Blog entry published on 3 February 2011
Canadian Cricket Team has 2011 Cricket World Cup Hopes
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I know, right? I'm a thirty-something Canadian and I didn't have a clue that we even had a cricket team. But it seems we do, and that the Canadian national cricket team will be making a big effort to make their mark in the 2011 Cricket World Cup from February 19 to April 2 in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, as one of the 14 countries entered in the epic tournament.
Now ice hockey I get, considering how cold our winters are. And I even get rugby, as some kind of weird derivative of American football. But cricket, nah. Someone pinch me. That cookie I ate last night must have been left over from the batch of "special" cookies my girlfriend baked on the weekend.
Who knew that Canada actually has a national team of skinny cricketers that get their kicks from smacking a shiny red ball all over the "oval" and then running up and down a rectangle of strangely compacted soil? Not me, that's for sure.
But being the inquisitive kind of guy I am, I wanted to learn more this English sport they call cricket and bugger me senseless if I didn't actually learn a thing or two. (Though it's doubtful that knowing more about cricket and the Canadian cricket team will benefit me in any way, shape or form, other than to provide inspiration for today's blog.)
So let me teach you a couple of things about cricket and the Canadian national cricket team. According to my new best friend, Wikipedia, cricket evolved from a sport called "creckett" in 1598, and since then has grown into the so-called popular sport it is today. It is interesting to note that it is predominantly played in countries that were former colonies of England, including Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the West Indies, India, Pakistan and of course good old Canada. God save the Que..
But the countries that really excel in cricket are England, South Africa and Australia. But Canada, not so much. (Which is obviously why I don't know much about this sport.)
The way cricket works is that each team has 11 players, and while one "bats", the other "bowls and fields". The aim of cricket is to make as many runs as possible (when batting) without getting "bowled out", "caught", "run out" etc as well as bowl out your rivals as fast as possible (when fielding). Depending on the type of cricket match - Test, one day international (ODI) - teams each get a number of "innings" (batting/fielding sessions) as well as a number of "overs" (a set of six bowled balls), after each players must switch ends of the pitch. Yawn.
You know what, I'll be here all year if I try to explain the rules of this complicated sport. So let me mention instead the Canadian national cricket team. (Every time I type "Canadian national cricket team" I can't help but giggle.) Even though Canada has had a national cricket team for 30 years (more giggles) they've yet to make their mark on the sport. Imagine that. (Guffaw). However, it seems they feel the 2011 Cricket World Cup may be just the platform they've been waiting for.
Canada's captain Ashish Bagai recently explained that the team's goal is to reach the second round of the tournament. He conceded that 2010 was a terrible year for Canadian cricket, but that the team was prepared to give it their all in 2011. So watch out world! Bagai went on to say that the team's fielding has improved as, presumably, has its batting.
Good to know. Still, I suppose only time will tell, and there will no doubt be a few hundred Canadian cricket fans that follow the team's progress leading up to the Cricket World Cup. Though I won't be one of them. That said, I wish the team well in their endeavors as they do represent Canada after all. Now I wonder if there are any more of those special cookies lying around.
 | Posted by Anton Johan at 09:45 on 3 February 2011 |
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