms of the game are played between countries. The highest standard stuff involves powerhouse cricket teams like Australia, South Africa, England and India although Sri Lanka are making their mark these days in Tests.

And calling ICC 2008 not a fun cricket game is just uncool. Seriously, watch for the backlash........ haha

 

[Athlai]

The structure of international cricket may undergo some changes soon with a possible forming of a Test championship. All quality cricket however is International cricket, and while certain countries have excellent domestic championships (Australia, England) on the greater part domestic cricket isn't widely supported.

With the emergence of the IPL and similar T20 leagues we are getting a city based league format playing around the world. However some "purist" cricket fans dislike T20 cricket and consider it a form of defamation on the game itself (and some even feel the same about ODI cricket).

If you want to be a fan of cricket, pick your favorite country and wave their flag. The West Indies are geographically closest to the States and I believe the Standford 20/20 may even be playing some matches to increase interest in the US.

As for not being able to watch cricket, write a letter to your cable network asking about it. A few questions can never hurt. All the best.

 

[anoop4real]

When it comes to cricket........there is only one word INDIA.......world's best cricket fans........kids are born with the skill to play cricket here

PS: I think as a beginner, you have reached the best place ( cricketweb.net) to explore the cricket world.

 

[archie mac]

I always wanted to have a debate with an American on which is the best; Cricket or Baseball, but I soon realised that most Americans no so little about the game that they could not even critisize it

You are right international cricket is the only game to follow, I imagine if you can back far enough in your family tree you will find some connection with one of the Test nations?

Paul Getty once said 'Cricket is to Baseball what Chess is to Checkers', but I imagine there are as many who have gone from cricket to baseball

Anyway I heard of a person who picked his footy team (AFL) by dropping a card with each teams name on it, and choosing the first one he picked up, this was in the 80s and his team became Hawthorn. That won't mean much to you (I should think) but Hawthorn in the 80s were the team to follow

So maybe you could do that, lets hope you do not turn up the Bangas

 

[Agent TBY]

One crucial thing Wiki misses out on: First-chance average. You need to go learn up that term, young padawan.

 

[Jamee999]

Welcome to Cricket Web

This might be a good thread to read - it was made by an Italian guy in a similair situation to you - and though some of the info is marginally out-of-date, the majority is still accurate.

 

[Precambrian]

When it comes to cricket........there is only one word INDIA.......world's best cricket fans........kids are born with the skill to play cricket here

PS: I think as a beginner, you have reached the best place ( cricketweb.net) to explore the cricket world.

He's not going to tour Sreesanth's home yet mate!

 

[Top_Cat]

One crucial thing Wiki misses out on: First-chance average. You need to go learn up that term, young padawan.

You bastard. Have you no soul?!

 

[GIMH]

SS can help wi th the TV problem surely

 

[anoop4real]

He's not going to tour Sreesanth's home yet mate!

 

[nightprowler10]

Hi. I'm an American who has recently been introduced to the game of cricket by friends and am curious about it.

Welcome to CW whatscricket, and welcome to the greatest sport on the face of the earth. I live in the US as well so its always refreshing to see a fellow countryman taking an interest in the sport. I'll do my best to answer your questions.

1) Cricket is not televised. I don't think I've ever even heard the word "cricket" mentioned on television unless they were talking about a bug.

Even though you are bound to hear some tidbits about cricket on Sportscenter at some point, cricket is unfortunately and painfully an unknown entity in this country, outside of the major cities that is. There are several leagues around the country, hundreds in fact, that the sports channels never ever acknowledge. This has been a huge pet peeve of mine and I have written to several channels websites with no luck. Although local newspapers usually do cover some major events, for example a cricket match was covered recently in Chicago Tribune that I was able to attend thanks to their coverage. There are obviously ways to watch cricket in the US. TV rights to all cricket are split between Directv and DishNetwork. Directv has packages that cost several hundred dollars a year to subscribe to but cover by far the most cricket that I know of. With DN, on the other hand, you have to rely on PPV packages or a couple of Indian channels to show you cricket (you have to have the international dish for this). SilentStriker can tell you more about the Directv packages as he subscribes to (or at least used to) them.

2) I don't even know what to follow. For example, in America if you want to watch the best football players in the world you watch the NFL. Best basketball players in the world, the NBA. Baseball - MLB and Hockey - NHL. Americans who are interested in soccer keep up with the English Premier League or La Liga and adopt Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, etc. as their favorite team. And they do this because these teams have the best players in the world on them.

However, I can't find something that is truly equivocal to these major leagues (or I guess they're called premier leagues in the rest of the world) for cricket. Or maybe that's just my ignorance about cricket.

I've heard of County Cricket (thanks to Wiki), however, it does not seem to be a true "major league." Is it. Also, heard of the Indian Premier League, however, that can't be a major league because of all the roster restrictions (4 players have to be locals, 4 have to be under-22 nationals, no more than 4 foreign players in the playing XI).

So it seems that most of the focus in the cricketing world does not seem to be on a major league as is the case with most sports that I'm used to, but rather international play. However, this makes it rather difficult for me to cheer on and get excited about a team unless I'm willing to adopt another country than my own lol.

So, basically, I'm just surprised that a sport as popular as cricket does not have it's own major league where all of the worlds players, regardless of nationality, hope to one day play. And that this sort of makes it very hard to get into cricket.

Others seem to have mentioned this as well but I will reiterate, there is such a league that was formed early this year called the Indian Premier League. As I said it debuted just this year and is based off the EPL structure in soccer. It doesn't last more than a couple of months (this is due to international schedule holding more importance) but its pretty fun and it would be just what you're looking for.

As far as picking a team to support goes, as most people have said, international cricket is really where its at, its easily the best quality you'll find in any format. The strongest teams in the shorter formats (ODIs, T20s) would be India, Australia, South Africa, Pakistan (not so much these days) with England possibly being the equivalent of the Chicago Cubs in cricket, hope you understand what that means.

I have my MSN in my signature so feel free to add me if you have more questions.

 

[silentstriker]

I always wanted to have a debate with an American on which is the best; Cricket or Baseball, but I soon realised that most Americans no so little about the game that they could not even critisize it

I'd have that debate with you and play the devil's advocate. I enjoy cricket more because I was born and grew up with it, but baseball could very well be a "better" game (by my subjective criteria obviously).

 

[Chemosit]

The best way to learn about the game is to play it and see if you can catch some local games if you can't get it on tv - try contacting the USA cricket Association regarding games played in your area - many people are surprised by how much is actually played over there. Not a big fan of the organisation, but still, you may get some joy...
USACA

cricket europe americas is a good site to keep up to date on how the USA team are progressing (yes they do have a national team, but play at a much lower division than the 'gun' teams like South Africa and Australia and have been victim to a corrupt governing body) then you can follow them as well as choosing one of the big names to support.

 

[Uppercut]

I always wanted to have a debate with an American on which is the best; Cricket or Baseball, but I soon realised that most Americans no so little about the game that they could not even critisize it

You are right international cricket is the only game to follow, I imagine if you can back far enough in your family tree you will find some connection with one of the Test nations?

Paul Getty once said 'Cricket is to Baseball what Chess is to Checkers', but I imagine there are as many who have gone from cricket to baseball

Anyway I heard of a person who picked his footy team (AFL) by dropping a card with each teams name on it, and choosing the first one he picked up, this was in the 80s and his team became Hawthorn. That won't mean much to you (I should think) but Hawthorn in the 80s were the team to follow

So maybe you could do that, lets hope you do not turn up the Bangas

I'd recommend "Playing Hardball" by Ed Smith. Excellent comparison.


As for choosing a team to support, i too have noone to support when watching test cricket. What i usually do is just watch for a while, and after some time you grow to like certain players and dislike others. Before long i find myself really wanting a particular team to win without consciously choosing to.

If that doesn't work, give yourself an interest by taking the avatar challenge

 

[whatscricket]

I always wanted to have a debate with an American on which is the best; Cricket or Baseball, but I soon realised that most Americans no so little about the game that they could not even critisize it

I'd be willing to debate with you, though, I'm afraid that my arguments for baseball would be met with some hostility on these forums.

SS can help wi th the TV problem surely

What's SS?

Also, I can't be the first person to realize this, but the fact that cricket focuses so much on the international aspect of the game (instead of a domestic league structure) has to be a major hindrance in the expansion of cricket outside of traditional cricketing countries.

I mean, Americans usually only care about leagues where the best of the best play. If the national teams are the best of the best, that means that Americans will only care about cricket when America is a good cricketing nation. However, America will never be a good cricketing nation if no one ever cares about cricket.

I feel that at least part of soccer's boom in popularity in the US was that it was easy for Americans to identify, wow Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, AC Milan, Real Madrid,etc. are really good and have the best players, they're my favorite team. Which helped to make the big names of soccer household names (Beckham, Rooney, Ronaldinho, Henry, etc.) and helped to create fans for these teams and in turn the game. (Not to mention the fact that they also created a new market in which they can sell jerseys and merchandise.)

So, basically, I'm just saying that focusing so much on the international game makes it difficult for everyone except those who in historically strong cricketing nations to become fans of cricket and has thus drastically stunted the popularity of cricket in the rest of the world.

 

[GIMH]

I'd be willing to debate with you, though, I'm afraid that my arguments for baseball would be met with some hostility on these forums.



What's SS?

.

silentstriker, big Cricket fan originally from the States but now a naturalised American, I think

As for the leagues, I'd say the IPL is as close as you can get to the Prem. Though the Prem is chocker full of Jimmy foreigner there are plenty of average Englishmen as well

 

[UncleTheOne]

Americans who are interested in soccer keep up with the English Premier League or La Liga and adopt Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, etc. as their favorite team. And they do this because these teams have the best players in the world on them.

i find this deeply distressing.

 

[cpnend]

Americans who are interested in soccer

How I hate that phrase