Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Extremely debatable.
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Why do you love the game?
- Thread starter Athlai
- Start date
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Can't think of a bigger turn-off than either of those TBH.
weldone
Hall of Fame Member
You didn't realize that the part you quoted had two parts...one 'dozing' part and one 'waking up' part...i just wanted to say that i love that transition...Can't think of a bigger turn-off than either of those TBH.
weldone
Hall of Fame Member
Not really...Because love includes a mysterious feeling...If the mystery is solved then the magic in the feeling can't stay...
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Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Would wish I'd slept through both TBH.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Hmm... can't say there's much mystery in me and my fiancee's feelings for each other TBH. There is in terms of cricket - I wouldn't imagine anyone could work-out why they loved cricket. But love at large doesn't have nor need to be mysterious.
99*
International Debutant
I think cricket can be compared with another game I grew up with, chess.
As a player you are under attack, but you are also attacking. You must try and score without risk of losing, you must take advantage of any weakness without revealing your own. It is the flow of a match, what your opponent does, you must react to it and as it continues it shapes itself into a battle between you and the bowler/batsman to see who is best and when you do it is the greatest feeling ever, knowing you have won. And even if you lose, you learn so much about yourself, your technique and your own weakness.
As a spectator it is like watching a war unfold before your eyes, batsman vs bowler, watching as one takes control and how the other fights back, with a grafted innings with the bat or maybe a subtle change in the pace of the ball can cause the match to turn on its head. From a dominant position you see a team now struggling to find a draw. There is nothing better than watching the battle between two masters each fighting for the same goal and regardless of the result you know you have watched something great because no game is ever the same.
As a player you are under attack, but you are also attacking. You must try and score without risk of losing, you must take advantage of any weakness without revealing your own. It is the flow of a match, what your opponent does, you must react to it and as it continues it shapes itself into a battle between you and the bowler/batsman to see who is best and when you do it is the greatest feeling ever, knowing you have won. And even if you lose, you learn so much about yourself, your technique and your own weakness.
As a spectator it is like watching a war unfold before your eyes, batsman vs bowler, watching as one takes control and how the other fights back, with a grafted innings with the bat or maybe a subtle change in the pace of the ball can cause the match to turn on its head. From a dominant position you see a team now struggling to find a draw. There is nothing better than watching the battle between two masters each fighting for the same goal and regardless of the result you know you have watched something great because no game is ever the same.
SJS
Hall of Fame Member
Agreed
Goughy
Hall of Fame Member
I think there are lots of sports that have great history and tradition and lots of reasons to love them.
It is once you are into a sport then the depth and specialness become important to you.
I love cricket and so much surrounding it, but I could possibly feel the same about other sports if Id have got into them. So from my POV, the question is why cricket?
Im a far more natural football/soccer player than cricketer and spent a long time as a junior in rep teams and at pro clubs. I basically couldnt handle the pressue and expectation from my Father and others.
I started cricket as a distraction with no family or friends involved. I had no skill but had the ability to bowl quicker than those around me from the start.
I didnt start taking cricket seriously until about 16 but straight away the fact that noone around me was putting me under any pressue meant I could relax and enjoy it and just wang the ball down.
I must add an important part of cricket IMO is the role it plays in social education as a kid playing in a mens team.
It may sound shallow but I call myself a cricketer because its a sport I discovered without the help of anyone else and it makes me feel special.
Its possible I could feel the same way if Id have fallen into another sport and also had instant positive feedback.
Its a very ego feuled, but honest reason and truthfully I dont think Id have close to as much interest if I wasnt a decent player.
That may sound sad but Id have never discovered the depth of the game if the sport hadnt massaged my ego and allowed me to relax away from football.
Interesting point being is that when fit I still play football about 3 times a week but have no interest in following the Premiership anymore. Increasingly I find it juvenile and petty whilst cricket still continues to grow.
It is once you are into a sport then the depth and specialness become important to you.
I love cricket and so much surrounding it, but I could possibly feel the same about other sports if Id have got into them. So from my POV, the question is why cricket?
Im a far more natural football/soccer player than cricketer and spent a long time as a junior in rep teams and at pro clubs. I basically couldnt handle the pressue and expectation from my Father and others.
I started cricket as a distraction with no family or friends involved. I had no skill but had the ability to bowl quicker than those around me from the start.
I didnt start taking cricket seriously until about 16 but straight away the fact that noone around me was putting me under any pressue meant I could relax and enjoy it and just wang the ball down.
I must add an important part of cricket IMO is the role it plays in social education as a kid playing in a mens team.
It may sound shallow but I call myself a cricketer because its a sport I discovered without the help of anyone else and it makes me feel special.
Its possible I could feel the same way if Id have fallen into another sport and also had instant positive feedback.
Its a very ego feuled, but honest reason and truthfully I dont think Id have close to as much interest if I wasnt a decent player.
That may sound sad but Id have never discovered the depth of the game if the sport hadnt massaged my ego and allowed me to relax away from football.
Interesting point being is that when fit I still play football about 3 times a week but have no interest in following the Premiership anymore. Increasingly I find it juvenile and petty whilst cricket still continues to grow.
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bagapath
International Captain
when my granddad made me listen to the radio commentary of a test match, read out match reports on the next day and also taught me to read the scorecards i started to like cricket. but it was only after the fifth day when he told me no one won the game i fell in love with it. i still love the idea of playing your heart out for five long days and agreeing to concede no one won or lost the match. it is so philosophical. i think cricket reflects life in that sense. most people dont win or lose. we all just live and leave. this is one more reason why i was never a big fan of the one day game and i havent yet converted to the twenty20 circus either.
as far playing the game, coming from dry south india, i still carry so many great memories of playing the game on the river bed with a rubber ball almost everyday and travelling to a christian institution's ground far off to find some grass to play with the cricket ball only on weekends. with cows grazing in midwicket and the long stop ending at the door step of the only church in the whole region i have some indelible images in my mind. cant wait to have kids and teach them the game and take them to their school matches. i can imagine how good my granddad would have felt teaching me the game.
as far playing the game, coming from dry south india, i still carry so many great memories of playing the game on the river bed with a rubber ball almost everyday and travelling to a christian institution's ground far off to find some grass to play with the cricket ball only on weekends. with cows grazing in midwicket and the long stop ending at the door step of the only church in the whole region i have some indelible images in my mind. cant wait to have kids and teach them the game and take them to their school matches. i can imagine how good my granddad would have felt teaching me the game.
Pratters
Cricket, Lovely Cricket
Excellent stuff, sir. Thank you for that post. I have never quite loved the concept of the 5 days battle with no one winning or losing so much like you do (I am fine with the concept but am not that romantic towards it). Kesavan talks about it in his book as well and I can indeed see why it is such a fascinating concept for him and you. Cricket reflects life in so many ways though and I do love it because of this (reflecting life) a lot too. AA Thomson (I have yet to read a lot from the author, will definitely in time) said that nothing gave him as much pleasure as cricket in life and it is very true for me as well. Every thing about the game gives so much pleasure to the heart and it only increases with time.
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Craig
World Traveller
One of the other reasons I got into cricket at the time was because Aravinda da Silva was playing for Auckland and for some reason my dad put an a one day game on (and he doesn't really like cricket)and da Silva was batting and after I couldn't stop watching. da Silva scored a century that day, and it did for me.
I've said it before and I don't mind saying it again.
I've said it before and I don't mind saying it again.
SJS
Hall of Fame Member
How did I start. I must have been around ten.
Well to start with, everyone played cricket and so did I. Every single day, a few hours were spent playing in the neighborhood park. I wasn't very good at it then but I owned the bat
Our childhood heroes were all cricketers. So you kind of got involved with what was happening in the game through the news and the radio commentary. You played different forms of indoor cricket, the most popular being opening the a book at random and scoring runs based on the number of the page.
Then someone suggested me to go to the national Stadium and join the Madras Cricket Club. It changed my life.
The coach was a great guy. Trust me one of the finest coaches I have ever come across in the last forty years - if not the very best. Not only did he give me a solid grounding in the techniques but his love for the game and its history, rubbed off on me. He introduced me to Cardus and lent me his books to read. I suppose thats when I truly fell in love with the game.
It was Cardus and the late TP Bharathan (the coach) who are responsible for my infatuation with this game.
Well to start with, everyone played cricket and so did I. Every single day, a few hours were spent playing in the neighborhood park. I wasn't very good at it then but I owned the bat
Our childhood heroes were all cricketers. So you kind of got involved with what was happening in the game through the news and the radio commentary. You played different forms of indoor cricket, the most popular being opening the a book at random and scoring runs based on the number of the page.
Then someone suggested me to go to the national Stadium and join the Madras Cricket Club. It changed my life.
The coach was a great guy. Trust me one of the finest coaches I have ever come across in the last forty years - if not the very best. Not only did he give me a solid grounding in the techniques but his love for the game and its history, rubbed off on me. He introduced me to Cardus and lent me his books to read. I suppose thats when I truly fell in love with the game.
It was Cardus and the late TP Bharathan (the coach) who are responsible for my infatuation with this game.
Pratters
Cricket, Lovely Cricket
There is a book on 150 years of the MCC which I saw while browsing the net yesterday. You might be interested in it. Rediff is usually very poor (read: extremely slow) for delivering the books, so I wouldn't recommend buying from it though.
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Flem274*
123/5
I remember at the age of 9 or 10 tuning into this amazing test match at Perth where a bloke called Stephen Fleming was on his way to 104. It was the first game I'd really taken any interest in and Dad was telling me all about the deeds or Fleming in 1999 on the England tour, Chris Cairns and Dion Nashs heroics with the ball, Nathan Astle in the West Indies etc.
silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
I guess I got into it because there was no other choice. Me and my friends used to have a team (we were all 7-10 years old), and we used to play against other communities for 10 rupees per game. It was with a tennis ball, and a bicycle tire for stumps, but we used to play every day. I guess I never grew out of that, even though, ironically, the first time I put on pads and even saw a real cricket ball was in America. In my entire community, I don't think any of my kids ever played with a real ball. When my dad was young, he was a very good wicketkeeper, and actually played with some of the Ranji kids from Vadodara, so there is a little history there, but mostly it was just playing every morning with friends that got me into it.
Bahnz
Hall of Fame Member
I started loving the game because of the effortless artistry of Martin Crowe at the 1992 World Cup. After the honeymoon was shattered, I stayed with the game because it has so many layers. Whether it be high class pace versus doughty defence, the careful field settings of a contemplative captain, or the work of a high class spinner, there are just so many games within the game.
